Utah Doomsday Mom ARRESTED, Kids Trapped in Orphanage in Croatia | Elleshia Seymour Update

Summary

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Podcast Summary: "Utah Doomsday Mom ARRESTED, Kids Trapped in Orphanage in Croatia | Elleshia Seymour Update"

Podcast: Drop Dead Serious with Ashleigh Banfield
Host: Ashleigh Banfield
Date: January 25, 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode delivers a comprehensive and raw update on the unfolding international custody case involving Elleshia Seymour, known as the Utah "Doomsday Mom". After Seymour allegedly kidnapped her four children and took them to Croatia based on apocalyptic beliefs, Ashleigh Banfield documents the ongoing struggle faced by their father, Kenny Seymour, and his sister, Jill, as they attempt to bring the kids home. The episode includes new firsthand insights via an emotional interview with Jill Seymour, who shares details about the children’s current conditions, the surreal bureaucratic obstacles, and the family's desperate need for support.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Case Recap and Latest Developments

• Seymour, a self-proclaimed doomsday prophesier, took her four children from Utah to Croatia after allegedly forging passports and deceiving the children’s two fathers ([01:35], [04:36]).
• The children, aged 14, 11, 8, 7, and 3 (with the youngest having a different father), were eventually found in Croatia despite misleading claims by Seymour about being in France or Italy ([06:13]).
• All four children, plus a 13-year-old Croatian-American boy, Cage (involved as a tipster), are currently housed together in a Croatian government “family center”—a setting described as akin to an orphanage ([06:13], [16:25]).

Discovery and Rescue – The Role of Cage

• The turning point came when 13-year-old Cage, son of the American woman who helped Seymour, discovered American news coverage about the missing kids and alerted his mother ([13:31], [34:43]).
• "His name is Cage. And Cage, in speaking with these four kids ... learned about the identities of the children and had the wherewithal to Google them and discovered there are massive headlines back in America..." – Ashleigh Banfield [06:13]
• This act led to intervention by local authorities, with both Seymour and the other woman being arrested ([13:31], [31:14]).

Current Conditions for the Kids

• The children are limited to only two hours of visitation per day with their family members, including their father, aunt (Jill Seymour), and Kenny’s fiancée ([15:39]).
• The children struggle to communicate due to language barriers; only one social worker has “decent” English, causing difficulties for the youngest, Jacob (age 3) ([16:17]).
• Living conditions are minimal, with little privacy, belongings subject to communal use, and activities largely limited to unregulated YouTube viewing ([38:36], [46:48]).

Legal and Bureaucratic Hurdles

• Despite international awareness, returning the children isn’t straightforward:

  • There’s extensive Croatian and American legal bureaucracy
  • The case recently escalated from local police to Croatia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs ([22:58])
  • Jill reports no clear precedent for this situation: “Everybody says, well, this has never happened before, so this is unprecedented.” [27:52]

• It remains unclear whether all children (including the youngest, Jacob) can leave together, despite having paperwork and written permission from his father ([27:25]).

Psychological and Emotional Impact

• Kids have endured trauma, uncertainty, and inconsistent information. They miss home deeply and do not understand why they can’t leave ([18:10], [26:00]).
• The children do not appear to have bought their mother's doomsday beliefs, but have grown distrustful due to her previous lies ([24:18], [25:10]).

Concerns About Cage

• Cage is now also in the family center with no apparent family except his mother, who remains detained ([34:03], [39:39]).
• The fate of Cage is particularly worrying: “...it is very hard to get the four of them out ... Maybe even harder to get little Cage out at 13 because his mom, she's going to call the shots. There is no dad ... and this ... could be one of the great tragedies of this story." – Banfield [06:13]
• If the Seymour kids leave, Cage is at risk of being left behind in unfamiliar conditions.

Appeal for Help

• The family has depleted their savings in Croatia while fighting for custody; GoFundMe set up: "Abducted Kids. Help Us Get Them Back" organized by Kendall Seymour ([13:31], [42:34], [44:22]).
• “A big thing ... is just donations. We have a GoFundMe to be able to stay here. That's our biggest priority right now, is no matter how long this takes, we need to be able to stay here to be with the kids.” – Jill Seymour [42:34]
• Jill also urges parents in the US to enroll in passport alert services to prevent unauthorized passport applications ([43:45]).

Issues with the Orphanage/Family Center

• Kids lack basic personal possessions; new clothes bought by family may be used by other children ([38:36], [46:48]).
• Sanitary and emotional care standards are lower than in the US.
• Unmonitored internet access is a concern, with minimal educational or recreational opportunities ([44:43], [46:38]).

Government Support

• The US Embassy is involved but can act only as a liaison, needing to respect Croatian sovereignty (“...there has to be those systems in place to be able to have an embassy here, as you have to respect that local government. Right. And we can't intervene with ... local laws. We can just try and help ... So right now it essentially feels like they're a liaison...” – Jill Seymour [21:12]).

