ZACHARY ALAN BYRD - 12 yo - Encino CA

Zachary Byrd

Fast facts

Donald Byrd worked for 25 years as a Collier County teacher, according to court documents.
The documents said Joyce Byrd was a homemaker, but Victor Ortino, a
private investigator on the case, said she worked at an auto repair shop.

NAPLES —
The father of a child reported abducted from his mother's California
home is pursuing paternity rights in Collier County, adding a third
party to those who have sought guardianship of the 12-year-old boy.

John Cross, 51, of Seminole near Tampa, in August filed a petition
seeking sole responsibility of Zachary Byrd, a boy who lived for six
years in Naples Park with his grandparents.

Byrd has been missing since September, one month after a Collier
County judge turned guardianship from his grandparents over to his
mother, Stephanie Byrd, 36. Her father, Donald E. Byrd, 57, a former
Collier County schoolteacher of 25 years, is wanted by Los Angeles
police and faces a felony child abduction charge.

Cross contacted the Daily News after the newspaper published a report
last month detailing the alleged abduction. He said he had only
recently filed the paternity suit because until 2009 he believed the
child to have been lost during birth.

The emergence of Cross in the legal tangle doesn't affect the search
for Zachary Byrd or the warrant for Donald Byrd's arrest. But in the
petition Cross filed in civil court, Cross says the child's mother is
"unfit," and in statements to the Daily News, he said his son was doing
well with his grandparents.

"This child has been doing very well in school," Cross said in a
recent interview. "If a child's doing well in a certain location, why
uproot him?"

Fast facts

For three years, Zachary Byrd was caught in the center of a
guardianship battle between Stephanie Byrd and her parents, Donald and
Joyce Byrd, of 756 96th Ave. N in Naples Park. Stephanie Byrd says she
signed guardianship over to her parents six years ago while she was
studying in California.

When the Collier case was closed, Zachary Byrd went to live with his mother at her home in Encino, Calif., in late July.

Little more than one month later, Stephanie Byrd reported her son
missing Sept. 2. She told authorities she suspected her father of
abducting him. In a home security video provided to the Daily News, a
boy is seen creeping through a living room with his bags packed and
speaking off-screen with a person outside before disappearing.

On Nov. 18, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge signed an arrest
warrant for Donald Byrd. He faces extradition to California on a felony
count of child abduction, the court confirmed.

A manhunt led by the Los Angeles Police Department in cooperation
with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children continues
as officials increase a public campaign, posting fliers around Naples, a
Los Angeles police detective said.

Meanwhile, Cross and Heather Martinez, another of Donald and Joyce
Byrd's daughters, have criticized the decision of the 20th Circuit Court
to grant custody to Stephanie Byrd, calling the environment with her
mother unsafe. They also said they believe the reported abduction is a
ruse designed to shield Zachary Byrd from his grandparents.

Martinez said her parents were on vacation, staying with her uncle in
Michigan, and that Joyce Byrd couldn't speak with the Daily News
because she's ill.

In his petition to obtain legal fatherhood, Cross wrote that Zachary
Byrd's "mother has proven that she is unfit and unable to raise (the)
child."

Stephanie Byrd denied their accusations, and Stephen Fuller, her
Coral Gables attorney, has filed a motion to dismiss the petition.
http://www.marconews.com/news/2011/dec/04/california-collier-child-abduction-zachary-byrd-LA/

http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2011/nov/22/grandparents-california-warrant-collier-abduct-boy/?legalforum=1

North Naples grandparents sought by police in California child abduction

By BEN WOLFORD
Naples Daily News
Posted November 22, 2011 at 8 p.m.

NAPLES —
At half-past midnight on Sept. 2, a 12-year-old boy packed two duffel
bags and tiptoed across his mother's living room floor. He remembered
at the last moment to take his shoes with him out the window.

Before dawn, his mother called Los Angeles police. Stephanie Byrd said she knew who coaxed her son to leave.

But not until Friday did prosecutors secure an arrest warrant for
her father, Donald E. Byrd, a 57-year-old former Collier County
schoolteacher. He faces a felony count of child abduction, and the warrant, signed by a Los Angeles Superior Court judge, demands his extradition to California.

Three years of custody hearings, a lack of stability for Zachary
Byrd and his eventual vanishing, captured by a home-security camera in
the middle of the night, is an all-too-familiar story for more than
200,000 children abducted by family members every year, social workers
say. Only an estimated 115 children are taken by strangers.

Often, those children grow up with confused loyalties and no real
relationship with their parents, said Shari D., a case worker with
Child Find of America who doesn't reveal her last name.

