A child custody case has become a global manhunt after a lesbian-turned-evangelical Christian disappeared with the daughter after splitting up with her partner and renouncing homosexuality, according to The Associated Press.
The story began in 2000 after the woman, Lisa Miller, was joined in a civil union in Vermont. Two years later Miller gave birth to their daughter, who was conceived via artificial insemination, before the couple broke up in 2004 when Miller renounced her homosexuality and joined the Mennonite church.
A federal arrest warrant was issued for Miller after she failed to show for a court-ordered custody swap in January 2010, reported the AP. Miller reportedly took her daughter to Nicaragua in 2009 before vanishing again, which authorities believe she has managed with the help of religious groups. The FBI recently apprehended Nicaraguan missionary Timothy David “Timo” Miller, who is has been charged with abetting an international kidnapping by arranging travel and lodging for Miller in Central America.
“It is hard to understand how anyone could consider a childhood on the run better and more stable than one surrounded by family, with two parents and two sets of grandparents who can provide love and support,” Jenkins wrote in an email to the news source.
Determining child custody among gay couples is an issue divorce lawyers are still investigating. Following the passage of same-sex marriage in New York, divorce lawyers told multiple media outlets that child custody between lesbian couples in situations where only one woman is biologically related to the child may pose some legal complications in court.
