HOUSTON, Aug. 7, 2008
Katrina "Angel" Cuffed For Kidnapping Kids
Houston Woman Who Took In Family Displaced By Hurricane Claims Mother Is "Abusive"
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Play CBS Video Video A Katrina Kidnapping? Authorities in Texas are searching for five small children allegedly kidnapped by a woman who sheltered them after Hurricane Katrina. Jeremy Desel of KHOU reports.
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Rhonda Tavey, 44, center, plans to surrender and face kidnapping charges, a newspaper reported Thursday Aug. 7, 2008. (CBS)
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Interactive Out Of Sight: Missing Kids Get the facts on kidnappings, learn predator profiles and check out resources for locating missing children.
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Rhonda Tavey said she kidnapped the children because their biological mother had threatened her life.
Houston authorities had issued an Amber Alert earlier Wednesday in connection to the abduction of the Houston children. The Harris County District Attorney's office charged Tavey, 44, with five counts of kidnapping.
Tavey, who is white, said all she ever wanted was to do God's will and that she also took the children, who are black, for their own safety. She said their mother, Erica Alphonse, was "abusive."
Tavey said last month she found her bank statements in the purse of Alphonse, whom she had opened her home to after the Louisiana family was devastated by Hurricane Katrina three years ago.
"When I confronted her with that, she pulled a knife and threatened to kill me. That's when I made arrangements to get the kids out," Tavey said Thursday in an online edition of the Houston Chronicle.
"Erica is trying to make herself out to be a wonderful mom," Tavey said. "She is abusive. I've seen her punch the boys ... because they're boys,'" she told the newspaper.
The newspaper reported that Alphonse denies pulling a knife on Tavey and said Tavey is lying to damage Alphonse's reputation.
In an interview with KHOU-TV Alphonse pleaded to Tavey for her children's return. "Rhonda, I'm saying this from the heart: you've been our family for three years," Alphonse said. "You've grown accustomed to loving my children and loving me. I've grown accustomed to loving you. I never thought you would do this to me."
Tavey is likely in the Dallas area, investigators believe since she gave an interview to a local television station there, KHOU reports.
The women said they worked out an agreement after meeting in Reliant Park, where Tavey had been volunteering for the American Red Cross after the hurricane. Their arrangement called for Tavey, who has two teenage daughters, to care for Alphonse's two boys and three girls who are ages 3 to 8, while Alphonse sought work to become self-sufficient.
Alphonse, calling Tavey her family's "guardian angel" after Katrina's devastation, said she told Tavey she wanted to return to her New Orleans hometown eventually, even though Tavey prayed they would remain in Houston.
Alphonse said she returned to New Orleans two years ago and left the children in Houston. She returned this summer and their arrangement turned sour, culminating in the charges against Tavey.
"I had gotten her a job, a car, set her up in an apartment," Tavey said. "I'd helped her do all that when she decided she needed to go back."
Harris County District Attorney's office spokeswoman Donna Hawkins told The Associated Press constables had contacted Tavey's attorney before filing charges against her on Monday but the woman refused to return the children.
The children are identified as:
Tavey is believed to be driving a blue 2004 Chrysler Town and Country Van, Texas License: 963-PTB. Officials say Tavey may be in the Dallas-Fort Worth areas.
© MMVIII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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- This was not a kidnapping. It was an undocumented adoption. Let''s be consistent.
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- Sorry you can''t take the law into your own hands and just take someones kids. It matters not if you think the mother is not taking proper care of them. That is for the courts to decide. Now lady you life is a mess and you can''t even be there for your biological daughters!
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- Time for me to chime in again, I gree with some of you, Yes, I believe she did abandon her kids from time to time. What is puzzling is the fact that this woman would kidnap the kids. Did she get attached to them that much? I beleive she wanted to protect them as her motherly instinct kicked in. I say, before the kids are given back to the mother an investigation should be held to see if the mother is fit. By the way, this woman was poppin out kids like they were false teeth! I am sure that Ms. Tavey had a good reason for searching the purse, like say, money missing from the account. She doens''t seem like she wanted to get the mother in trouble by saying to much.
