"John" CHRONES-JONES (2008) - Santa Cruz CA

SANTA CRUZ — Sandi Chrones waited for more than two years to
see her 10-year-old son.
Thursday night, her prayers were answered when he stepped off a plane at the
San Jose airport thanks to inspector Raul Castellanos of the Santa Cruz County
District Attorney's Office.
"They (the D.A.'s Office) did a wonderful job, and we are very happy to have
him home," Chrones said Friday. When asked how she felt when she saw her son for
the first time in years, she said simply and quietly "indescribable,
indescribable." Chrones's ex-husband, John Jones of Cumming, Ga., is accused of
abducting their son, of whom he once had legal custody.
"For the first few months, he legally had him and she was talking to him,"
Castellanos said of the child who was not identified because he is a minor.
"Then he disconnected the phone and his relatives wouldn't give up his phone
number." Chrones, who lives in the county, came to the District Attorney's
Office in early August asking for help.
She had been trying for more than a year on her own to find her only son, who
was 7 when she last saw him, according to Castellanos.
"I'm a (former) legal secretary of 22 years for the best law firms of Los
Angeles," she said. "I did a lot of this work myself until I got to the D.A.'s
Office." The hardest part was "not knowing where your child is," she said. Now
she said they will "start all over again. There's a lot of work to be done" but
she said she thinks her son is "very happy to be back." Days before Christmas, Santa Cruz County Judge
John Salazar ordered the child returned to his mother. Weeks later, Castellanos
found Jones and the boy in Georgia.

Castellano found them when the child popped up at a school on one of his
searches. In January, he contacted the Jones family in Duluth, Ga., hoping they
would help him make contact with the father, but they put up a roadblock.
Monday, Judge Salazar approved the court order to bring the child back to
Santa Cruz. By Wednesday, Castellanos was on a plane to Georgia.
Armed with Georgia law enforcement support and the court order, Castellanos
said he spent more than two hours talking to Jones and his attorney Thursday
before Jones agreed to let the child go.
"I would have rather him cooperate, and eventually he did, but he wasn't
happy," Castellanos said. "It could have been uglier than it was. The one that's
suffering was the kid himself. If he would have cooperated several months ago,
it wouldn't have happened this way." Castellanos said the boy initially didn't
want to go with him but once "I put he and mom together on the phone he settled
down quite a bit. He was somewhat reserved when he got to the airport in San
Jose. Mom was holding him. He was kind of shocked I guess." Though mother and
son are reunited, the saga is likely far from over.
Next week, Castellanos said they will decide whether to file felony child
abduction charges against Jones and extradite him to Santa Cruz. Before he left
Georgia, Jones told the investigator he planned to return to Santa Cruz to fight
the custody order.
The veteran investigator said he hoped all along to reach an amicable
resolution, but realized during an initial conversation with Jones that the
situation didn't look hopeful.
Georgia law enforcement doesn't often deal with such civil family court
matters, he said.
"They were surprised that I could go into Georgia with a court order from
California and bring the child back," he said.
Chrones had no harsh words for her ex-husband, only gratitude for those who
helped her.
"I don't think anybody that's not gone through it can possibly imagine the
heartache and the pain I've gone through for two years. The D.A.'s Office really
did an excellent job and the judge here in Santa Cruz was wonderful. They really
worked their tails off to rectify everything," Chrones said.
The D.A.'s Office has operated its child abduction recovery program for about
six years, according to Mike Roe, chief inspector in charge of the
investigations bureau. In that time they have handled about 70 child abduction
cases in the U.S., Mexico, El Salvador, Brazil and Italy. Castellanos has
successfully reunited several children with their families.
A year ago, Castellanos helped return an 8-year-old girl living with her
father in Watsonville to her mother in El Salvador after a months-long
international custody dispute. And in the spring of 2008 the investigator played
a major role in a case that received national attention when two young sisters
kidnapped by their fugitive parents were found in Mexico and returned to their
guardians in Soquel.
When asked about his work, Castellanos said he wants what's best for the
kids.
"All I really wanted was for them to get together in court and share
custody," he said.