AISHA JASMINE WOOTSON - 5 yo - Clermont (W of Orlando) FL

The best thing to come out of Thomas Wootson's strained relationship
with a Eurasian woman he met at a downtown Orlando club was their
daughter — Aisha Jasmine Wootson.The worst moment came April 24,
when Wootson returned to his Clermont
home and discovered his child was abducted. Since then, he has pleaded
with authorities to do more to find his daughter, who he suspects is in
South Florida with her biological mother, Dilyaram Mukhametzahanova.On
Friday, law enforcement officials in Lake
County issued an arrest warrant for Mukhametzahanova after Wootson
went to the State Attorney's Office in Tavares
and shared information he had in the case. The warrant also came within
a day after the Orlando Sentinel first inquired about the
missing child."I can confirm with you that a warrant has been
issued for her arrest for interference with child custody," said Bill
Gladson, the supervising assistant state attorney in Lake County.Gladson
said he also notified law enforcement authorities in the areas where
the mother and child are thought to be located, letting those officials
know about the felony warrant and an earlier court order to pick up the
child.Wootson worries Mukhametzahanova may try to leave the
country with Aisha and perhaps return to the mother's native Kazakhstan,
a former Soviet republic."There was never any fights in our
house. This was out of the blue," said Wootson, a U.S.
Army veteran and self-described computer expert and entrepreneur
who has struggled to find work in the down economy. "I came back home
and my daughter was gone."Mukhametzahanova lived at his Clermont
home for about a year after being in and out of a woman's shelter in Altamonte
Springs, he said. Wootson said he took her in despite their
problems because she had nowhere else to go and she is the mother of his
child.When she left the home on April 24, she took everything
indicating she had been there. "She cleaned the house where it seemed
like she didn't exist," he said.Three years ago, a judge in Seminole
County granted Wootson "primary residential custody" of Aisha,
according to Wootson. Mukhametzahanova, meanwhile, had limited time with
the child every other week.However, her Sanford-based attorney,
Peter T. Hickey, described their custody as more of a rotating,
time-sharing type arrangement, but said he has not had regular contact
with his client for more than a year. Hickey said when he took on her
case, Mukhametzahanova was living in a domestic-violence shelter."She
is a very good mother and that child is very safe with her," Hickey
said. "I don't know the reason she fled."After Clermont police
learned about the missing child case, they tried to contact
Mukhametzahanova in early May. She returned a message for the
investigating detective, alleging domestic violence, according to
Clermont police Capt. Jon Johnson."She called and left him a
message after hours," Johnson said.However, no criminal complaint
of domestic violence was filed against Wootson, police and prosecutors
said. Wootson said, "I never hurt her. I never beat her."A
Department of Children and Families official confirmed Friday the agency
has no open investigation involving Wootson and the child.Clermont
police sent two other e-mails asking that the mother contact the
department. Both went unanswered.On May 10, Seminole Circuit
Judge Alan A. Dickey issued an order granting an emergency motion for a
child pick-up. The order states that any law-enforcement officer coming
in contact with Aisha should detain her and return the girl to her
father.On May 19, Gladson's office received an unsigned
probable-cause affidavit from Clermont police briefly detailing the case
and Dickey's May 10 order, but Gladson's office required more.After
the Sentinel started inquiring about the case Thursday, Wootson
was called in to meet at Gladson's office. He shared documents and
information that led to the warrant being signed by Circuit Judge G.
Richard Singeltary on Friday.The documentation already in hand
coupled with Wootson's participation Friday helped move the case
forward, Gladson said.In addition, Johnson confirmed that a new
probable-cause affidavit — this one signed — was sent to the State
Attorney's Office Friday. That document, which police routinely file, is
a formal request for a review and intervention by prosecutors.Why
did the investigating detective send the original affidavit in this
case unsigned?"That issue will be addressed," Johnson said. "I
haven't been able to get to the bottom of that. …That would be like
asking you, as the victim of a crime, to write a statement and not ask
you to sign it."It appears other miscommunications between
Wootson and the police and the prosecutor's office also may have delayed
progress. One problem, Johnson said, was that police originally did not
have clear proof of Wootson's custody status.Now, however,
Gladson said his office confirmed with federal immigration officials
that Mukhametzahanova has not left the country under her name. Wootson
said Mukhametzahanova is living in the country illegally, but federal
officials could not confirm her immigration status.Hickey could
not comment on her current immigration status, but said, "She came to
this country legally."Wootson suspects the girl and her mother
are in the Boca Raton area based on e-mails she has sent since the girl
went missing. He even traveled down to South Florida to search for the
girl but could not find her."She's still here. She's in Boca
Raton or West Palm Beach," Wootson said. "But she's planning [to leave
the country]."Maureen Heads, a supervisor with the missing
children's division of the National Center for Missing & Exploited
Children, said about 80 percent or 1,182 of the 1,496 parental child
abductions her organization is actively working involve international
abductions."When it becomes international, you're dealing with a
whole new set of issues," Heads said.

