Mother seen in eerie airport footage fleeing to Europe with four children amid custody fight with their father
A Utah mother has been captured on airport surveillance footage calmly guiding her four young children through Salt Lake City International Airport before boarding a one-way international flight and vanishing overseas.
The video, obtained by authorities, captures Elleshia Anne Seymour walking with the children through the terminal, luggage in tow, before departing the United States as part of what investigators say was a carefully planned abduction carried out in violation of joint custody agreements.
The mom allegedly absconded with the children over irrational fears that Salt Lake City would be destroyed in a Biblical ‘end times’ event.
Police say the flight marked the final step in a plan that had been quietly unfolding for weeks.
Seymour, who shares partial custody of the children with two fathers, allegedly obtained travel arrangements without their knowledge or consent and left her vehicle behind at the airport before exiting the country.
Investigators believe she has no intention of returning the children to the US.
Days after the flight, on December 2, Seymour left a voicemail for one of the fathers claiming she was already in France with the children.
In the message, she said she planned to seek permanent residence and had taken the children because the ‘end times’ were coming.
Law enforcement later determined Seymour had discussed obtaining passports for the children and had made plans to shred documents and discard phones before leaving the country.
Elleshia Anne Seymour is seen walking through Salt Lake City International Airport with her four children in newly released surveillance footage
Elleshia Anne Seymour, 35, is charged with four counts of custodial interference after police say she removed the children from the country without the consent of either father
For Kendall Seymour, the father of three of the children, the airport footage is devastating.
‘We’re hoping to get a state warrant turned into a federal warrant, turned into an INTERPOL warrant out there,’ he told ABC4.
‘Hopefully the next step is I get a phone call that she’s been found and then I can fly out and find the kids. As soon as that happens, me and my fiancé were going to drop everything and go get them.’
Kendall last saw his children between November 24 and 25, when he dropped them off at school at the start of their mother’s scheduled custody time.
He said concerns were raised days later when a babysitter called asking why the children had not shown up for daycare.
‘She’s been planning this because she took off on the 30th of November during my long custody break… for Thanksgiving,’ he told KSL-TV.
‘It has been three weeks now. She has no family in Europe. As far as I know, no contacts out there.’
Charging documents say Seymour had recently discussed fleeing the country while expressing fears about biblical events and the ‘end of times.’
Detectives later found a notebook in her West Jordan apartment outlining plans to shred documents, discard phones and take passports.
Airport surveillance shows Seymour and the children boarding a one-way flight bound for Amsterdam, with a final destination in Croatia. In her voicemail, she later claimed to be in France, telling the children’s father she was looking for permanent residence.
Kendall said the beliefs outlined in the documents came as a shock.
‘She’s not in the right mind,’ he said.
The footage captures Seymour appearing calm as she and the children move through the airport, days before police issued an endangered missing advisory
The four children were reported missing in December after police say they were taken overseas in violation of a joint custody agreement
‘I didn’t know about any of these ideas of hers until a couple of weeks ago when someone found her TikTok account… She thinks Salt Lake is going to be destroyed and she is trying to get the kids to safety. My only hope is that she is motivated to protect them.’
‘There were no signs of that when we were married or divorced in the last five years.’
Authorities appear to share concerns about Seymour’s mental state. According to charging documents, a no-bail arrest warrant was requested after witnesses reported she had previously suffered from emotional breakdowns and hallucinations.
On December 10, police issued an endangered missing advisory for the four children, listing Seymour as the abductor. Charges for custodial interference and removing the children from the state were filed six days later.
Family law attorney Marco Brown said Seymour could face serious legal consequences once located.
‘She’s chasing four felony counts, assuming this is the first time this has happened and [if] she has some mental health problems, then she is likely not looking at any jail time at all,’ he told ABC 4.
‘What I think is more likely is they get the kids back to the United States and if they share 50-50 custody, then he goes and modifies the custody, so he gets the majority of it and holds the kids’ passports.’
‘If the police find her and arrest her, because they have an international warrant and work with the FBI, then they could detain her and the United States would extradite her back.’