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Memorable Quotes & Key Moments (with Timestamps)

• On the red tape:
  “It is such a bigger mess of red tape diplomacy, State Department issues, court issues both in America and in Croatia. And they're trying to sort through it all.”
  — Banfield [06:13]

• On visits:
  "We are allowed to visit them for two hours a day. ... So it's hard to get more time with them."
  — Jill Seymour [15:39]

• On emotional toll:
  “It's tough. Seeing the kids is so bittersweet, so much fun to be with them and to spend that time, but knowing how short it is, it's very, very difficult.”
  — Jill Seymour [40:59]

• On the heroism of Cage:
  “Cage at 13, shares that information with his mother. The allegation is ... his mom had no idea ... and that the mother actually drove Alicia to the police station with these children ... to turn them in because this mother realized this is nothing good Right."
  — Banfield [06:13]

• On the kids' skepticism:
  “From day one of us being able to speak with them … it was very clear that they never believed anything that their mom was telling them that didn't make sense… They understand that's not possible ... All of her doomsday things, they did not believe in.”
  — Jill Seymour [24:18]

• On the orphanage conditions:
  “The quality of care that they're receiving is abysmal and would never hold up in any state of care in America. The only activity the kids have is unmonitored access to YouTube.”
  — Jill Seymour [44:43]

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Important Segments & Timestamps

| Timestamp | Segment Description | |---|---| | [01:35] | Ashleigh summarizes the entire case and updates listeners on latest developments | | [04:36] | Outline of how Seymour took the kids and the international search | | [06:13] | Details on being located in Croatia, their current institutional conditions, and Cage’s role | | [15:01] | Full interview with Jill Seymour begins | | [15:39—18:10] | Jill details conditions, visitation, language barriers, trauma on kids | | [19:10—21:45] | Legal knowledge gaps, silence about Seymour's fate, and handling the situation with the children| | [22:58] | Case progression in Croatian bureaucracy | | [24:18—27:48] | Children’s disbelief in doomsday theories, psychological effects, and the legal status of each child | | [34:43—36:21] | How Cage helped reveal the truth and unravel the case | | [38:36—40:01] | Hardships with orphanage conditions, loss of personal goods due to communal systems | | [42:34—43:45] | GoFundMe appeal and preventive advice for parents about passport alerts | | [44:43—48:20] | Orphanage care problems, theft, hygiene issues | | [49:58] | Discussion of the counseling needs for the kids after they return |

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Additional Insights

• The family's ability to visit and advocate for the children relies entirely on their ability to remain in Croatia, which is financially straining without outside help ([42:34]).
• All efforts are at the mercy of opaque and slow-moving legal systems, and no timeline is available for a resolution ([48:42], [48:53]).

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How to Help

• Support their GoFundMe: Abducted Kids. Help Us Get Them Back (organized by Kendall Seymour)
• Share the story widely to raise awareness ([50:16]).
• Parents: Consider registering for passport issuance alerts to avoid unauthorized passport applications for your children ([43:45]).

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Conclusion

This episode offers a gripping look at how true crime collides with international bureaucracy and the hardship faced by families caught in its gears. Through candid, emotional reporting and exclusive firsthand accounts, listeners get an in-depth understanding of the complexities and personal costs of cross-border abduction and rescue efforts—reminding us that the fight for justice and safety for children sometimes plays out far from the headlines and in rooms full of red tape.

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Transcript

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[Ashley Banfield]

Com. Hey everybody, I'm Ashley Banfield. This is drop dead serious. I've got such a comprehensive update for you about those kids who were kidnapped allegedly by their mother and flown overseas to Croatia without their father's knowledge or permission. The kids have been found. We've confirmed that their aunt and their dad and their dad's fiance are all overseas. I should say that because there are two fathers. The first three children were fathered by Kenny Seymour and then the baby, the three year old has a different father. So Kenny Seymour is overseas with his sister Jill and Kenny's fiance and they are encountering what they never expected they would encounter. If you watched our episode a couple of days ago, I spoke with an expert in international custodial issues. Right? Whether you're fighting to get your kids back, fighting with a spouse who lives overseas, or simply trying to deal with another Government when it comes to custody of kids or movement of kids. And everything that he said has borne out. The roadblocks that Kenny and his family are encountering getting their children out of Croatia have been mind boggling. But just to sort of bring you soup to nuts, if you haven't seen the episodes, we'll link them and you can get up to speed on this case. But Alicia Seymour, doomsday prophesier, loads of tick tocks prophesying that the end of the world was coming, the apocalypse was coming, and that the epicenter would be right where she was, Salt Lake City area.

[Alicia Seymour (Doomsday Prophesier)]

These two countries, they are coming and they are, they're like flanking. It's like me and like 50 other people, men, women and children. And they are shooting at us. They're yelling. There's chaos, there's, there's gunfire. And then also like this river comes through and this river has acid in it. And so people are running. Then they get wiped away with like this acid water. So they had poured acid into it. As a thief in the night, I will take my bride. But I will also bring devastation. I will bring my wrath. Disasters are underway. Power outages, financial loss, earthquakes and floods. And lo, there was a great earthquake. And the sun became black as sackcloth of hair. And the moon became as blood was about an EMP going off. I heard the sound like the blast that it makes. And as soon as that happened, the car stopped driving, computer stopped working, all electronics were down, WI fi was down, water was down. The airplanes fell from the sky, helicopters fell from the sky.

[Ashley Banfield]

And for that reason, she needed to make a move, right? And police say she packed those kids up and illegally forged documents, allegedly passports for these four kids, and took them overseas to Croatia. Dads both said, we had no idea. We had no knowledge of this plan. Certainly there was no permission, and certainly we did not actually sign for passports for our children. And thus began the effort to find them, which they did. They found them in Croatia. Even though Alicia allegedly was telling all sorts of people she was in France and Italy and even said so in text messages and tiktoks. She ended up in Croatia and the children were taken from her. She was arrested and they are now in a family center, euphemism for something that's more akin to an orphanage and definitely not with the kinds of standards that we're used to in America. You're going to hear all of this because I'm about to play an interview for you with Jill Seymour, their aunt, who's there that's her brother Kenny. This is their, these are Kenny's kids. And the battle royale that they are going through just to get the kids back home to America. It doesn't matter that it's dad, it doesn't matter that there's, you know, allegations of the law being broken, that Alicia's been arrested and is in custody in Croatia. No, it is such a bigger.