Aisha's disappearance is one
of the cases the center is working on. It distributed a flyer with
Aisha's name, picture and personal identifying information. The
information also is located on the Center's website,
http://www.missingkids.com.Often times, parental abductions are
not given the same sense of urgency that stranger abductions receive,
Heads said. The center tries to emphasize that such abductions are just
as important to investigate."Sometimes I think in the public eye
and in the law-enforcement community, there's a perception of 'How bad
can it be if a child is with a parent?'" Heads said.Acknowledging
the difficult relationship he has with Mukhametzahanova, Wootson said
he is most concerned about getting his daughter back home. He remembered
meeting Aisha's mother at a club on Church Street years ago."The
first thing she said to me was, 'God sent you to me,'" he recalled. "I
never had problems, never got into trouble until I met this woman."

Missing

AISHA WOOTSON DOB: Dec 20, 2004 Missing: May 1, 2010 Height: 3'0" (91 cm) Eyes: Brown Race: Biracial Age Now: 5 Sex: Female Weight: 43 lbs (20 kg) Hair: Brown Missing From: CLERMONT FL United States Aisha may be in the company of her mother. She is biracial. Aisha is Black and Asian. When she was last seen, she was missing her four upper front teeth.

ANYONE HAVING INFORMATION SHOULD CONTACT National Center for Missing & Exploited Children 1-800-843-5678 (1-800-THE-LOST) Clermont Police Department (Florida) 1-352-394-5588

Authorities in South Florida located a 5-year-old Clermont
girl reported missing by her father in late April, according to local
law enforcement officials.
The father and daughter were reunited early this morning, according to
Clermont Police Capt. Jon Johnson.
The discovery of Aisha Jasmine Wootson comes six weeks after her father
first reported her missing to Clermont Police. The child was found safe
with her mother, who was taken into custody at a domestic violence
shelter, Johnson said. The Delray Beach Police Department was the
arresting agency, he said.
" Good news...the child and mother have been located. Mr. Wootson
responded and picked up his child early this morning," Johnson said in a
brief e-mail statement this morning. "The mother was taken into
custody. I don't have a bond amount but the arresting agency was Delray
Beach PD."
The girl's father, Thomas Wootson, said the child had been abducted by
her mother, a woman named Dilyaram Mukhamezahanova, from his home in
Clermont.
Wootson contacted the Orlando Sentinel last week after he grew
frustrated about law enforcement's efforts to locate his daughter. A
series of miscommunications and questions about the case apparently held
up the filing of an arrest warrant.
By late Friday, however, prosecutors in Lake
County secured an arrest warrant for Mukhamezahanova on a felony
charge of interference with child custody.
Wootson has primary residential custody of the girl and received a
pick-up order from a Seminole
County circuit judge after the child's abduction. Those facts and
information he provided to law enforcement in Lake on Friday led to the
arrest warrant getting signed.
After that, local authorities contacted law enforcement in South Florida
to help find the mother and child.
Wootson was concerned that Mukhamezahanova might attempt to leave the
country with the child and return to her native Kazakhstan.