Case Closed!

Throughout his over-30-year career, Richard Price has recovered and returned over 100 children and teens, finding them in every corner of the world.

He is a specialist and considered the expert in child recovery, unsolved homicides, missing persons, runaways, and reunited lost ones.His "lifetime of connections from 'mission impossible' cases makes him the Top Gun of the parental abduction or missing persons 'war.'"-- Legal Brief Revue 1997.Due to the sensitive nature of the following true cases, it is often necessary to change or omit the names of those involved for their privacy and protection. 

The Godfather

One child, Price recovered in South America in 1976, who was 5 years old at the time, has recently completed his own investigation into his childhood abduction by his mother.  He reviewed his court file and found Dick Price's name as the man who was instrumental in finding him.  He contacted Price and arranged a meeting with him. This young man wanted to shake Price's hand and let Price know what a great life he had growing up after being reunited with his Dad and grandparents.  This young man is now married and has a new son of his own.  Guess who the Godfather is? 

Price takes it all in in stride.  He says, "It's really quite ironic, there are all kinds of underground networks out there hiding parents and their children on the run and doing it in the name of religion and God.  I find the boy in the underground and end up being his son's Godfather!  I think that's what they call poetic justice."  Then he smiles and adds, "I call it, the icing on the cake!"

A Search born of Love

(Based on an article in the St. Petersburg Times, January 10, 1999) In 1991, a Pinellas County mother left the US with her two daughters to live in her native country, England.  Although this may seem like an ordinary occurrence, it wasn't. See, the girls had two separate fathers.  One of the fathers was about to regain legal custody of his daughter and the other father had stipulated in the divorce decree that his ex-wife was not allowed to take their child out of Florida.  Soon the Pinellas mother was on the run, outside the law.  Both US and British authorities issued pick-up orders on the girls--if someone could find them. 

After using up much of their resources for a year the men were at a dead end.  Not only were they unable to locate the girls, but they didn't have a clue how to deal with the often difficult international laws that govern abducted children.Of the 160,000 US children that are abducted each year, most are returned if they stay in the U.S.  Once a child is out of the country the retrieval rate is only about 30-40 percent. 

Having a Hague treaty in a country is helpful, but it doesn't always mean local judges and police will follow it.   Some parents never see their children again.That's where Richard Price came in.  Along with friend and Lawyer Michael Berry who is a specialist in international child abduction cases, Price began the search.  The two have worked together for a longtime maybe tracking down 12-15 children a year, from all over the world. Of course Price's "methods" are trade secrets, but he quickly produced a videotape that showed one of the missing, brown-haired girls walking on an island off Spain.  GOTCHA!

Well aware of the legal and international nuances involved, Berry--armed with custody documents--hired a third-generation lawyer from Ibiza to plead their case.  The judge handed over the girls after a month of litigation.  After arriving home on Christmas Day, one of the girls  said, "I haven't been here for a long time, and I really missed it!"  Welcome home kids!