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[Ashley Banfield]

Of red tape diplomacy, State Department issues, court issues both in America and in Croatia. And they're trying to sort through it all. Meantime, the little kids are all in this orphanage style place and they're only allowed two hours a day with their family, meaning with their dad, with their aunt and with their dad's fiance. So just as a quick refresher, the kids are 14 or 11 year old Landon Seymour, 8 year old Levi Parker Seymour, 7 year old Hazel Ray Seymour, then the baby, the 3 year old Jacob Kurt Brady. He's the little boy fathered by the other father. And so these kids ended up being flown to Croatia because the allegations are, is that Elisha, their mom, met some girl online, some American who's been living in Croatia for a year and a half or so who shared the same doomsday prophecies and encouraged Alicia to pack your kids up and come here and be with me where we'll be safe from the apocalypse. And so police say this is what she did. Family members say this is what she did. She flew over there, parked herself for the last couple of months in this woman's home. And this woman has a 13 year old boy. I just learned this recently that the teenage boy is actually a 13 year old boy. And the 13 year old boy is the hero in all of this. His name is Cage. And Cage, in speaking with these four kids that just arrived in his home as visitors, learned about the identities of the children and had the wherewithal to Google them and discovered there are massive headlines back in America about these four kids living in my home right now with their mom. And there's nothing good about these headlines. The headlines suggest that these kids have been stolen and that they are illegally here and that there's an international manhunt for their mother. So Cage at 13, shares that information with his mother. The allegation is, is that his mom had no idea that this was not a legal, you know, trip for this mother and her four kids, Alicia, and that the mother actually drove Alicia to the police station with these children either. The kids ended up in the police station as well to turn them in because this mother realized this is nothing good Right. But that mother was arrested and cage, her son, 13, is also in the orphanage slash family center with the other Seymour kids and, and, you know, little Jacob Brady. So all five of these kids now, the four kids from Alicia, Seymour, and this child, Cage, from the other prophecy woman who was living in Croatia, the American who's living in Croatia, no idea what her charges are. I don't know her name either, and I don't know how serious this will be for her given the fact that she was actually the whistleblower. But there may be other issues like truancy or whatever Croatia believes to be endangerment of kids if there's a belief system they don't agree with. I don't know what Croatia's code is, but I do know that these five kids now are all together and that it is very hard to get the four of them out, the ones who are Alicia's, and get them back to their home in America. And maybe even harder to get little cage out at 13 because his mom, she's going to call the shots. There is no dad that we know of or family for Cage. And this, this could be one of the great tragedies of this story as well. What happens to Cage once those other four kids end up leaving? Because he was the hero. He basically saved these kids. He basically was the linchpin to find these kids. Anyway, I'm going to play this incredible interview with their aunt who is going back and forth every day to the orphanage. The unbelievable stories that she's told us about life in this orphanage for these kids, what kind of red tape they're dealing with, the language barriers, the difficulties in getting this red tape sorted out. You would think, dad's there, let him take his kids. No, just not that easy. And then the issue of trying to help these kids get reading materials, maybe even some homework, something to watch instead of just dangerous, unregulated YouTube, which is what all the kids there apparently are watching. And when they arrive at this orphanage slash family center, the process by which their things that they give to their kids are dispersed. And speaking of that, listen, they have put up a GoFundMe this family, because they are going absolutely broke, being stuck over in Croatia. They can't work at their jobs. They have to fly there, they're gonna have to fly the kids back. And they're trying to buy all these things for the kids in the orphanage, their kids, but also all these other kids because they don't even have toys and things to play play with. So I just want to Let you know, I really love it if you would check their GoFundMe out. Look, we can do good. Our little community here, we can really do good for this family. So the, the GoFundMe is called abducted Kids. Help Us get them back. Organized by Kendall Seymour. So do me a solid, hit them up and give them what you can. Because not only is it going to help them get their kids back and maybe cage as well, but it's going to help these other. There's like 30 kids in this center and the conditions are abysmal. So anything that you can do would be really helpful. Meantime, this interview that I did with Jill Seymour is just so insightful as to what they're going through every single day, exactly where they are, what the conditions are like for them, for the kids, and for this legal conversation that we're having. And I'm going to play that all for you in just one moment. But first, a quick thank you. Once again, this community rocks. You guys are amazing. You make this podcast possible and maybe we can help these, these kids who are locked up, essentially. And also thank you to my sponsors who make this podcast possible. I should let you know Masa Chips, big sponsor of mine, they're fabulous. I love them. You're gonna love them. First of all, supernatural. That's all I can say. Like natural, natural, natural. And if you've ever looked at the bag of chips that you're eating and read the ingredients, it's revolting. There's stuff you can't pronounce right, Seed oils and MSG and artificial dyes. And natural flavors aren't natural. Trust me. 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[Ashley Banfield]

Okay, now back to my interview with Jill Seymour, the aunt of these four kids who are stuck in this orphanage family center in Croatia and everything that they have discovered since they found the kids. And then the next hurdle, getting the kids out. How are you and the kids doing?

