Parental Abduction Survivor: From Victim To Advocate

By Ginger Gentile

Dawn McCarty’s advocacy for both parents to be able to be in their children’s lives after divorce grew out of the traumatic experience of being kidnapped by her own mother at the age of four. McCarty lost all contact with her father until she found him 44 years later. She now works with the National Parents Organization to pass legislation that makes joint custody the norm, with the hopes that this will reduce conflict and encourage co-parenting. While Dawn’s story may seem extreme, it is estimated that about 4% of children will be abducted by a family member during their childhood. 

Dawn’s parents separated when she was two and her mother moved out of the home. Dawn would visit her mother occasionally, but always stayed with her father. The visits became more infrequent until they stopped. One day her mother abducted her with the help of her new husband. This story was confirmed years later when Dawn read her step-father’s unpublished memoir that contained the simple sentence “my wife and I kidnapped Dawn.” The memoir offered no explanation such as the mother being denied contact or Dawn being in danger. 

“In an instant, I went from being motherless, to being fatherless,” said McCarty. “Yet, in my mother’s mind, I wasn’t fatherless because she had a replacement father ready to step into the role, and the denigration began. She told me stories about what a terrible person my father was. Although I struggled to believe these tales, I found myself wondering why didn’t he try to rescue me. I asked myself why I never got a birthday card, a Christmas card, or a phone call. My dad just vanished.”