A Utah mother of four is accused of allegedly kidnapping her children and taking them to Europe in the belief that “end times” were coming.
Elleshia Anne Seymour, 35, took a one-way flight to Croatia with her four children from Salt Lake City International Airport on November 29, ABC4 reported. She left a note to her ex-husband Kendall Seymour, father of three of the children, which he described as a “delusional message from God.”
The Salt Lake County District Attorney has charged Elleshia Anne Seymour with four counts of custodial interference, a third degree felony.
Newsweek contacted Kendall Seymour and the West Jordan Police Department for comment by email on Monday morning.
What Do We Know About Elleshia Seymour And Her Children?
Elleshia Anne Seymour has been accused of kidnapping the four children by her ex-husband Kendall Seymour, with whom she shared partial custody of three of the children.
We know from her ex-husband that she also goes by Elle McKinnon Brady and she is 5’3”.
We know the names of the four children and their age: Landon Hal Seymour, age 10; Levi Parker Seymour, age 8; Hazel Rae Seymour, age 7; Jacob Kurt Brady, age 3.
Security cameras caught the 35-year-old mother and the four kids going through Salt Lake City International Airport and boarding the flight which, after a stopover in Amsterdam, took them to Croatia on November 29.
Days after the flight, on December 2, Kendall Seymour said he received a voicemail from his ex-wife saying that the children were in France, and she had plans to get permanent residency before the “end times.” The father of the fourth child, according to Kendall Seymour, also did not know that the children had been taken out of the country until December 2.
On the same day, law enforcement was dispatched for a welfare check at Elleshia Anne Seymour’s residence, which they found unlocked and unoccupied.
On December 10, an endangered and missing advisory was issued for the four children, listing their mother as their abductor. The advisory stated that there was concern over the mother’s mental state but authorities did not believe she would harm the children.
Kendall Seymour has since set up a GoFundMe page asking for help to get the four children back to the U.S. and to Utah. “To put it bluntly, my kids have been abducted overseas by their mother,” he wrote.
On the page, he said that Elleshia Anne Seymour, called “Elle,” forged passport documents for the four children and “left behind a note dictating a delusional message from God promising her she would be in Italy by Christmas.”
She also left a to-do list that mentioned “shred paperwork, destroy identifying photos, throw away phone, purchase pre-paid phone,” Kendall Seymour added.
We do not have any more specific information about what might have led the woman to abscond to Europe with the four children. What we know is that she is by far not the only American to believe in “end times”—the destruction of the world as we know it.
According to a 2022 Pew Research Center survey, about 39 percent of Americans believed they were living in “end times.” While this was an all-encompassing statement, “end times” often have a special meaning for religious people. In Christianity, “end times” are linked to the idea that Jesus Christ will return to Earth after a period of great turmoil.
This fall, the “rapture craze” stormed social media, with many believing that Jesus would return to Earth on September 23 or 24. He did not.
What Is Being Done To Find The Mother And The Children?
To this day, the children have not yet been located. The FBI is currently working with Utah local enforcement to get the children back to their fathers.
Kendall Seymour is asking for funding to travel to Europe and bring the kids back to the U.S. in an attempt at minimizing the “trauma” of the alleged abduction by their mother and the move to another country.
“If we can be there to get them asap after mom is arrested, they will feel safer and will not suffer as much wondering what is going to happen to them, to their mom, and to their future. Tickets to Europe are not cheap—we need two round-trip flights, perhaps a hotel, and 3-4 one-way return flights,” he wrote on December 8, adding that it is still unclear who will pick up the fourth child.
The page has already raised $12,680, going beyond Kendall Seymour’s original goal of $12,000.
“Any funds received in excess of flight costs will go towards therapy needed because of this traumatic experience,” the father wrote. “My genuine hope is that the kids are found quickly, and we can pick them up while they still think they’re on a vacation.”
Family lawyer Marco Brown has told ABC that if the police find Elleshia Anne Seymour and arrest her, “because they have an international warrant and work with the FBI, then they could detain her and the United States would extradite her back.”
But he also said that the mother of four could avoid jail time due to mental health concerns. “What I think is more likely is they get the kids back to the United States and if they share 50-50 custody, then he [Kendall Seymour] goes and modifies the custody, so he gets the majority of it and holds the kids’ passports,” Brown added.