[Jill Seymour]

We're holding up the best we can in the circumstances that that we're stuck in, trying to enjoy the time, little time that we do have together.

[Ashley Banfield]

So talk to me a little bit about that. You are getting some access to the kids. Describe what the parameters are.

[Jill Seymour]

Yeah, so they're in a children's center. Nothing like this really exists in the States. We have foster care where kids go into to homes. All the kids here are in one large home, so we are allowed to visit them for two hours a day. There is one social worker there that speaks a decent amount of English. She's there sometimes. Most times she's not. So a lot of the workers that we're trying to communicate with speak in very, very broken English. And so it's hard to get more time with them.

[Ashley Banfield]

Like how are the kids communicating? If the kids speak English and the workers do not, how are they exactly?

[Jill Seymour]

That's one of the biggest problems is that there isn't clear communication and the kids aren't able to communicate. Especially how kids communicate with an adult that doesn't speak much language. And Jacob, the three year old is having the hardest time with that.

[Ashley Banfield]

And so I imagine that the 11 year old's name is Landon. Is the 11 year old sort of taking the lead for his siblings and.

[Jill Seymour]

Trying to funny enough, Levi, who's, he's, he's eight. He is kind of the ringleader of the group and takes that, that father role responsibility.

[Ashley Banfield]

I can't imagine what these little guys are going through. Thank God by the way, that you, you can see them for two hours a day. Some of the guidance that we'd learned was that there's no contact. And what about their dad Kenny? Has he had a chance to spend as much time as possible?

[Jill Seymour]

Yes, we were able to see them, yeah, for that full two hours each day. Sometimes it's definitely tempting to try and try and push that a but when the social worker is there she'll come in right at, right at the 2 hours marks and ask us to leave.

[Ashley Banfield]

It's maddening.

[Jill Seymour]

It's so frustrating. And that's where I think this limited amount of time that we're able to have with the kids and consistently saying goodbye every single day after such a brief amount is causing quite a lot of trauma with the kids.

[Ashley Banfield]

I think so. And you're hopefully being able to reassure them we are back tomorrow. This is going to be over. This is temporary. They are understanding this?

[Jill Seymour]

Yes, they understand that for, for the most part that they know that we're going to be back the next day and that we'll see them but they're not understanding the concept of how long this is taking and why. And of course you don't want to share all of the information with the children. And so it's just really hard. The biggest concern we have is with sharing information with them is we want to share as accurate information as we can at a child level. But at the same time they have been lied to for the last two months by their mom. And so we don't want to come across like we're withholding anything from them. We want to communicate clearly but not over communicate to a child.

[Ashley Banfield]

Speaking of their mom, we know she's arrested. Is there any Communication with her? Is there any knowledge of what's going on with her? Are the kids allowed to see her or vice versa?

[Jill Seymour]

No, we will have no communication with her. The kids will have no communication. There's no, like, mug shot that gets released in Croatia like you do in a lot of counties in the states. You know, we're used to being able to go onto your county's website and look up that information that doesn't exist here. There's a lot of privacy as far as that goes until court. And so as far as we're concerned, she's in some type of holding center until a court date, and then it'll go from there. But we know we don't know anything.

[Ashley Banfield]

And of course, Jill, these kids don't know what's really happened legally. So are they asking for her and are they pining for her?

[Jill Seymour]

They know that she's in jail because they had to go to the police station the first night she was arrested, and they were there for. For several hours. So they have an understanding that she's in jail all the way from Landon to Jacob. They know that she's in jail, but.

[Ashley Banfield]

I can imagine, again, they don't know the extent of what is happening against her there. They would be pining for mommy, right?

[Jill Seymour]

Yes. Hazel has asked for her phone number multiple times to call her, and she's asked for all of our phone numbers. And of course, we've given. Given them to her. So I think that's a sense of security for. Is just to have everybody's phone numbers if needs be.

[Ashley Banfield]

Can she. But can they call from the center?

[Jill Seymour]

We got them, I guess, essentially, like a prepaid phone. We gave that to them yesterday. That has a certain amount of minutes so they can call us.

[Ashley Banfield]

Does it have translator on it? Can they at least use their phone to Google Translate with the.

[Jill Seymour]

No, it's just a simple, like, brick foam.

[Ashley Banfield]

Oh, that's so frustrating. Department of the United States. How helpful has the State Department been in trying to just orchestrate a plan of attack?

[Jill Seymour]

Yeah, that's the tricky thing with the using the US Embassy and going through them. Of course, there has to be those systems in place to be able to have an embassy here, as you have to respect that local government. Right. And we can't intervene with. With local laws. We can just try and help and p things along. So right now it essentially feels like they're a liaison between the local government here and us.

[Ashley Banfield]

But they speak the language and at least they can.

[Jill Seymour]

Exactly.

[Ashley Banfield]

Effective liaison.

[Jill Seymour]

Exactly.

[Ashley Banfield]

In line at some office on some cold street.

[Jill Seymour]

Yeah, yeah. The gentleman we're working with at the embassy is fluent in Croatian, and the embassy is in Zagreb, so it's about five hours from us. But we did get a meet with him personally. He came down to this city that we're in the second day that we were here.

[Ashley Banfield]

What city are you in?

[Jill Seymour]

We're in. I'll probably butcher it how you're supposed to say it, but we are in Dubrovnik.

