A pair of young siblings who were reported missing in Ohio in October were found this month thousands of miles away in Iceland, the U.S. Marshals Service said.
The children, whose names were not released, are 8 and 9 years old, according to marshals based in northern Ohio. Icelandic police found the at a hotel in the country’s capital, Reykjavik, on Jan. 10, the agency said.
A family member reported the children missing to Canton police on Oct. 25. The children’s mother — who was also not publicly identified — had stopped taking her mental health medication and abandoned her apartment, and the children stopped attending school, the marshals said.
Canton police eventually requested the assistance of the marshals, the statement said. The search also included assistance from the State Department, Interpol, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and authorities in England and Iceland.
The children’s mother took them to London, the Island of Jersey in the English Channel and a remote fishing village in Iceland before they were found in Reykjavik, officials said.
“The children were placed in the care of Iceland social services until a trusted family member could get them,” the marshals said. “The mother was placed in a hospital where she will remain until she is well enough to travel back to the U.S.”
Canton police could not immediately be reached for comment Monday afternoon.
Reykjavik is nearly 3,000 miles from Canton.
U.S. Marshal Pete Elliott said in the statement the children would not have been found without dedicated law enforcement personnel who helped bring them home.
“The collaboration of effort in this case can’t be understated,” he said. “The ability to respond and recover these children abroad is an extremely difficult task. Our investigators did an outstanding job. We are lucky to have such strong and dedicated law enforcement partners and credit should be given to them for helping bring these children home.”