"Every case is different," she said. "They're told the other parent didn't want them, or has died. They're lied to."

Judges who rule in guardianship cases are granted extraordinary
discretion. And their jobs are difficult. One county in Arizona has a
reputation for awarding custody to abusive parents, she said. Law
enforcement officers, if they are involved, must simply execute court
orders.

"My goal is I need to get Zachary back," said Detective L. Jordane
of the Los Angeles Police Department, who has been investigating the
case.

While his mother pursued her education, Zachary Byrd lived for six
years with his grandparents at 756 96th Ave. N in Naples Park, the
house his mother also grew up in. Neighbors said Zachary Byrd was a
friendly boy, well-adjusted and smart, but, one added, he "seemed like
a sheltered kid."
In 2008, after Stephanie Byrd, 37, finished a computer science
degree in Encino, Calif., she petitioned to regain custody. That tipped
off a three-year guardianship dispute that ended in an emergency pickup
order on June 28 from Collier Circuit Judge James Shenko, who ordered
the arrest of Donald Byrd and his wife, Joyce, 57, and the return of
Zachary Byrd to his mother. His father wasn't involved in the
guardianship dispute.

When she brought him back to Encino, he was different.

He had been gone for many years, much of it without contact, she said. But her discoveries were alarming.

"He'd never taken a bath by himself," Stephanie Byrd said. "He
didn't know how to put toothpaste on a toothbrush. They kept him as a
baby."
She said her parents only made him take a shower once a week and took
him out of school for days at a time. She said they took him to "hate
parties" and cheered as he threw darts at a picture of his mother.
Victor Ortino, a private investigator retained by Stephanie Byrd during
the guardianship case, said items were stacked in front of windows at
the Naples Park house.

In some cases among children who were abducted or tangled in custody
disputes, Shari said, "they find they have fears of open doors and
windows as adults. The parents are always telling them to hide, to stay
away from doors and windows because someone might see them."

Donald and Joyce Byrd couldn't be reached by the Daily News at
several known phone numbers. No one came to the door on two separate
recent attempts to reach them at their Naples Park residence, though
cars were parked in the driveway and a dog barked inside. A
closed-circuit camera is trained on the front doorstep.

During the guardianship battle this summer, Collier County deputies
forced their way into the home under Shenko's orders to arrest the
grandparents. They found it cleared of clothes and all belongings other
than major appliances and large furniture, court documents show. They
found no one home.

Stephanie Byrd's attorney, Stephen Fuller, said that when the
deputies entered the house, the Byrds were on the road fleeing a court
order. He says they stayed with friends or family as fugitives. Perhaps
in the Panhandle, or Indiana, or Michigan, he said.

When the Byrds finally returned, they said they were away at a
wedding and didn't know that the judge had terminated their
guardianship, Fuller said.

In late July, Zachary went to live with his mother in
California.With no word from Donald or Joyce Byrd, their motivations
are unknown. In court during the guardianship dispute, a Naples
attorney for the grandparents, Jean Rawson, filed reasons Stephanie
Byrd shouldn't be awarded custody. Among them, she never tried to see
him, never sent him a present or a card and had never paid for anything
except "a few tuition payments" for private school.
Donald Byrd worked for 25 years as a Collier County teacher,
according to court documents. The documents said Joyce Byrd was a
homemaker, but Ortino, the private investigator, said she worked at an
auto repair shop.

Rawson doesn't represent the Byrds anymore, and it couldn't be determined if they have a new attorney.

Stephanie Byrd has denied accusations that she ignored her son, saying her parents prevented her from contacting him.
Jordane, the Los Angeles investigator, gave little information to avoid
compromising the search, but Zachary Byrd's location is apparently
unknown. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children is
posting fliers around the country, including in Naples, Jordane said.

A security camera inside Stephanie Byrd's Encino home captured
grainy footage of the abduction. Three days before he vanished, Zachary
Byrd made a 1 a.m. rendezvous at the living room window. Stephanie Byrd
says the voice in the tape is her father's.

"Zachary?" a voice whispered in the Southern California night.

"Yeah," the boy answered.

"Do you want us to get you out of here?"

Zachary hesitated. He said he feared going on the road again and asked how long they might have to stay on the lam.

The person didn't know. "Do you want to stay here, or do you want to stay on the road?"

Three days later, he was gone.

http://ww.naplesnews.com/news/2011/nov/22/grandparents-california-warrant-collier-abduct-boy/?legalforum=1

nothing new found 4-10-12