Kidnapped girl back with mom
By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Kaua'i Bureau
LIHU'E, Kaua'i — A psychologist yesterday cleared the release of 11-year-old kidnap victim Angeline Bryan-Hoercher to the custody of her mother, while her father — who is accused of taking her five years ago — is scheduled for his first court date this morning.
Elka Hoercher has declined media interviews, and will probably return to her Florida home with her daughter today.
Angeline Bryan-Hoercher
Jon Michael Bryan
Police picked up the girl at her school Wednesday and put her on the phone with her mother in Florida. They knew each other immediately, authorities said. Shortly afterward, police arrested Jon Michael Bryan as he arrived at the Kapa'a Elementary School to pick up his daughter.
Police said Bryan, who was estranged from Hoercher, had picked up his daughter on a normal visitation for a camping trip in June 1998 and never returned her. Florida police got a tip that the two were living in Hawai'i, and Kaua'i police were able to confirm that father and daughter were living under assumed identities with the father's girlfriend. The father and daughter were using the names Jonny Lee and Lana Lee.
One official said that when the young girl was first interviewed, she did not remember that her real name was Angeline.
Hoercher flew to Kaua'i from Florida Thursday and met with her daughter under the supervision of officials from the state Child Protective Services unit on Kaua'i.
By the weekend, counselors felt the two were comfortable enough that mother and daughter were permitted to stay together without supervision at a local hotel, said Lt. Dean Pigao, of the Kaua'i Police Department youth services unit.
"They're doing just fine. They're doing real well together," despite Angeline not having seen her mother for the last five of her 11 years, Pigao said.
Pigao said that Angeline, who had been distraught at the loss of her father, was able to meet with him at the Kaua'i emergency services building on Friday afternoon.
Bryan was taken out of his cell at the police cellblock and met with his daughter under supervision in a Police Department second-floor office.
"They met for about a half an hour," Pigao said.
Bryan is to make his first court appearance in Circuit Court today. The state of Florida wants to extradite him on kidnapping and other charges,
Deputy prosecuting attorney Craig DeCosta said Bryan has a local attorney. The session is a first appearance and will not be an extradition hearing.
"If he wants to contest extradition, there will have to be another hearing," DeCosta said.
Reach Jan TenBruggencate at jant@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 245-3074.
