Nathaniel Fonz missing from Florida *found*

[Valasca]

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement has issued an alert for a missing 3-year-old boy.

Authorities say Nathaniel Fonz was last seen in Jacksonville wearing a yellow and black Pittsburgh Steelers jersey, black and white shorts and black, white and red sneakers.

According to the FDLE, Nathaniel was last seen with a couple and two young girls.

http://www.nbc-2.com/Global/story.asp?S=12333340

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement has issued a Missing Child Alert for a three year old Palm Coast boy.

Nathaniel Fonz was last seen Sunday with 29-year-old Eleanor Black and 32-year-old William Scott and two young girls in Jacksonville. Fonz was wearing a yellow and black Pittsburgh Steelers jersey, black and while shorts and sneakers.

http://cbs4.com/local/nathaniel.fonz...2.1641666.html

[TheMorningStar]

The mother of Nathaniel James Fons was arrested around 5:50pm by Flagler County sheriff’s deputies after a convenience store clerk reported receiving a counterfeit $100 bill. The clerk was able to give a description of the RV the suspects were driving.Deputies stopped the RV, which was reported stolen out of New York, on Palm Coast Parkway and arrested Erin Jessie Comeau, 26, of Aberdeen, Maryland, and 21-year-old Christopher Michael Brandstter-Howell.Comeau told deputies the two were traveling with friends, Eleanor Black and William Scott. The two are suspects in the counterfeiting operation.

Black and Scott are believed to be traveling with their two daughters and Comeau’s three-year-old son. The 1994 blue Chevy Suburban they were traveling in was located by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office in a hotel parking lot, but the couple and the children were not found. The group was reportedly last seen in the 9100 block of Bay Meadows Road in Jacksonville.Fons is described as being two-foot-four and weighing 28 pounds. He has brown hair and brown eyes. He was last seen wearing a yellow and black Pittsburgh Steelers jersey, black and white shorts and black, white and red sneakers. If you have information concerning the location of Nathaniel Fons, please contact the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office at 386-313-4911.

http://www.wftv.com/countybycounty/2...2/detail.html#

Fonz or Fons

[Whisper]

Mom In Jail; 3-Year-Old Son Missing
FDLE Says Child Last Seen On Baymeadows Road
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Police are looking for a 3-year-old boy whose mother was arrested Sunday night in Palm Coast and who was last seen with two adults in Jacksonville.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement issued a statewide missing, endangered child alert on Monday morning for Nathaniel Fons.
[...]
When Comeau was arrested, she gave deputies a written statement allowing Nathaniel to be turned over to her friends Eleanor Black and William Scott, who were traveling in a separate vehicle with their two daughters,A Flagler County spokeswoman said those people are now also considered suspects in the counterfeit money operation and may be on the run from law enforcement, so they consider the boy at risk.Flagler County said Black, 29, and Scott, 32, along with Nathaniel and two girls, were last seen in the 9100 block of Baymeadows Road in Jacksonville.Jacksonville police said they found the couple's Chevy Suburban in the parking lot of a Baymeadows hotel, but the adults and children were not found. Authorities believe they may have taken off in another, unknown vehicle, and could be headed to the Tampa area.
[...]
Nathaniel is described as being 2 feet 4 inches tall and weighing 28 pounds. He has brown hair and brown eyes. Nathaniel was last seen wearing a yellow and black Pittsburgh Steelers jersey, black and white shorts and black, white and red sneakers.

Black, 26, is a white female with brown hair and brown eyes. Scott, 21, is a white man with brown hair and brown eyes.Flagler County Sheriff Donald Fleming said authorities are willing to overlook potential counterfeiting charges if the boy is returned or dropped off at a hospital or other safe place.
[...]
Comeau, 26, of Aberdeen, Md., and Christopher Michael Bradstter-Howell, 21, are being held in the Flagler County jail on charges of counterfeiting and grand theft. Deputies said that Comeau had $5,000 in fake $100 bills in her possession when she was arrested.

