COEUR D’ ALENE, Idaho (AP) - A 47-year-old Texas man was arrested in Idaho on charges of interference with a child custody order after he was accused of taking his 6-year-son on an 1,800-mile (2,900-kilometer) trip during a scheduled visitation, authorities said.
Ronald Whitted of Fort Worth, Texas, had a visitation session with his son last week, but he was accused of not returning the boy to his mother and instead going on a multi-day trip, the Coeur d’Alene Press reported.
Texas authorities believed the child was in danger and enlisted the help of the U.S. Marshals task force to locate Whitted, who they learned had traveled to northern Idaho.
Whitted left Hurst, Texas, around March 17 and began the trip north, police said, adding the drive is estimated at 27 hours, or about three days.
“He was believed to have attempted to flee the country,” U.S. Marshal deputy Michael Leigh said. “After being on the run for almost two weeks, the Greater Idaho Fugitive Task Force … tracked Whitted and his son to an apartment in downtown Coeur d’Alene.”
The child was safely recovered, authorities said.
U.S. Marshals-led task forces find and arrest fugitives throughout the country who are charged with violent crimes, drug offenses, sex offenders and other serious felonies, and they investigate and recover missing and exploited children, Leigh said.
Whitted’s attorney in Idaho, Anne Taylor, did not immediately return a phone message left by The Associated Press.
Whitted is being held without bond in the Kootenai County jail until he can be extradited to Texas.
Extradition proceedings will begin this month for Whitted, who faces civil charges in Kootenai County, and whose criminal charges will be pursued in Texas. His next court appearance is April 10 in Coeur d’Alene.
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