DALTON LUCAS - 6 yo (2000) - Elkton VA/Cleveland OH

CLEVELAND – One of Rockingham County, Virginia’s “10 Most Wanted”
was arrested on March 5 in Cleveland.

In August 2000, Tammy
Lucas, of Elkton, Virginia, was ordered to surrender custody of her then
6-year-old son Dalton to her ex-husband Jimmy Lucas.



Instead she
allegedly took Dalton and ran. A contempt of court order, and a warrant
for violation of a court order regarding custody were sworn out against
Lucas.

The Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office also forwarded
photos of her and Dalton to the National Center for Missing and
Exploited Children.


Authorities had reason to believe that Lucas was in hiding in
Maryland, West Virginia or Texas. They also suspected that she may have
been receiving assistance from someone in the Rockingham County area.

Rockingham
County Sheriff’s Office Public Information Officer Sgt. Felicia Glick
said once deputies suspected that Lucas may have crossed over into
another state, they asked the FBI for assistance.

Glick stated
that the FBI did file documents asserting jurisdiction, but since it was
a custodial case FBI officials felt it was more of a local matter.

For
nine years Lucas managed to keep herself and Dalton hidden. There is
not much known about what their life has been like during that time.

Law
enforcement officers believe she went by many names over the last
decade. One thing that has been reported by other media is that she may
have started dating again.

A man who claimed to have dated Lucas
placed a call on March 4 to Capt. Jason Petit, of the Page County
Virginia Sheriff’s Office.

Petit referred the man to Captain J.B
Wittig with the Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office

The man, whose
name has not been released to the media, stated that as he and Lucas
dated he became suspicious of her actions.

His suspicions
ultimately led him to search for her on the Internet. He told Wittig
that the he found her on the National Center for Missing and Exploited
Children’s database.

According to Glick, Wittig contacted Texas
Ranger Frank Huff to inform him that Lucas may have been found in
Liberty County.

When Huff was alerted that Lucas was thought to
be in Liberty County, he was told she was living under an assumed name,
Sheila Baker.

“I looked at the 10-year-old photo of Tammy Lucas,
and Sheila Dawn Baker appeared to be the same person,” said Huff, adding
that his suspicions were solidified when Lucas’ fingerprints, which
were recorded in Virginia, were compared to a Texas driver’s license
thumb print for Baker.

Lucas, who had been working at Buffalo
Grill in Cleveland, was then approached by Huff and Detective Capt.
Scott Felts with the Cleveland Police Department.

“We asked her
to give us a clean set of fingerprints and we explained that it was not
an option. We felt we had enough to detain her,” Huff said. “Before we
got her in the car, she broke down crying and told us who she was.”

Soon
after, Children’s Protective Services representatives picked up
16-year-old Dalton, who also was living under an assumed name, at the
home he shared with his mom in the Bar-D subdivision in Romayor.

Now
that Lucas is in custody, there will be a hearing in which the State of
Virginia will petition the Texas officials for extradition.

However,
the problems faced by Dalton Lucas and his estranged father Jimmy may
not be over.

According to a presentation titled “Parental
Abduction is Child Abuse” given by Nancy Faulkner to the United Nations
Convention on Child Rights in June 1999, children who have been abducted
by a parent are at great risk for a whole host of mental health
illnesses and issues.

Faulkner states that those are in addition
to things like depression, low self-esteem, loneliness, anger, grief and
guilt.

Faulkner identified some of the atypical behavior
patterns exhibited by children who had been abducted by a parent. They
included: a lack of eye contact; inappropriately demanding and clingy;
indiscriminately affectionate with strangers; and children may be
affectionate with strangers or attempt to leave with strangers.