Fleming said Comeau now wants Nathaniel to be in the custody of his grandmother while she is in jail.

Anyone with any information about his whereabouts is asked to call the Flagler County Sheriff's Office at 386-313-4911.

http://www.news4jax.com/news/23192333/detail.html

Nathanial Fons

Erin Comeau and Christopher Michael Bradstter-Howell

[Silvahalo]

OMG, what a sweet looking child. I hope Nathaniel is found safe and sound!

[Whisper]

Missing Florida Toddler Dropped Off at St. Pats
A little boy who went missing in Florida two days ago was found in New York after a mystery couple dropped him off at St. Patrick's Cathedral in midtown.
New York city police said the child, Nathaniel Fons, 3, was dropped off at the Catholic church about 6:45 p.m. Tuesday night with a note to notify the Flagler County (Florida) Sheriff’s Office.
Archdiocese spokesman Joseph Zwilling told NBCNewYork that the church rector said a woman came up to the Fifth Avenue Cathedral's information desk and asked to see a priest. When she was told to go to the Parish house on 51st and Madison she apparently put the note in the child's pocket and left him there.
The church is working with the NYPD to review security cameras to see if there is any video of the incident, Zwilling said.
The boy was taken to Cornell Hospital in good condition. Authorities still have to figure out where to place little Nathaniel because both his mother and father were arrested in Florida on Sunday on counterfeiting charges.

In fact, that's how the local sheriff's office discovered he was missing in the first place.
Flagler County deputies figured out that Nathaniel missing after the mother, Erin Comeau, and her boyfriend, Christopher Michael Brandstter-Howell, tried to use a phony $100 bill at a service station.
The gas station attendant told cops the couple fled in a recreational vehicle, and deputies later spotted the RV with Brandstter-Howell and Comeau inside -- along with about $5,000 in funny money. .
[...]
When pressed, Comeau told authorities that another couple had her son, authorities said. She told investigators the boy was traveling in another vehicle with a couple and their two sons. At first, she told investigators she wasn't worried about the boy, but investigators said she quickly changed her story and said she believed the pair had her son were running from the law, according to WESH NBC-Orlando.
Comeau claimed her son was with friends Eleanor Black, 29, and William Scott, 32, who are wanted in connection to the counterfeiting and the missing child case. Black and Scott were not located Tuesday, and no charges have yet been filed against them. It is unclear if they were the ones who dropped little Nathaniel off at St. Patrick's.

The Flagler County Sheriff's Office is taking the lead on the case, but the Secret Service is also involved because of the amount of counterfeit money.

http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local...-91665404.html

[TheMorningStar]

Woo-Hoo!

[Whisper]

Yeah Its Nice To See A Happy Ending Once In Awhile

[Valasca]

Thank the gods....

[Whisper]

NEW YORK -- New York City investigators are hunting for the people who ditched a toddler at St. Patrick's Cathedral, days after he was reported missing in Florida.

Three-year-old Nathaniel Fons was not harmed. He was in the custody of the Administration for Children's Services on Wednesday.

A security guard found him at the famed Manhattan cathedral around 6:30 p.m. Tuesday. A note in his pocket gave his mother's name, and the name and number of a Florida detective.

Police were combing security video while trying to identify the man and the woman seen with the boy

http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf..._who_ditc.html

[cubby]

they may have been bad guys but they did the right thing for Nathanial. Hoo-ray!!!

[Whisper]

Missing toddler found alone with note at NYC cathedral
NEW YORK — A little boy reported missing in Florida was abandoned by a couple at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City with a crumpled note in his hand bearing his mother's name and the name and number of a Florida detective, police said.
Investigators on Wednesday were looking for a man and a woman who came with
3-year-old Nathaniel Fons to the famed cathedral on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue at about 6:30 p.m. Tuesday.
The jittery woman asked at the information desk to see a priest and was told to go around the corner and someone would come down, police said.
Instead, she disappeared. Nathaniel was found wandering alone by a security guard who at first thought he was a lost child, but he then saw the note and immediately called police.
Nathaniel was in the custody of child services officials in New York. His
grandfather, Donald Fons, said from his Land O Lakes home near Tampa, Fla., that he didn't know when Nathaniel would return.
"They said he's fine. He's happy," Fons said. "He is happy and he is in good
health."
"It's just phenomenal. It's been a roller coaster for the last three days," Fons
said.
[...]

