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Dad Kidnaps 5-Year-Old Son Awaiting Heart Transplant

by Deborah Cruz on April 27, 2012 at 10:37 PM

empty hospital bedWhat lengths would you go to keep your child, if you had lost custody in the divorce? One father in St. Louis went a step too far, if you ask me. Jeffrey Stone kidnapped his five-year-old son, Porter Stone, who was awaiting a heart transplant. Porter’s parents have been involved in a bitter custody battle. Porter vanished after he was discharged with a backpack containing a medical intravenous pump and medication that would last only 48 hours. He was next on the transplant list to receive a life-saving surgery.

Luckily, authorities found Porter and his father the next day.

I don’t know what I would do if faced with the thought of losing custody of my children and not being able to see them again. I am pretty sure that if they were awaiting a life saving transplant surgery I would not take them away from their medication and the hospital that had them next on the list.

We've all heard of parents who have gone to extremes to be able to be with their children and who can blame them, aside from their ex-spouse and the law? I've heard in the news about parents kidnapping and taking their child out of the state, the country, changing the kid’s entire look just to be able to parent their child.  Or is it just to make the other parent miserable? I’m not sure, perhaps, a little of both.

Then there are parents who have gone completely off the deep end and go to the extreme of actually killing their child under the thought process that if I can’t have you, no one can. Luckily, this is not how it turned out for little Porter Stone, though it very easily could have if the authorities did not find him and his father.

What lengths would you go to see your child if you lost custody?

Image via kdt/Flickr

Filed Under: divorce

Comments

11
  • Littl...
    --

    LittleFrogsMA

    April 28, 2012 at 6:47 AM

    Have you considered that there may have been a reason there was a nasty custody battle?  Clearly, the father was unstable.


  • the4m...
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    the4mutts

    April 28, 2012 at 3:33 PM
    I was going to say what LittleFrogs did.
    They don't just go stripping parents of custody and visitation rights for no reason.
  • Emera...
    -- Nonmember comment from

    EmeraldCityGirl

    April 28, 2012 at 5:54 PM
    Did it ever occur to anyone that maybe there is something more going on entirely. What if they were taking the boy to get another opinion. We just dont know. We have no clue what all the circumstances are in this case. Whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty. What I have learned from this so far is that America has a lynch mob mentality.
  • the4m...
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    the4mutts

    April 29, 2012 at 2:16 AM
    EmeraldCityGirl- it doesn't matter. He didn't have the legal right to take the kid. He is the non-custodial parent. They've known for a while that he was sick, if the father thought the boy wasn't getting good enough care, he should have filed an emergency grievance with the court, not taken his kid off for god knows what reason
  • small...
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    smallfryes

    April 29, 2012 at 11:44 AM

    "If I can't have my kid, no will will."  Sounds like this story here:

    http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-57421209-504083/security-questions-after-infants-stabbing-at-baltimore-social-services-building

    It's about a woman who stabs her infant in the neck during a supervised visit.  She too said those same words.

    This story should definitely be posted here.


  • mommy...
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    mommy2annaliese

    April 29, 2012 at 11:11 PM

    ^ That story is horrible and should have a trigger warning at the top of the post.


  • thatg...
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    thatgirl70

    May 1, 2012 at 2:52 PM

    If he was willing to risk his son's life to keep him for himself, I say it wasn't a matter of wanting the child, I say it was a matter of revenge against the ex-wife.


  • Ava...
    -- Facebook comment from

    Ava Wilson

    May 1, 2012 at 2:56 PM

    Not ALL custody stripping is the fault of the parent. I've seen some CPS cases go horribly wrong and good parents be stripped of custody. However, this man displays CLEAR lack of stability by endangering his child's life, and it's therefore clear why he didn't have custody - he does not have the decision making skills required to be responsible for a child.


  • Jenni...
    -- Facebook comment from

    Jennifer Schoenberger

    May 1, 2012 at 3:07 PM

    I watched this story play out since I, like the little boy, am from the Kansas City area. It was very hard to watch. And, like the little boy, I also suffer from cardiomyopathy. It hits close to home for me.

    I would go to great lengths to have my son (I've never been at risk of NOT having him, so I haven't had to worry about it, but he is my whole world. I'd be devastated if I couldn't see him). But, I would also do whatever was best for him, and taking him away from that center is the worst possible thing that could have happened. 


  • Anena
    -- Nonmember comment from

    Anena

    May 1, 2012 at 3:27 PM
    If he really loved his child he would not have taken him while he awaited a heart transpant. He would have tried to talk to the mother and if the mother told him to stay away he would respect the mothers wishes. He would have reinvented himself and created a life so that when his child came looking for him he would find him a whole person and waiting for him. He would have written a diary recounting what is like when his significant other was pregnant and he await the childs birth. He would have updated that diary everyday describing the pain and suffering of losing that child that he planned for and the hopes he has for the future.These are the things that I do everyday while I wait for my son to grow up and find me.I gave birth to my autistic son after being artificially inseminated and was the sole care taker and provider. After years of abuse I told my ex that I was leaving and my ex had me fasly arrested and lied and now has legal custody (of a child that is not a biolgical child to my ex, but is my biological child) of the child that I brought into this world with help from no one, that I gave birth to for 16 hours of labor, that I took care of, breastfed and homeschooled.So everyday I pray and live my life so when my son comes looking for me I will be whole and waiting for him.
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