[Ashley Banfield]

Dubrovnik, yes. Yeah. Well, if there's any silver lining at all to this horrifying story, it's that that is one of the most beautiful cities. I spent quite a bit of time in Dubrovnik, and I'll let. If you have a couple hours off to clear your head. The old city.

[Jill Seymour]

And. Yeah, we're very. We're very, very close to ye. Oldtown.

[Ashley Banfield]

Yeah, yeah. So the next issue is the local courts, because as we know, it's not just a matter of, dad's here, pick up your kids, go home. It's court process, which first required an American court process to say, he's got custody, he can get his. And then. Tell me about the process now in Croatia and getting the Croatian courts to recognize that.

[Jill Seymour]

Thankfully, we've already gone through that whole process with the US Courts before we got here, because we had time before then. So we've done that now. It's. All the paperwork has been translated into Croatian, so we had to get a local translator for that. Everything has been submitted to the local police department because that's where the case started. But now, just about an hour ago, we've learned that the case has been transferred to the official name. The case has been transferred to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. So it's out of the local police department's hands. So tomorrow, the embassy will contact the Ministry of Foreign affairs and see what they're wanting from us.

[Ashley Banfield]

That sounds good, because at least it is now at government level, and that's powerful. You know, again, it all still falls back on local courts, so depends on how the local courts play with their play in the sandbox with their. With their government. There the kids have been. My assumption is that the kids have been subjected to a lot of brainwashing about doomsday prophecies. And that is so scary for little ones. You know, where they stand with these beliefs. And if you've been able to sort of help them understand, none of that is happening.

[Jill Seymour]

Yes, the kids, Landon, Levi, Hazel, they're all very intelligent, and they. From day one of us being able to speak with them. It was very clear that they never believed anything that their mom was telling them that didn't make sense. A lot of things didn't add up. They think. They understand that that's not possible, and they know that dad was still in America. They. The only thing they believed was that she had dad's permission or that their dad knew where they were. They didn't know that we were looking for them and we were unaware of their whereabouts. But all of her doomsday things, they did not believe in.

[Ashley Banfield]

It's amazing as 11, 8, and 7. And they had the wherewithal to think. Mom. Something's wrong with mom.

[Jill Seymour]

Yeah. I mean, she's been. It's not a sudden. Just happened just at Thanksgiving. Right. There's been a lot of things happening in their lives with mom for quite some time or things haven't added up. So it's not like she just started with these grandiose lies. They were catching on to smaller things before she started these conspiracy theories.

[Ashley Banfield]

But you just brought up a really good point, Jill, and that is that this was November 30th, if I remember correctly. Right. That's a long, long time for kids. Two months. I mean, they've literally been on the run, on the move, jostled around for. For two months. And I just imagine what that's doing for their psyche. Have they indicated to you their worry about, we don't even know where we are right now. We just want to go home?

[Jill Seymour]

Yes. They say a lot that they want to go home, that they want to go back to America. Landon has said he's learned lots of. Lots of facts about this country, but he said that none of them are good enough, and he wants to go back home. And same thing with Hazel and Landon and Levi. Jacob is saying the same thing. He wants to go home, and he's having a really hard time with. With understanding that he needs to wait. Every day we get there, he thinks it's because we're there to take him home.

[Ashley Banfield]

Oh. I mean, he's three. He's three, otherwise.

[Jill Seymour]

Yeah.

[Ashley Banfield]

So about Jacob, and that's interesting because Kenny is the father of the first three kids. Jacob has another dad. Is that other dad there as well, helping in this effort?

[Jill Seymour]

No, he's not here. And that's one of the roles. The reasons that I'm here is I want to give Kenny that time that he can with his three kids. And, of course, Jacob is just as much a priority to us. It's their brother. So our plan is to take all Four children home, and I'm here to assist with Jacob so Kenny can focus on his kids.

[Ashley Banfield]

And, and how. Do you have any idea how the Croatians are going to view Jacob? Meaning, please tell me that it's not going to be. Well, you can take these three, but this one, his own dad has to come and get him or.

[Jill Seymour]

Right.

[Ashley Banfield]

Is that a fear?

[Jill Seymour]

Of course it's a. Of course it's a fear. But we have a lot of paperwork and documentation and permission from his father and gone through courts and have judges signatures for us to be able to travel with Jacob and to bring him home back to his dad.

[Ashley Banfield]

Thank God. I mean, what a. Yeah. What an absolute mess.

[Jill Seymour]

It's a mess. And everybody you talk to, from the embassy, FBI to Croatian authorities here, everybody says, well, this has never happened before, so this is unprecedented. They don't know exactly what, what the law and what the procedures are. So I really believe that that's the reason this is taking so long.

[Ashley Banfield]

And, and to your knowledge, Alicia had no connections to Croatia. There's no family connections, there's no historical roots. It was literally just some woman she met online.

[Jill Seymour]

Yes, it was just a woman she met online. It is interesting because in her TikTok, she talked about going to Italy several times, but she never mentioned anything about. About Croatia.

[Ashley Banfield]

She also mentioned something about France in a text message, didn't she?

[Jill Seymour]

Yes, yes. To Jacob's father.

[Ashley Banfield]

So tell me about the connection, as far as you know, to this woman in Croatia. Like where. How did Croatia come into the picture?

[Jill Seymour]

This other woman is from the States and she has the same beliefs about America and about the. I don't know how much of you've watched of her tiktoks, but of the COVID vaccine of America and Yellowstone and all those things, they have the same beliefs and so they connected online on TikTok and that woman has been living here.