http://www.dailyrecord.com/article/2...+NYC+cathedral

Police ID couple who ditched 3-year-old Fla. boy

NEW YORK (AP) - New York City investigators say a couple wanted on counterfeiting charges in Florida are believed to have abandoned a toddler from that state at St. Patrick's Cathedral days after he was reported missing.
Three-year-old Nathaniel Fons was not harmed. He was in the custody of child welfare officials Wednesday.
Police identified 29-year-old Eleanor Black and 32-year-old William Scott through surveillance footage. They are still at large.
[...]

http://www.kltv.com/global/story.asp?s=12350227

[Mystica43229]

[New York - According to the article, which is kind of confusing, states that Eleanor Black and her boyfriend (?), took the child after his mother was arrested for a counterfeiting operation in Florida, then left him at the St. Patrick's cathedral with a note pinned to him.

Authorities say a family caravanning with a woman and her toddler in Florida took the 3-year-old to New York after the boy's mother was arrested on fraud charges, abandoning him at St. Patrick's Cathedral with a note stuffed into his hand bearing the name of a detective working the case.

Eleanor Black, 29, was identified through surveillance footage at the cathedral, police said Wednesday. She and William Scott, 32, were believed to have been the last two people with Nathaniel Fons, and they were also suspected of being involved in the counterfeiting operation in Florida where his mother was charged.

Police said Black came to the famed cathedral on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue at about 6:30 p.m. Tuesday. She asked at the information desk to see a priest and was told to go around the corner and someone would come down, police said.

Read more here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36697209...me_and_courts/

[MadeaBecBec]

Erin Comeau on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?...&v=wall&ref=mf

Erin Comeau: just wanted to tell everyone thank you for wishing me a happy birthday. nate and i are safe, although i can not say where we are. we are safe. i got a couple modeling gigs i did, that put nate and i ahead. oh by the way nate is officially potty trained! yay nate!March 17 at 9:20pm ·
Joe Jamitis: I thought you vanished off the face of the earth :P
March 17 at 9:45pm
Luis A Camacho: That's good to hear. If you get a chance call sometime. If you need my number let me know.
March 17 at 10:12pm
Julie Ray-Singleton ????????
March 26 at 8:49pm

Eleanor Black on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?...&v=wall&ref=mf

I believe this is Erins sister on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?...9210294&v=wall

I would like to put a plea out to Elenore, Please return Nate safe and sound to his family. There is no other way to put this- just please see it in your heart to return him to us.
Tue at 10:53am

Erin and Nate

Frieda Fons said a Florida detective who notified her Nathaniel had been found said police believed Black and Scott were the ones who had abandoned him at St. Patrick's.

Fons, of Land O' Lakes, Fla., said she and her husband had cared for the boy for the first two years of his life. She said she and her husband let Comeau, 26, live at their home until she decided to leave with the toddler last fall amid a custody battle.

Fons said Comeau had initially agreed to give them custody of Nathaniel while she was in Washington.

"She changed her mind and she took off from Washington," Fons said. "She has been on the run ever since - and that was three months ago."

During that time, Comeau would note on her MySpace page that she was in different states, ranging from Michigan to the Carolinas. Fons said she had no idea where her grandson was until Comeau was arrested in Florida on Sunday.

So she said it was even more maddening when her grandson disappeared a second time, prompting authorities to issue an Amber Alert.

Fons said the detective told her that authorities had followed Scott's cell phone usage as they traveled with Nathaniel up the coast.

"I was very upset," Fons said. "I didn't know what to do or what to think. We didn't know where he was."

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/...er_moms_c.html

Selfish of Erin to have upset Nates stable and nurturing life with his G-Parents!

