Unsolved Mysteries – Abducted by a Parent

The episode opens with two parents who are trying to find out the whereabouts of their children, who have been kidnapped by their noncustodial parents.

Amina and Belel Kandil—Missing Since August 2014

Rebecca Downey recalls memories of being with her kids and looks at mementos she has of them from before they were kidnapped by their father. She dreams of them all the time and wonders where they are.

She met her husband Ahmed Kandil when she was 28 years old and he was 30 thirty years old. At the time, she planned on going to medical school and he was working on his

MBA.

In the beginning, everything went well, despite the fact that they came from different religious backgrounds. They welcomed their daughter Amina on September 1st, 2003 and their son Belel on January 4th, 2006. The whole time, Rebecca was still pursuing her medical degree.

Daphney Frederique is a longtime friend of Rebecca’s and remembers her relationship with the family. She describes Ahmed as a warm, welcoming person, despite the fact that he refused to find employment after losing his job.

Ahmed’s lack of employment and ambition soon took a toll on his relationship with Rebecca, and in June 2013 they separated.  The two of them had split custody, but before long, he made it difficult for Rebecca to see the kids. He also made it clear that wanted them raised Muslim.

On August 28th, 2014, Ahmed took the kids to Toronto to see a cousin who was looking at colleges in the area. They were going to be gone for Amina’s birthday, so Rebecca planned on wishing her a happy birthday on that day. Little did she know that she would never see or hear from them again.

The next day, Rebecca tried to contact Ahmed, who said he couldn’t talk due to roaming charges, but he would get in contact for Amina’s birthday. However, this did not happen. The kids also did not attend school on September 2nd as planned.

At this point, Rebecca is angry and frightened that something happened to her kids. However, she was unable to leave work to investigate.

She called the police and hospitals in Toronto to see if there were any accidents. She also called Ahmed’s father in Egypt, but he claimed he did not hear from his son.

Daphney went to check on Ahmed’s house, only to see that it was completely empty. At this point, Rebecca realized Ahmed kidnapped Amina and Belel.

An investigation showed that Ahmed and the kids were not in Toronto at all, but went from NYC to Kyiv, Istanbul and Turkey.

The FBI then gets involved and an arrest warrant goes out for Ahmed. A deeper investigation showed Ahmed went to a survivalist camp and  took shooting classes. He also purchased camping equipment so he could live off the grid.

In December 2014, Rebecca began looking through Amina’s email and tablet, only to discover that Ahmed, Amina and Belel were possibly in the Hatay province close to the city of Reyhanli….close to Syria and in a war zone.

Rebecca is more frightened than ever and the FBI wonders if Ahmed and the kids now have new identities since they can no longer be traced.

One year after they disappeared, Rebecca got an email from Ahmed, saying they were okay and living on a farm. He also claimed that Rebecca left him no choice but to act the way he did since he was afraid she would eventually divorce him and get full custody. A trace of the email showed it was from a recovery email of Ahmed’s and in the same area where they were previously traced. Unfortunately, it seemed to come from an Internet cafe, so it became a dead end.

It was learned that Ahmed had an Egyptian ID card registered to his parents’ home in Giza. This gives the clue that they could possibly be there, but it ends up being another dead end. Rebecca had wanted to go, but was advised against it.

Sadly, parental kidnapping is not a crime in Egypt, so there would be no case against Ahmed, nor would Rebecca be able to prove he kidnapped Amina and Belel.

Daphney also believes that Ahmed told the kids that Rebecca was either dead or had abandoned them.

Rebecca writes journals to the kids every day and will not rest until they are found.

Aziz Khan–Missing Since 2017

Aziz Khan was born on November 14th, 2010. It was a day that forever changed the life of his father Abdul. His sister Rubina also remembers that day and how devoted her brother was to his son. She remembers the family being close.

Aziz’s mom Rabia met Abdul when they were in school together. He remembers her as someone with a strong personality. They lived with Abdul’s parents in New Orleans, but moved out since there was tension between Rabia and his parents.

Rabia seemed to jump from job to job for various reasons. Rubina recalls her as someone very guarded who was hard to get to know.

Rabia and Abdul’s relationship fell apart and they decided to separate in April 2014. She moved to Atlanta to be closer to her family and they worked out a temporary custody deal. However, she soon served him with divorce papers and tried to prevent him from seeing Aziz. She also was meeting with lawyers to prevent Aziz and Abdul from seeing each other and keep Aziz in Atlanta.

The divorce was finalized in 2015 and a custody battle began. Abdul was eventually given full primary custody of Aziz, but Rabia began to fight this by making baseless accusations about Abdul.

While all this was happening, it was discovered that Rabia was in a relationship with a former classmate named Elliot Bourgeois…In fact, they were married! They decided to be their own lawyers in court, but it was soon discovered that they were making false accusations.

Abdul was to get full custody, with the custody hearing being on November 28th, 2017. However, Rabia, Elliot and Aziz never showed up and have not been seen or heard from since.  Aziz had not been in school since before Thanksgiving and there was no response from Rabia’s family.

Abdul recalls the last time he saw Aziz in March 2016, before Rabia began blocking the two from seeing each other.

Private eyes were hired to look for Aziz, Elliot and Rabia and before long, a warrant was put out for Rabia Khalid’s arrest. The US Marshals got involved and were able to contact Rabia’s parents, but they didn’t seem to concerned about the situation. A deeper investigation showed that this had been planned for awhile. Aziz was taken out of school, while Elliot and Rabia quit their jobs, closed down phones, bank accounts and social media. It is believed that they could possibly all have new identities.

Abdul and Rubina will not rest until Aziz is found and Rabia and Elliot are brought to justice.

OTHER MISSING CHILDREN ALLEGEDLY KIDNAPPED BY PARENTS:

CJ Vosseler (DOB:12/9/1982), William Vosseler (DOB: 4/21/1984) allegedly kidnapped by Charles Vosseler (warrant on 4/3/1987)

Luis Alderete-Martinez (DOB: 3/22/2012) allegedly kidnapped by Regina Martinez (warrant on 2/18/2016)

Huaiyu Chin (DOB: 11/10/2011), Binyu Chin (DOB: 9/24/2014) allegedly kidnapped by Foong Chin (warrant on 2/6/2019)

Kayla Unbehaun (DOB: 1/5/2008) allegedly kidnapped by Heather Unbehaun (warrant on 7/28/2017)

Reuben Blackwell Jr (DOB: 12/29/1992), allegedly kidnapped by Reuben Blackwell Sr (warrant on 9/22/2000)

Tammy Flores (DOB: 3/30/2004), Diego Flores (DOB: 7/28/2005), allegedly kidnapped by Francisco Flores (warrant on 1/18/2008)

Christopher Zaharias (DOB: 3/25/1984), Lisa Zaharias (DOB: 8/18/1986), allegedly kidnapped by Susan Zaharias (warrant on 2/17/1988)