[Ashley Banfield]

Not to interrupt and I apologize, but just to get the viewers up to speed, if anyone hasn't seen Alicia's tiktoks, she's doomsday prophesying that there is a sort of a ground zero for the apocalypse, and it is in the Salt Lake area as well as Yellowstone, as you're mentioning. And two women both share this idea.

[Jill Seymour]

Yes. Yes. Another thing is the. She believes that anybody that got the COVID 19 vaccine has a chip in them that will turn them into zombies and everybody will eat each other. So that's one of the things that the kids were like, that's not possible. But. So this woman shares the Same beliefs as she does. And this woman has been living here on one of the islands here with her 13 year old son and he's now in the children's center as well, so.

[Ashley Banfield]

Oh my Lord. Let me turn this fan off. Hold on one second. Sorry about that. So, by the way, I'm coming to you from, from Vermont where It is currently 4 degrees and there is 3ft of snow expected stuck there. Well, good thing I was here. That's why I chose to get stuck here, because I'm a big skier and so 3ft of snow is coming, so.

[Jill Seymour]

It'S gonna be nice.

[Ashley Banfield]

Yeah, I have a very different thing going on than you do right now. Yes, definitely, of the two of us. So. So this other woman who ostensibly or allegedly enticed Alicia to come over and join her, she has a teenage son and that teenage son is now, according to the Croatians, also in peril and has been taken away from her.

[Jill Seymour]

Yes, he is in the center. He went through the same process as our kids and was in the police station. They went to the hospital together to get, get a wellness check and then they're now all together in the children's center.

[Ashley Banfield]

Is, is the father of that teenager going through the same problem, trying to get his teenage son back?

[Jill Seymour]

From what I have learned from a family friend of theirs who's still in the States, his mom is his only family.

[Ashley Banfield]

So I mean, I assume you haven't got any bandwidth to figure out what's going on with, with her and this child, but is she also arrested for any reason or is she. Yes, she is. And what would the charges be for her endangerment?

[Jill Seymour]

I'm not sure on that. They will not share any information. Cage doesn't have any information either.

[Ashley Banfield]

Cage?

[Jill Seymour]

Yes, that's his name.

[Ashley Banfield]

The son's name is Caged.

[Jill Seymour]

Yeah, Cage.

[Ashley Banfield]

Cage. C A G E. So the, your kids and this boy at least can still see each other in the center, right?

[Jill Seymour]

Yeah, they're all sharing a room together.

[Ashley Banfield]

Well, this will be very traumatic for them if they have to leave him as well.

[Jill Seymour]

Yeah, and I having a really hard time with taking our kids home and not being able to bring him home with us.

[Ashley Banfield]

And yet he's got no family in.

[Jill Seymour]

America, so no biological family in America to bring him home.

[Ashley Banfield]

Do you have any idea if there's any biological family anywhere in the world for him?

[Jill Seymour]

No. I've spoken to the closest family friend that I could find on, on Facebook for him and we've been in touch. She's trying to contact the children's center to get information. But of course, it's. We're having as difficult of a time as we are with all the documentation that we have, so.

[Ashley Banfield]

And you have this, you know, familial blood connection.

[Jill Seymour]

Yeah.

[Ashley Banfield]

That is very upsetting. I can only imagine that this other woman hasn't committed the kind of crime that Alicia allegedly committed.

[Jill Seymour]

Correct.

[Ashley Banfield]

And therefore may not be jailed for as long and may be out soon to look after this. How old is the teenage boy?

[Jill Seymour]

He's 13.

[Ashley Banfield]

Oh, he's a babe.

[Jill Seymour]

Yes. He wants to go back to school and he wants to go back to America.

[Ashley Banfield]

How long have they been in Croatia?

[Jill Seymour]

It sounds like they've been here for about a year and a half.

[Ashley Banfield]

Wow. Enough for him to learn some language, I think, as well then?

[Jill Seymour]

No.

[Ashley Banfield]

Has he been Croatian?

[Jill Seymour]

It seems. It seems that way, yes.

[Ashley Banfield]

And why Croatia?

[Jill Seymour]

I have no idea. I mean, it's very safe here, I would say. It's. You could tell with the kids walking around, going to school on their own, like you wanted to see. The children are so independent here. You wouldn't see that anywhere in America, as far as I'm concerned. Maybe small towns. So maybe that's it. Maybe they know how slow the Croatian government works and they took advantage of it. I really, I don't know the information we get, but on that front, it's just from. From the 13 year old, so it's pretty hard.

[Ashley Banfield]

And that boy, 13 years old, is the linchpin for how you found the kids, because as I understand it, he googled Alicia and discovered the American headlines and blew the whistle on his own mom. And Alicia.

[Jill Seymour]

Yes. He Googled Levi's name. Levi told him to look him up and googled the Vice name and found all the news articles in the States and sent those articles to his mom. And then he sent them in a group text to his mom and to Alicia.

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[Ashley Banfield]

His mom was unaware that, that this was something illegal happening in her home. That this woman had again, allegedly absconded with these children to Croatia.

[Jill Seymour]

Yes, supposedly from Cage's knowledge, his mom did not know that these kids were. Were kidnapped from America.

[Ashley Banfield]

Well, now I can't figure out what her potential crime could be and why she was arrested other than harboring. But if she didn't know.