[Silvahalo]

First little Bloom now Fons, sure is a nice change of pace..

So glad to hear Nathaniel was returned alive and well!

[Whisper]

Cops: Couple who abandoned Florida boy at St. Patrick’s Cathedral is headed north
NEW YORK— A couple who abandoned a Florida toddler at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York has skipped town and headed north, police said Thursday.

Police said Eleanor Black, 29, was seen on surveillance footage at the famed Fifth Avenue landmark moments before 3-year-old Nathaniel Fons turned up alone with a note stuffed in his hand bearing the name of a Florida detective working the case. She and William Scott, 32, were believed to have been the last two people with the child and are also suspected of being involved in a counterfeiting operation in Florida where his mother was charged.

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Thursday investigators tracked the couple heading north. They would face charges of endangering the welfare of a child in New York, but he thought they had been living in Florida.

Nathaniel remained in foster care Thursday and was happy and healthy, officials said.

Child-welfare officials are determining who would be best suited to care for him. His grandfather in Land O Lakes, outside Tampa, said he has requested custody. The boy's mother, Erin Comeau, wrote a note from jail saying the grandparents would be good caregivers, but that she didn't want to turn over full custody to them.
[...]

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/...,5477536.story

What they did is wrong but after some of the outcomes I have seen on this site and even in my homepaper it couldve been worse outcome.

[Whisper]

GRAMA AND GRANDPA TO THE RESCUE HOPE THEY GET TO KEEP HIM
Nathaniel Fons, Boy Abandoned At St. Patrick's Cathedral, Reunited With Grandparents NEW YORK — The grandparents of a Florida toddler who was abandoned and found wandering alone at St. Patrick's Cathedral reunited with the 3-year-old on Friday, and hoped for clearance to take him home.
Donald and Frieda Fons of Land O' Lakes, outside Tampa, had a supervised visit for several hours with their grandson Nathaniel Fons, who was has been in foster care in New York since he was found Tuesday by security guards at the cathedral. The Administration for Children's Services said he would remain in the city's care while legal and custody issues were worked out, but the family was welcome to visit him.
"This little boy has been through a great deal this past week, and we are doing all we can to ensure he is comfortable and secure," said Commissioner John Mattingly.
The Fonses are seeking custody of the little boy, believed by police to have been left by a couple who had been traveling with his mother.
Don and Frieda Fons, who arrived Thursday evening, bought open-ended tickets to New York because they weren't sure when they would able to return with Nathaniel, according to the boy's uncle, Ryan Fons.
"They heard there was a chance and they said, 'OK we're booking a flight,'" Ryan Fons told The Associated Press on Friday. "They were extremely excited to head up there."
Nathaniel was found alone at the cathedral Tuesday evening with a note in his hand bearing the name of a detective in Florida and the words "call immediately."
The Fons haven't seen Nathaniel since June. They had lived together with the boy's parents until last year when Nathaniel's father took a job on a fishing boat outside Vancouver, Wash. But his father was arrested for failing to notify his parole officer and sent to jail in Florida, the family said. Records show he is still jailed.
The grandparents wanted custody of their grandson, but his mother took off with him, the family said earlier this week. She had been traveling with the boy until her arrest Sunday in Florida on counterfeit charges, when she told officials that her son was in a separate car traveling with another couple
After that couple's abandoned Chevy Suburban was found by in a hotel parking lot in Florida on Sunday, authorities issued a missing child alert for Nathaniel. The couple are suspected of taking Nathaniel north and leaving him at the cathedral.
Ryan Fons said children's services wanted to see how Nathaniel responds to them since it has been almost a year since he saw them.
"They have been through stress the past five days," Ryan Fons said of his parents. "They want to bring him back home. They were extremely sad when he left last June and went through a lot of stress then. It's finally about to be over, hopefully."
[...]
Nathaniel's mother, Erin Comeau, 26, is being held in Florida. She said in a written statement that she would allow Donald and Frieda Fons temporary custody but did not want to "permanently lose her son

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/0..._n_549897.html

[mystery]

A family court judge has ruled that a toddler abandoned at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City will return to Florida in the care of child services - not with his grandparents.

