Man Who Fled To Mexico With Allentown Teen Held On $500K Bail
LEHIGH COUNTY, Pa. (CBS) -- The man who police say ran away to Mexico with an teenage girl from Allentown is being held on $500,000 bail.
Kevin Esterly, 45, was arraigned early Sunday morning on a third-degree felony charge of Interference with Custody of Children.
Esterly was taken into custody in Miami on Sunday, March 18 and then was extradited to Lehigh County on Saturday.
Authorities say Esterly fled the country with 16-year-old Amy Yu, who had been reported missing on March 5 after she left school on her own volition.
The two then traveled together to Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo, Mexico where authorities would later locate them on March 17.
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"I can't imagine what her mom was going through with her being missing," said Kathleen Smith of Allentown. "It's crazy."
Smith lives just two doors down from the Yu family, and says they left around 10 a.m. on March 18 to pick her up in Philadelphia.
Smith is happy the nearly two-week search for her young neighbor is over, but says she is unsure how the reunion with her family will go.
"I hope they can work things out, so that this does not happen again," she said. "I hope she knows that is not how to handle something, you know, she can't run off with a 45-year-old guy."
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It is alleged that the Esterly took Amy Yu from her school on multiple occasions between November 2017 and February 2018 and to Mexico on March 5, 2018 without the consent of Yu's mother.