Department of State Assists with Return of Child Abductor

The U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security assisted the Federal Bureau of Investigations and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas with the return of a wanted child abductor from Belize on Friday, March 26. David Clenney is wanted in Texas on parental abduction charges for fleeing the United States with his four-year-old non-custodial child.

On January 8, 2004, the FBI issued a warrant for Clenney’s arrest on parental kidnapping charges out of the Northern District of Texas. According to the poster issued by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Clenney’s son was last seen on July 26, 2003.

In late February 2004, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas contacted the Diplomatic Security special agent assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Belize and stated that Clenney had been located on the island of San Pedro. The Diplomatic Security special agent coordinated with local Belizean authorities, which lead to Clenney’s arrest on March 25.

Diplomatic Security also worked with the Department of State’s Bureau of Consular Affairs to issue the abducted child’s mother an expedited passport for travel to Belize so that she could safely retrieve her son upon Clenney’s arrest.

Diplomatic Security and FBI agents transported Clenney from San Pedro to Belize City. Clenney was transferred to the custody of the U.S. Marshals for his return to Houston, Texas.

In 2003, the Bureau of Diplomatic Security and the U.S. Marshals Service worked together to return more than 70 U.S. fugitives from overseas.

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