Mother claims Detroit FBI abducted her 6 year old daughter from Austria

[Syt]

Austria abuzz over Michigan woman's claim FBI helped abduct daughter

The Detroit FBI's involvement in the removal of a 6-year-old child from her mother in Austria is making headlines in that European country, with some media accounts depicting the case as akin to an FBI abduction.

The mother, Andrea Susan Morrison, formerly of Chelsea, is awaiting extradition to Detroit on charges of international parental kidnapping and passport fraud.

Morrison's daughter was turned over to her ex-husband, Adam Morrison, who is the girl's father, on April 15, with the help of the FBI and Austrian authorities. Adam Morrison, a former Ann Arbor resident who now lives in Virginia, flew back to the United States with his daughter the next day.

On April 17, an Austrian judge ordered that Adam Morrison was not to leave the country until custody issues could be examined. But Morrison and the child were already gone.

Andrea Morrison has given media interviews in Austria in which she has alleged her ex-husband was a drug user who had a minimal relationship with the child.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Leonid Feller said one Austrian tabloid, Oesterreich, has depicted the child's removal as an abduction by the girl's father, assisted by authorities.

But he said other media in Austria have reported the case in a more objective fashion and the Austrian government remains supportive of the U.S. government's efforts to extradite the mother.

Wolfgang Renezeder, a spokesman for the Austrian Embassy in Washington, D.C., said Tuesday he believes Austrian officials acted based on U.S. court orders and he would seek further information from the Austrian Justice Department.

The father had visitation rights in the United States, and the mother apparently had not alleged drug use by the father previously, Feller said. Adam Morrison could not be reached for comment.

FBI Special Agent Sandra Berchtold declined comment.

Morrison fled to Austria, where she has family ties, with her daughter in 2007. At the time, she was facing court orders in a Washtenaw County lawsuit in which her father, Robert W. Miller, accused her of embezzling more than $1 million from his bank account.

She was ordered to surrender her passport in the civil case but told officials she had lost it and obtained a new one before fleeing, according to an FBI affidavit.

[garbon]

Detroit and Austria in one story? Too good!

[Syt]

Detroit and Austria in one story? Too good!

I only noticed because it's the huge cover story of (semi-)free tabloid rag Österreich that a colleague brings to the office and lays next to our copiers (I like to leaf through them while waiting for printouts, usually with a mix between and ).

[HisMajestyBOB]

Detroit and Austria in one story? Too good!

I only noticed because it's the huge cover story of (semi-)free tabloid rag Österreich that a colleague brings to the office and lays next to our copiers (I like to leaf through them while waiting for printouts, usually with a mix between and ).

Does it have articles on Hitler being sighted in a supermarket?