After authorities asked for the public’s help finding her, a New York woman suspected in the non-custodial kidnapping of her pre-teen son was arrested just across the U.S.-Mexico border and is expected to be arraigned in San Diego Superior Court Friday.
Lisa LaVigne, 49, was arrested about 4:30 p.m. Thursday in the parking lot of the Unisur Shopping Mall in the Mesa de Otay section of Tijuana, and was subsequently returned to the U.S., according to Deputy U.S. Marshal Dante Salazar.
Baja California State Police officials said LaVigne apparently was intoxicated at the time of her arrest.
Salazar said the boy, 12, was turned over to Child Protective Services in San Diego following his mother’s arrest, and that LaVigne was being held the Las Colinas Detention Center.
LaVigne was wanted on a warrant for kidnapping issued July 14 in Mechanicville, N.Y., according to Salazar.
Earlier this week, authorities released images of LaVigne and her son to the public and said she was believed to be in the San Diego area.
The case was referred to the U.S. Marshals after authorities established that she had fled to San Diego County following the alleged abduction, Salazar said.
According to the Polly Klaas Foundation, about 200,000 children are kidnapped by family members a year, and lists options for parents who have to try to regain a child who has been taken abroad.
The FBI says that it investigates about 1,200 parental child abduction cases each year.
– City News Service