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- Send alphonse back to New Orleans
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- Tavey found her bank statements in Alphonse''s purse? How, pray tell does one find anything in anyone else''s purse--unless one is engaged in illegal activity by going through another person''s purse? Tavey should have really thought her lies through before settling on that one. LOL
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- If one of those kids is autistic, then Michael Savage says there is a 99 percent chance they are FAKERS!!!
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- Well, most folks in their 40''s with two kids in college have a full plate. Now when you feel like you
really need to start raising someone else''s family/
children, especially this young, is your head in the
right place? When do you stretch the practical to
the super human. You are not Mother Theresa, come off
your EGO. This person has serious problems, and is not
the HERO that you think. Before you start playing the
"RESCUE GAME" you better stop and think about WHY you
are doing what you''re doing!! Your job is to clean
the *** out of your life, before you can even think
that you can clean the *** out of someone else''s life. And, last but not least, no good deed goes
unpunished... - Reply to this comment
- The simplest explanation is usually the best. This black woman left her children that she really couldn''t afford, because it was convenient and now for some reason (probably money) she wants them back. The white woman is an idiot. She allowed this woman to use her as a doormat so she could care for the kids. You get what you pay for. Mark me down as a racist I guess.
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- GREED HAS HAD ITS LUNCH,THE DESERT IS BITTER SWEET.
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- Ms. Tavey did what she did for her own personal reasons. Ms. Tavey received numerous donations and monetary gifts from her church and other organizations; she even has a website set up to send her donations. She used this to her advantage paying off her mortgage and sending her two daughters to college. There was no way Ms Tavey could afford to care for five kids, send her daughters to school and pay her mortgage with no job and no source of income. Even though I believe her love for the Alfonse kids was sincere, the real reason she cared for those kids was for financial purposes.
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- I''m in no way claiming to know all the details, however, the biological mother is of questionable integrity having five children in five years all between 14 & 19. Further, she abandons her children at the very least off and on. I applaud Ms. Tavey for being not only a concerned citizen, but an involved one. ABC news reports that Tavey contacted authorities who would not assist her. She should be awarded custody and receive whatever benefits Alphonse is receiving to support her [Tavey''s] children. Tavey is the mother to them at this point and thank the creator for her.
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- Just watch, Alphonse will sue the State of Texas for a couple million dollars.
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- The police need to determine who is lying here. The "white" woman seems a little questionable. Maybe the "black" does has issues raising her kids properly, but it is not up to Tavey to make that decision. She could have called family services if she was truly concerned. I know they are not the best solution sometimes, but neither is Tavey.
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- "The newspaper reported that Alphonse denies pulling a knife on Tavey and said Tavey is lying to damage Alphonse''s reputation."
Lie detector should weed out the liar, simple. - Reply to this comment
- A couple denied their child medical help because they believed the medical establishment was out to get them. I mother locks her daughter in a cage to keep her from growing up. A father has *** with several of his daughters. All parents were white. Should we assume that most white parents are bad parents or ignorant? I don%u2019t think so. The truth %u2013 these parents are disturb and/or ignorant and we as a society should do what we can to keep this from happening again.
There is a big difference between race and ignorance. If you don%u2019t understand this then maybe you need a refresher course in what a civilized society is all about. - Reply to this comment
- What does race have to do with this?
The only thing that might have to do with race is this paragraph.
" Tavey, who is white, said all she ever wanted was to do God''s will and that she also took the children, who are black, for their own safety. "
Tavey does not seem to have acted our on racial emotions but more out of a need to protect kids that might not have needed her protection. No matter how noble she thought her deed was, she should have contacted the authorities. - Reply to this comment
- DaVicar2: The fact that you can''t tell the difference says a lot.
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- The racist comments that some of you put forward only proves that old saying - ignorance comes in all colors and economic levels.
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- She just wants them back now for the welfare.
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- What I find amazing about this whole story is that all the children have the same last name, unlike MANY other African American single parent households.
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Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."
