How an 11-Year-Old Survived a 3-Year Abduction Following a Custody Dispute

In June 2023, 11-year-old Andrew Escobar went for an overnight visit with his mother, Miriam Felix-Delgado. But he didn’t come home the next day as planned, nor the day after that. 

Andrew’s parents were getting a divorce, and his father, Juan Escobar, had been awarded custody of Andrew. When Andrew didn’t return from the sleepover, Juan feared the worst: that Felix-Delgado had abducted their son and fled the state. 

Juan searched tirelessly for his son. But as the months turned into years, he became increasingly concerned he might never see Andrew again.

In July 2026, more than three years after Andrew disappeared, Juan finally received the call he had been waiting for: Police had found Andrew, alive and unharmed, in El Paso, Texas. He was coming home.

The day Andrew went missing, Juan was supposed to pick him up from Felix-Delgado. But he “didn’t get a chance,” Juan told KOAT.

"After that,” he said, “I tried to make contact with her to pick him up again.” But about a week later, Juan learned that Felix-Delgado’s phone was “disconnected.”

Once he realized Andrew was missing, Juan alerted Albuquerque police, who looped in the U.S. Marshals Service and the FBI. He also hired a private investigator, who tracked the mother-son duo to Fort Collins, Colo. But by the time Juan arrived, they had already moved on. 

The private investigator also revealed that Felix-Delgado had sold her belongings and changed her name to Sophia Shelton; she’d also changed Andrew’s name to Oliver Shelton.

Juan was devastated by his son’s disappearance. They were “best friends,” he told KRQE, who would “always do everything together,” he said. 

“We loved to make videos together of what we were doing and just joke around a lot,” he added. “He was always joking around.”

Juan and his new wife, Monique Escobar, Andrew’s stepmom, pleaded for their son’s safe return, giving media interviews and organizing community events to keep his story in the public eye. The pair even went so far as to quit their jobs to search for Andrew full-time.

“I want Andrew to know that we love him, that his family is waiting for him,” Juan told KOAT. “We’re waiting for you to come home, and we're not going to stop searching for you.”

Jay Block, a New Mexico state senator, also joined in the effort to bring Andrew home, publicly calling for his safe return. During a legislative session, Block reminded lawmakers that Andrew “is not a statistic, or number—he’s a boy, son and brother,” urging them to “take this moment to say his name, share his story.”

Meanwhile, authorities were continuing their search for Andrew, issuing a felony warrant for Felix-Delgado. 

“This isn't just trying to keep a father away from his son,” Juan told KVIA. “This is breaking local law and breaking international law. I’m hopeful she understands what she's done.”

The case is an example of family abduction, also known as parental kidnapping. It’s the most common type of child abduction in America, accounting for 61% of all AMBER Alerts issued nationwide in 2024 and 59% in 2023, according to data from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.

Parental kidnapping is often minimized as a private custody disagreement when, in reality, it can quickly escalate to an interstate or international crisis, says Atty K. Bruggemann, a family law attorney and partner with Gallet Dreyer & Berkey, LLP.

“It is often misunderstood,” Bruggemann tells A&E Crime + Investigation. “Just because an abducted child is with their parent or close family member does not necessarily mean that child is safe.”

After being abducted, children may be isolated from their family, friends, school and medical care, she says. They may be mentally and emotionally abused or coached to distrust the left-behind parent, which can make the eventual reunification and adjustment period even more challenging, Bruggemann adds.

Parents abduct their children for many reasons. But these incidents usually arise during high-conflict separation, divorce or custody disputes “where one parent feels desperate, marginalized or fearful and decides to ‘solve’ it by unilaterally taking control of the child,” Ray Johnson, a fellow at the Center for Crime and Justice Policy at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and a retired FBI agent, tells A&E Crime + Investigation.

The crime cuts across socioeconomic status, education and geography, Johnson, also an adjunct professor in the university’s William S. Boyd School of Law, explains. Mothers and fathers alike commit parental abductions, and cases involve families from every income level. “There is no neat profile, and it occurs in families that look ordinary on paper,” Johnson adds. “Patterns vary, but truly the only real demographic is parental status.”

The years-long search for Andrew finally came to an end on July 2, 2026, after Felix-Delgado tried to cross from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, into El Paso, Texas. Border patrol agents identified Andrew as a missing person and took him and his mom into custody.

Juan was at work when he received the news that Andrew had been found. “I was like wailing, crying,” he told the Sandoval Signpost. “I think I disrupted the whole office, just crying, just excited.”

Juan and his wife hurried to El Paso to reunite with Andrew, but the emotional homecoming was only the first step in what will likely be a long process of healing and readjustment. While with his mother, Andrew had traveled the globe, visiting far-flung destinations like Albania, Austria and Turkey, according to what the boy told authorities. Physically, Andrew was fine, but his father and stepmother worried about his mental and emotional health.

“The reality is that Andrew was an 11-year-old boy that was abducted and was moved across the country, and then moved out of the country and possibly overseas over the last three years,” Escobar told KVIA. “He's a boy right now who has been in flight-or-fight mode for the last three years.”

Darlene Gomez, the family’s attorney, echoed that sentiment, adding that Andrew, Juan and Monique are now facing “a lot of unknowns.” 

“It's the family getting to know one another again and to work at different paces,” she told KOAT.

Meanwhile, the criminal case against Felix-Delgado is moving forward. Prosecutors charged her with one count of custodial interference, a fourth-degree felony punishable by up to 18 months in prison and a fine of up to $5,000.

Felix-Delgado was released on a $1,000 bond. As part of her release conditions, she must wear a GPS monitor, comply with pretrial supervision and avoid contact with Andrew and other witnesses.