Sabrina Allen found safe

As seven or eight people have written to inform me, little Sabrina Allen, who was abducted by her non-custodial mother twelve years ago, has been located alive, southeast of Mexico City. She’s not so little anymore: four years old when she was taken, she’s now seventeen.

As per usual, Sabrina’s abductor Dara told her all sorts of horrible lies about her searching father. I encourage you to donate to Greg Allen’s GoFundMe page to ease the transition and the rekindling of their relationship. Presumably it will pay for counseling and suchlike; Sabrina is already seeing a psychologist. Although she’s in good health physically, she’s traumatized and she hasn’t been in school. Her mother dragged her from pillar to post and they both used multiple alias names. Greg hasn’t even met with her yet and I wonder if she speaks English anymore.

Watching the video of Greg on the GoFundMe page, my eyes filled with tears. This recovery should make me feel really good, but instead, thinking of how Sabrina is in such terrible shape due to her mother’s actions (which so many people defend, almost by reflex), I feel a little bit sick.

I wish her the best life she can have.

Select It Sunday: Sabrina Allen

For Select It Sunday, another family abduction case: Sabrina Allen, who disappeared from Austin, Texas at the age of four. With light blonde hair and blue eyes, she looks a lot like I did at that age. Chances are her hair is brown now, but the NCMEC don’t seem to be sure and did two APs for her, one with blonde hair and one with brown.

Sabrina hasn’t been missing nearly as long as the Zaharias kids have been, but she’s been gone for more than a decade, and that’s a very long time in the life of a child. Her father, Greg Allen, had custody of her and her mother, Dara Marie Llorens, just had visitation. Dara abducted her during a visit in April 2002. She picked her up on April 19 and was supposed to give her back on April 21, but she didn’t.

Dara and Sabrina were actually located at a residence in Mexico City in 2003, and the cops surrounded their house. I was running the MPCCN at the time and took down Sabrina’s case as resolved…then had to re-list her after the Mexican police lifted their surveillance and left without bothering to rescue Sabrina or make any arrests. It was absolutely infuriating for ME to read about; I can’t imagine how Sabrina’s dad felt about it all. From Greg’s website, this was the last sighting of Sabrina.

Greg hired a private investigator, Phillip Klein, to look for them. Earlier this year the P.I. said there hadn’t been any sign of Dara for about a year and he thought she was dead and Sabrina was being looked after by someone else:

Klein operates an Investigation agency out of Nederland, TX. He said it’s been almost a year since anyone has spotted or heard from Dara Llorens, Sabrina’s mother. He’s convinced she is dead.

“My belief is she is that she got wrapped up in some pretty bad people down there and she paid the ultimate price,” said Klein.

Sabrina, according to Klein, is with a family of a woman her mother befriended while on the run. Klein says the family may believe they are protecting the child based on lies told by her mother.

“I think this woman did it out of true love for the child,” said Klein.

The emotional damage that’s been done to Sabrina may be the most difficult challenge to address. Klein and Allen suspect the child has been told many negative things about her father. It’s a typical problem in Parental Child abduction cases.

Sabrina is still out there somewhere, maybe still in Mexico. She’s sixteen years old now. Her father is still looking for her, still hoping. Maybe this year will be the year she comes home.

This is bad, very bad

The family abduction case of Sabrina Allen (missing eleven years next month) has been relatively high-profile thanks to the efforts of her searching father, Greg. Sabrina’s mother, Dara Marie Llorens, took her from Austin, Texas in April 2002 and disappeared, presumably into Mexico. In fact, in June 2003 the police surrounded a house in Mexico City where Dara and Sabrina were thought to be hiding, but nobody came out and after awhile the police lifted their surveillance and went away, whereupon Dara and Sabrina left as well and disappeared again.

Well, according to this article, a private investigator hired by Greg Allen says there haven’t been any reported sightings or contact with Dara in a year and he thinks she may be dead. The PI believes Sabrina might be being sheltered by a friend of her mother’s.

I hope the PI’s theory isn’t true and Dara is still alive.