Judge Jody Adams said Tuesday that more investigating must be done into who should have custody of Nathaniel Fons.

The boy's paternal grandparents are in New York seeking custody, but his maternal grandmother also said she would take him. He has been in foster care in New York since last Tuesday when he was found by guards alone at the cathedral.

His parents are both in jail on separate charges. His mother was arrested last week on counterfeit charges and a couple she had been traveling with is accused of ditching him at the cathedral.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...042703979.html

[Whisper]

they will be on Inside Edition tomorrow (Wed april 28)

[Whisper]

Child Found In NYC Staying With Grandparents
FLAGLER COUNTY, Fla. -- A toddler, who disappeared from Flagler County and was later abandoned in New York City, will now live with his grandparents. A custody hearing was held Friday for Nathanial Fons. He was dropped off last week at a New York City church with a note in his clothing.
[...]
Flagler County detectives are still investigating those friends, the people who dropped Nathaniel off in New York City.
The boy's mother was in the courtroom Friday when her son walked in with his grandparents. Nathaniel held on tight to his grandfather inside the Flagler County courtroom while his mother, Erin Comeau, still confined on counterfeiting charges, could only stare across the room at him.
Nathaniel pointed across the room to his mom. She smiled back, motioning to him to be quiet.
After a journey to New York and back, Nathaniel will now stay with his grandparents for the next six weeks and maybe longer.
"We could end up in trial. The parents could consent to doing a case plan and doing tasks in an attempt to reunify with the child," the judge said.
Comeau is being held on $30,000 bond and faces counterfeiting charges. The boy's father, Williams Fons, is also in jail in Pasco County for failure to register as a sex offender, stemming from a statutory sex assault nine years ago."OK, so the placement will remain with the grandparents," the judge ruled Friday.
Donald and Frieda Fons had the boy in their Land O’ Lakes home until his mother left last year. The Department of Children and Families said they are confident Nathaniel is back in good hands.
"That's our primary concern, that he be safe and stable. All of the other issues will work themselves out over time. But he’s been all over the place. He's only three years old. I'm sure he’s been traumatized, so we're happy he's with family. That's our goal," said Lisa Dawson, DCF.
There will be another hearing in six weeks to decide on a long-term placement for the boy and, at some point, the case will likely move to Pasco County.

http://www.wftv.com/news/23323084/detail.html

[Silvahalo]

I saw this update on the news, the grandparents seem like real nice folk. Little Nathaniel is such a precious one, so adorable.

My boys have this exact same shirt, what a treasure he is! Be happy sweet one!

[Dakota Valkyrie]

A Flagler County judge ruled Wednesday that a mother serving five years of probation for counterfeiting cannot have custody of her 3-year-old son, but the woman vows to keep trying.
[...]

After he was returned to Flagler County, a judge awarded the boy's paternal grandparents temporary custody.

Last week, Erin Comeau, Nathaniel's mother, pleaded guilty to uttering forged bills, possession of forged or counterfeit notes, and organized scheme to defraud -- all third-degree felonies. She was sentenced to serve five years probation.

Comeau said she's back in court asking at least to be allowed to visit her son.

"When I was released, it was actually kind of a surprise, so nobody had any a resolution to visitation," Comeau said after the Wednesday' hearing. "The way I can contact my son is by phone and by mail. I talk to him by mail almost every day."

Comeau said she is not giving up on getting Nathaniel back.

"It's been a very difficult time for me, but I'm not giving up," Comeau said. "I actually told one of the (child welfare) case workers who said, 'You know there's going to be hoops for you to jump through,' and I said, 'You can set those hoops on fire, because nothing's going to stop me when it comes to my son.'"

Another hearing is scheduled in two months.

http://www.news4jax.com/news/24011227/detail.html

[Silvahalo]

I hope the grandparents get to keep little Nathaniel. Mom needs to work on her shit, prove time and time before she's entrusted with him again.