The 9-year-old boy found 7,000 miles away from home after his father reportedly kidnapped him is Billy Hanson. Hanson was reported missing in September by his mom after he didn't come back from a visit with his father in Seattle, Washington.
The missing 9-year-old boy found 7,000 miles away, was fortunately found safe on a tiny South Pacific island called Niue. Niue is located more than 7,000 miles from the boy's home in Pennsylvania. He is now being prepared to return to his mom in Pennsylvania this week.
"When I talked to Jeff (Hanson) he told me they were going to Blake Island," said the boy's mother, Joanna, in September. "I love my son, and I want him back."
The 9-year-old boy found 7,000 miles away, and his father Jeffrey Hanson, were last seen in Seattle on August 28, before both went away and sailed on Jeffrey's 1976 Cooper sailboat towards Niue, reports UPI.
A federal arrest warrant was issued for the Jeffrey on Sept. 12 after his son never boarded a plane that was supposed to take the boy home on September 4, after the summer break with his dad. Thinking that Jeffrey might have "kidnapped" his son, the FBI, together with the Coast Guard and Seattle officials started a massive search for the boat and its passengers.
Jeffrey has been known to travel around the South Pacific as well as Mexico. It turns out they were right, as the dad reportedly tried to flee his divorced wife.
After conducting an international search which took nearly a month, the 46-year-old father and his 9-year-old boy was found 7,000 miles away on Niue, an atoll northeast of New Zealand and 5,500 miles away from Seattle, the Guardian reported.
The elder Hanson was arrested by Nieu's 15-member police force Wednesday. A local tipped authorities after recognizing Hanson from a wanted poster. On Sunday, Hanson was brought back to the U.S., where he is now facing international parental kidnapping, according to the Seattle Times.
Throughout the entire ordeal, Billy, the 9-year-old boy found 7,000 miles away from his home, sought refuge inside the 38-foot sailboat parked at Seattle's Shilshole Bay Marina.
The U.S. Attorney's Office said Jeffrey is a "known drug abuser," though he gained monthly visitation rights to the boy after he and his wife divorced, the Times Leader reported.
The 9-year-old boy found 7,000 miles away will probably have no further summer visits with his father. An old friend of Hanson's came forward and told search-and-rescue officials that the boy was not safe with his dad, who he found to be potentially "abusive", according to the Examiner. The former friend told authorities that Jeffrey would sometimes hit his son to "toughen" him up and prepare him for the "real world."
Fortunately, the young boy is now doing well, without any damage of having experience being taken to Niue against his will.
As for Billy, the -year-old boy found 7,000 miles away, he is staying on Niue for a few more days until authorities finish arranging his return to the U.S. and back to his mother, reports USA Today.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
