During the course of their relationship, Francina Fernandez
and her boyfriend had three boys, Keoni, Mason, and Lance Fernandez.
The couple never married and in June of 2001 the relationship
ended. The two became embroiled in a very lengthy and aggressive
custody-visitation dispute in the San Diego Family Court. In
early November of 2004, the mother reportedly mentioned to the
father that she and the children were planning a 2-week vacation
in New Zealand. He told her that the trip would violate the court
orders, and Fernandez's attorney was served with a notice of
an ex-parte hearing scheduled for November 8, 2004. At the hearing,
a judge ordered that neither parent could take the children out
of the jurisdiction of the court and that the children's passports
were to be relinquished. The passports were never returned. Also,
in November it was reported that Fernandez abruptly left her
job and a relative filed a missing person's report for her.
Fernandez may have fled with her children to the Philippines.
On December 9, 2004, a state warrant was issued in the state
of California, San Diego County, charging Francina Dacanay Fernandez
with three counts of child abduction. A federal arrest warrant
was subsequently issued on February 4, 2005, in the United States
District Court, Southern District of California, charging Fernandez
with international parental kidnapping.
Francina Fernandez has ties to California and the Philippines.
