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Jessica Abreu (née Brown, AKA Shamarzera Yahu) has been charged with international parental kidnapping in Rhode Island. She had been previously married to an individual referred to as V.A. Together, they have five children under the age of 16. In December 2021 Abreu, without V.A.’s permission, took the children to an undisclosed location in Alabama. This action coincided with her increasing involvement with the Hebrew Israelites religious group. After legal intervention, Abreu returned to Rhode Island with the children.
During divorce proceedings, V.A. received a text from one of his children indicating that they would miss him. It was later confirmed that Abreu had taken all five children to Tanzania without informing V.A.
V.A. had a scheduled visitation with the children on June 3, 2022, which Abreu and the children did not show. Following this, a series of court hearings were held. On July 19, 2022, Abreu failed to appear in court and the court granted joint legal custody to both parents but designated Rhode Island as the home state for the children.
Subsequently, on August 24, 2022, the court found Abreu in violation of several federal kidnapping statutes and ordered her to return the children to Rhode Island immediately. This order also awarded sole legal and physical custody to V.A., mandating that law enforcement assist in transferring the children from Abreu to V.A.
Despite the court orders, Abreu acknowledged but refused to comply, citing her status as a “sovereign citizen,” which she claimed exempted her from court jurisdiction and custody decisions.
Abreu remained overseas with the children from May 2022 onward. V.A. described in an FBI interview that during an unmonitored video call, his children reported being left alone for days, sometimes without food, and expressed concerns about their education and well-being. Internet Protocol addresses confirmed that Abreu and the children were residing in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
The FBI learned that Abreu and the children were scheduled to return to the United States on June 1, 2024, on a flight landing in Los Angeles. She was to be arrested upon her arrival for international parental kidnapping.