Mother's 8-month ordeal ends with father's arrest

For eight months, Grace Bjarnson had no idea where her two young children were or whether she'd ever see them again.

Night after night she worried about whether 4-year-old Daniel, who is autistic, and 3-year-old Noel, who was 2 when she disappeared, were safe, had enough food or if they even knew their mother was still alive.

On Tuesday, both children were found safe walking along a rural Pennsylvania highway with their father, Wayne "Fred" Brown III. It was about 20 degrees that morning, but no one was wearing a coat, according to police.

Wednesday, exactly eight months to the day that Bjarnson last saw her children, she talked to reporters about how happy she was that her son and daughter were found.

"I'm so thankful because this doesn't happen normally. Justice isn't normally served," she said. "This really is a miracle. A lot of people have been praying for this. It was one of those experiences where you think, 'I must be dreaming.' "

Bjarnson's miracle was possible thanks to a cooperative effort between the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office and the Salt Lake County District Attorney's Office. But there were also several unique and lucky factors that all worked in Bjarnson's favor — including an attempt by Brown, 44, to cross the border into Canada with the children. He was refused entry apparently because the customs agent had a bad vibe about him.

The case also highlights an everyday problem for law enforcers of child custody disputes among separated parents and how the system provides enough gray area to keep their hands tied.

The eight-month nightmare for Bjarnson began July 18 when Brown was scheduled to return the two children to her Salt Lake home after a weekend visit. Brown and Bjarnson, who had been married for four years, were in the process of getting a divorce. Their divorce was not finalized until November, after her children were gone. Until then, he was allowed weekend visits but failed to return the children that day.

Over the next several weeks, Bjarnson tried to contact Brown either directly or through lawyers. Although she said she briefly got to talk to her son on the phone, she kept running into walls because Brown continuously changed attorneys and failed to show up for court. During that time, she believed he was also constantly moving around Utah.

Police and prosecutors, however, were unable to do anything. Several times during Wednesday's news conference, Bjarnson spoke of her frustrations with the legal system during that time.

The problem, said Salt Lake County Sheriff Jim Winder, was that gray area of when an incident is still a custodial issue and when it became a criminal matter.

"We have to determine where the criminal line has been crossed," he said. "The system is not working well at all."