[Jill Seymour]

Yeah, we have a small information on that, but I, I don't know if that's my right to share that information.

[Ashley Banfield]

Understand, we'll, we'll try and dig that up and find out what that possibly could be. Because again, this is a boy who needs his mom, no matter what her beliefs. If she wasn't endangering him. He's 13. He. He shouldn't.

[Jill Seymour]

Yeah, he's 13. And I know it is taken pretty seriously here if your kids are not enrolled in school or receiving an education.

[Ashley Banfield]

And he was not correct. Well, there you have it. I mean, they could take truancy to a criminal level. I know we do. If it's egregious enough Americans can be prosecuted for that. Yeah.

[Jill Seymour]

Yes. There's very strong protections around kids here due to how strong the Catholic Church is. And the community really puts their arm around all the kids to make sure everybody's safe.

[Ashley Banfield]

How, Jill, how many of you are there in working on this effort together?

[Jill Seymour]

There's just three of us. It's me and my brother and his fiance.

[Ashley Banfield]

And that's expensive. I mean, Croatia is not a cheap place.

[Jill Seymour]

No, it's not cheap. Thankfully, we are here in the off season, so it's not tourists. It feels like it's just us and the locals. But no, we expected that we would be here two nights tops. When we first got the call, the kids were here. So it's definitely a burden financially and with our careers that we have back home. And then the kids don't have anything. They have nothing. So when we got here, they were just wearing random clothes that they already had in the center, so getting them their own clothes. All the other kids get to go to school. All the other kids in the center have their phones, and really they just watch YouTube on their phones all day when they're not in school. So our kids have nothing. So we've spent quite a lot of time, money, and resources getting around the city to get them clothes and toothbrushes, things like that. I mean, they really had nothing and activities to do because they don't have anything to do in that house. It's just electronic devices.

[Ashley Banfield]

And. And what about just the. The luggage that they took with them? Could you retrieve that from the woman's? No. Nothing. None of that's all.

[Jill Seymour]

Nope. It's all part of an ongoing investigation.

[Ashley Banfield]

Oh, of course. It's evidence. Yeah. Oh, how unfortunate. Have the American sees that or the Croatians.

[Jill Seymour]

From the best of our knowledge, the local police department has it, and maybe.

[Ashley Banfield]

They'Ll turn that over to the corresponding authorities who will be charging because there's no extra. And that can certainly happen. Know if there's extradition in the works right now for Alicia to go back.

[Jill Seymour]

To the US I have no idea. We don't know if Croatia will charge her with crimes that she has committed over here or if she'll be brought back to. To America. We would. I don't know if we'll ever. We'll ever know until it's. It's happening, so.

[Ashley Banfield]

Well, I certainly hope that. That the Croatians would cede this to the Americans because it might facilitate the movement of the children quicker. If their mother is heading over to the U.S. the children might be able to follow. And I don't know that to be true. There could be all sorts of, you know. Yeah. To that. How are you? Just personally, I mean, this is not something anybody ever expects to encounter in their life. How are you all doing?

[Jill Seymour]

Yeah, it's. It's really. It's really tough. We kind of take turns breaking down and being there for each other. It's tough. Seeing the kids is so bittersweet, so much fun to be with them and to spend that time, but knowing how short it is, it's very, very difficult. And then what do we do the rest of the time, it's two hours a day. Right. So it's very difficult.

[Ashley Banfield]

I'm so sorry. Because in a, in a different situation, you would be in one of the most beautiful places. It was one of my favorite places in the world. Being in Dubrovn, you can't enjoy that. It'.

[Jill Seymour]

You're right.

[Ashley Banfield]

Your heart is heavy and the stress level is high. And you're probably watching your phone for every single moment that you're getting a development. If you're not knocking on doors or waiting in line at some government.

[Jill Seymour]

Yeah, exactly. And it's tricky, of course, with the big time difference of working with back in Utah, it's an eight hour time difference. So we're not getting a ton of sleep because people are waking up the time. I mean, just like right now, this is the time that we would. My brother's with. With the kids. And so everybody's waking up and starting their day and also reaching out to us at the exact same time we're visiting the kids and then they're out of their meetings and everything is and ready to talk as we're going to bed.

[Ashley Banfield]

What can our, our followers and our viewers and our listeners do to help you?

[Jill Seymour]

Yeah, I never thought that we would be in this situation. A big thing that we're asking for right now is just donations. We have a GoFundMe to be able to stay here. That's our biggest priority right now, is no matter how long this takes, we need to be able to stay here to be with the kids. Because two hours a day is better than being across the country. And if we leave, we would have no access to be able to call them or to talk to them, to continually being able to provide for their needs financially with activities and clothing and things like that. And then another thing I know my brother would want viewers and just everybody to know is if your kids don't have passports currently, you can fill out an application online that you would be alerted. If somebody, another party has ever fills out an application for your kids, it'll alert you and put a stop on that so that this can never happen. Whether someone forges your signature, you'll be alerted of that.

[Ashley Banfield]

And I am assuming that this is part of the allegation against Alicia is that she allegedly forged four passports.

[Jill Seymour]

Yes.

[Ashley Banfield]

And that is a federal crime. And I can imagine there's just a litany of potential charges that she is now facing in America, notwithstanding whatever might happen in Croatia. I just want to read it really quickly. I want to make sure I get It. Right. Because I know, like, our followers are very sensitive and thoughtful and supportive and I think that a lot of people will want to help you. It's Abducted Kids. Help Us Get Them Back. Organized by Kendall Seymour.

