A toddler who was reported missing for a week out of South Miami has been found and is back in the custody of her father.
Video shot by NBC6 showed the mother of 3-year-old Shea Eminhizer taking the child to the South Miami Police station on Tuesday.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement issued a missing child alert for Eminhizer, who was reported missing on June 24. Officials said she was with her mother, who is in the middle of a custody battle with the child's father, who has legal custody of the toddler.
The mother agreed with police to bring the child in to the station, where there was an exchange of custody with the father.
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Christine Betancourt, the child's mother, was seen sobbing outside the police station after she surrendered the child. Video from inside the station showed the child screaming and clinging to her mother.
"This is so horrifying," Betancourt told NBC6 in tears. "I don't know why any father would want their daughter to suffer like this."
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The child's father was also at the police station, seen smiling and carrying the 3-year-old, who was crying for her mother.
"I'm just thankful for the safe return of our daughter," he told reporters.
Betancourt broke down in tears as she watched her child leave.
"He knew I was leaving on vacation and he filed a false missing persons report to force me into this situation," she claimed.
However, Betancourt's family law attorneys, Evan and Jordan Abramowitz, said the father does not have full custody of the child and said reports that she was missing were wrong.
They said the child has primarily lived with the mother for the child’s entire life and the father’s contact with the child has been extremely limited by the courts up until the present.
Abramowitz said the order that was entered did not give the father custody, but it just required the transfer of the child from the mother to the father temporarily. He also said the mother having to be psychologically evaluated is not true.
The order has been appealed to the 3rd District Court of Appeal, which ordered there be a response filed by the father by Monday at 2 pm.
Abramowitz said they believe the order was entered erroneously.
“The order was just for the child to be handed over to the father temporarily, did not give him custody, my client didn't kidnap the child, she was coming back into town to comply with the order,” Abramowitz said. “The mother has done nothing wrong.”
South Miami Police said there were legal documents filed Tuesday and after confirming with the state attorney’s office, they determined they will not file charges at this time.
