Four Utah siblings who vanished after a Thanksgiving visit with their mother have been located in a Croatian orphanage, ending a frantic international search that stretched across two continents. Police say their mother, identified as Elleshia Seymour, is now under arrest in Europe on suspicion of abducting the children and spiriting them overseas in the grip of apocalyptic beliefs. The kids are alive and in government care, but their family back in Utah is now staring down a long, messy process to bring them home.
The Thanksgiving Visit That Never Ended
The story starts in suburban West Jordan, where a holiday custody visit turned into every co-parent’s nightmare. The four children, all American citizens, were supposed to spend Thanksgiving with their mother and then return to their regular lives with their fathers in Utah. Instead, they disappeared from the familiar orbit of Utah and, according to police, quietly slipped into a journey that would end in a European orphanage.
Authorities say the children, described in reports as Four American siblings, were last seen with their mother in West Jordan around the Thanksgiving holiday, then failed to return as scheduled. Investigators later alleged that Elleshia Seymour used a flight through Amsterdam to move the kids into Europe, eventually reaching Croatia without bringing the children into the country legally. Police in WEST JORDAN, Utah, detailed how the group’s path from the United States to a European destination turned into a missing children case that quickly crossed borders and jurisdictions, as outlined in a report on Four American.
Inside the Search for Four Missing Kids
Once it became clear the children were gone, the case escalated fast. Police in West Jordan opened a missing persons investigation and, according to multiple accounts, began tracking the family’s movements across international borders. The situation was complicated by the fact that the children were believed to be with a parent, not a stranger, which can blur lines between a custody dispute and a criminal abduction. Still, investigators treated the disappearance as a serious threat to the kids’ safety, especially as more details emerged about their mother’s state of mind.
Reports describe Elleshia Seymour as a “Doomsday” mom who had become fixated on end-of-the-world and biblical themes, with police alleging she wanted to keep the kids to herself and went to extreme lengths to do it. One account notes that she is accused of custodial interference and of taking the children overseas while gripped by apocalyptic beliefs, with officials later confirming the kids were found in a Croatian facility. The description of her as a Doomsday figure and the allegation that the children were discovered in a Croatian orphanage are laid out in coverage of the Doomsday allegations.
Found in a Croatian Orphanage
The break in the case came not in Utah, or even in the United States, but inside a Croatian orphanage. Police say the four siblings were eventually located in a state-run facility after their mother’s presence in the country drew attention. One account describes how the children ended up in Croatian foster custody, with local authorities stepping in once it became clear they were far from home and at the center of an international custody fight. The discovery confirmed what their fathers had feared for weeks, but it also opened a new chapter of legal and diplomatic hurdles.
Relatives say the children are now in Croatian foster care while officials sort out paperwork and jurisdiction. Kendall Seymour, identified as the father of three of the kids, has spoken publicly about trying to get all four released from the orphanage and returned to the United States. He has described the process as slow and emotionally draining, explaining that he is working through Croatian authorities and international channels to secure their return. His efforts, and the detail that the children are currently in Croatian foster custody, are described in an interview with Kendall Seymour.
The Fathers’ Fight to Bring Them Home
Back in Utah, the children’s fathers and extended family have shifted from searching to strategizing. They are now focused on navigating a maze of international law, child welfare rules, and custody orders to get the kids out of Croatian care and back to West Jordan. One local report notes that the family is working through international legal channels and coordinating with consular officials to bring the children home, a process that can take weeks or months even when everyone agrees on the outcome. For relatives who have already endured the shock of the abduction, the wait is its own kind of trauma.
Family members have described the situation as surreal, saying they never imagined a Thanksgiving visit could end with their kids in a foreign orphanage. They are leaning on community support in Utah and pressing officials to move quickly, while acknowledging that Croatian authorities have their own procedures to follow. A detailed account of how the family is fighting to bring the children home, and the fact that they are now working through international legal channels, is laid out in a report on the Utah family and echoed in a follow up that describes how Now the family is pushing for a resolution through those same channels, as highlighted in a second look at the Now unfolding case.
How Croatian Authorities Caught Up With Elleshia Seymour
While the children’s fathers were scrambling from Utah, the key break overseas reportedly came from a simple act of curiosity. One account describes how a host family in Europe grew suspicious of Elleshia Seymour and her story. According to that report, One of the kids told an adult, “Hey, search my name, Google my name, you’ll find it,” effectively pointing them toward coverage of the missing children case. That online search appears to have helped trigger contact with authorities, who then moved in on Seymour and the children in Croatia.
From there, Croatian officials detained Seymour and placed the children in state care while they sorted out who they were and why they were in the country. The detail about the child urging an adult to look them up online, and the quote “One of my kids told him, ‘Hey, search my name, Google my name, you’ll find it,’” is recounted in coverage of how local suspicions and a quick Google search helped lead to Seymour’s arrest. That moment, casual on its face, may have been the turning point that saved the kids from disappearing deeper into the system.
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