[Jill Seymour]

Yes, that's correct.

[Ashley Banfield]

Is there anything that I haven't asked you that you want to highlight and thank you, by the way, very much in your hour of need. Thinking about other parents who can have this stop gap and protection, about getting forged passports on their children. It's extraordinarily magnanimous of you to do that, but is there something else you'd like to share?

[Jill Seymour]

No, I. Well, I guess a big thing that we are struggling with is communicating with the authorities here because our level of care and expectations is incredibly different than another country. And so yes, the kids have somewhere to sleep at night, and yes, they're in somewhere that is heated and they have food. But other than that, the quality of care that they're receiving is abysmal and would never hold up in any state of care in America. The only activity the kids have is unmonitored access to YouTube. So you could imagine the concern that we have, and that concern that we have of care for our children is not translating to any of the authorities or of the workers here.

[Ashley Banfield]

Can you buy them an iPhone and put guardrails on it so that they've at least got something to watch? That's not what the other kids maybe are watching.

[Jill Seymour]

The other kids all have their own phones, but they also have the, the big TV in that main room and they can cast. Yeah, I mean It's a smart TV and, and all they have on there is YouTube. We have a switch for the kids, a Nintendo Switch, so they're able to play their games on that now. And there is parental blocks that we've set up on that. But of course, once that's done, how do you tell an 8 year old and a 7 year old? Nope, you go stare at the wall, don't watch tv.

[Ashley Banfield]

What about again, without the, without the guidance and without the regulation, can you get schoolwork to them, homework to them, reading materials, anything like that?

[Jill Seymour]

We did find a store here that has books in English and so we've gotten them some books in English. We've went, found a German store that has games in English. So that's what we spend a lot of time doing when we're with them. And they are all there for the kids to access when we're not there. But all the kids from Cage to Jacob understand that things get stolen at the center because the other kids go to school and will take things from the center to sell them at school.

[Ashley Banfield]

Have you already lost things that you've bought the kids to this kind of a theft?

[Jill Seymour]

Yes. And all of the kids share clothes there. So they take all of the laundry and wash it and then just randomly disperse it back into kids rooms. So all of the clothes that we bought the kids, they really only wear it one time until it gets washed. But the kids also aren't told to. I know that they are told to shower daily, but then they just put their own. Their dirty clothes back on. So they only do laundry once a week. Like Hazel's been in the same outfit since the second day we were here and today's the eighth day.

[Ashley Banfield]

Oh my God.

[Jill Seymour]

But all the clothes that we got her are dispersed. You'll see other kids wearing the clothes that, that we've bought.

[Ashley Banfield]

Is there any way that you could buy them mesh laundry bags so that everything of theirs goes into a bag and when it comes out of the laundry they can get it back.

[Jill Seymour]

It's just, we've tried and this is, is. It's just the policy. It's just what they do. That's what we're told.

[Ashley Banfield]

God. Do you have any idea, have they given you any indications about just how much longer this could go on?

[Jill Seymour]

No, we have no idea how much longer this could go on. Whether it's another week to, to months we've given. Nobody's given us any indication.

[Ashley Banfield]

And they have let you know it could be months.

[Jill Seymour]

All we can do right now is be googling all of our questions. Right. Of what the Ministry of Foreign affairs is and what the process, if they want a haj, a Hague application of how long that takes to process it. But this has not happened before. So nobody is clear on the timeline.

[Ashley Banfield]

Is the US government doing everything in its power to help you?

[Jill Seymour]

Yes, we are working closely with a consulate in the US Embassy and talk to him daily.

[Ashley Banfield]

Jill, I am so incredibly sorry for what you guys are going through. And I just pray that you can see the light at the end of the tunnel that this will end.

[Jill Seymour]

It will end.

[Ashley Banfield]

You will have those kids back. They will have normalcy in their lives again. But definitely, I think I'm just going to mention the Gofundme again. Abducted kids Help us get them back. Organized by Kendall Seymour. Because I think they're going need some professional counseling for quite some time when they get back.

[Jill Seymour]

Yes, that is exactly what a significant amount of that, that money is for, is for counseling when they get back.

[Ashley Banfield]

Keep us posted. Let us know the minute you get any news, any kind of news at all, good or bad. And if there's anything that we can do as a a community, please let us know.

[Jill Seymour]

Thank you for reaching out. I appreciate it.

[Ashley Banfield]

So that's where we stand. And I'm going to read that link again. The GoFundMe abducted kids. Help us get them back. Organized by Kendall Seymour. If you can help out, I know that they would be forever indebted. This has been absolute hell for them and I think the worst hell ever has been for these four kids. And then the fifth kid cage. My heart just goes out to all of them. And by the way, while I'm at it, share the link to this video on all your socials, like on Facebook, on Instagram, on Twitter, Facebook here. Let's get the word out and make sure that you know, the Seymours know that America's got their backs, right? That this community, our true crime community, and your friends and your communities, we've got their backs and we're going to fight for kids when you know injustices have happened to kids. Thank you everybody for listening. Thank you so much for watching and we'll continue to keep you updated. Make sure you subscribe. You would be doing me a big solid, but also I can get you the updates just as soon as they happen. Also, turn on your notifications for this podcast because you will know the minute I update you on this case and all the others that we do as well. Thanks so much for watching everyone. And remember, the truth isn't just serious, it is drop dead serious.

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[Jill Seymour]

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