[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 7]
[House]
[Pages 10199-10200]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                        INTERNATIONAL ABDUCTION

  (Mr. LAMPSON asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. LAMPSON. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to tell the story of the 
abduction of Nocona Lynn Smith when she was 3 years old. Nocona was 
abducted by her

[[Page 10200]]

mother, River Burton, and her grandmother, Francis Harris, and taken to 
Honduras on March 10, 1994.
  An hour after the abduction, a State District judge ordered emergency 
custody for her father, Roy Smith. A warrant for the arrest of Nocona's 
mother was issued, but charges were dropped when she returned to Texas 
for a trial.
  Nocona, however, did not return with her. She is still in Honduras 
with her grandmother, and her father's attempts to implement the Hague 
Convention have been in vein.
  Mr. Speaker, Roy Smith and his daughter Nocona have missed out on 6 
years of memories that are so important to families in the development 
of healthy and loving relationships. We cannot allow situations like 
theirs to continue to happen to any other families.
  Congress passed a resolution urging signatories of the Hague 
Convention to uphold that agreement, and we must use that as a starting 
point for further action.
  Mr. Speaker, we have taken a step in the right direction, and it is 
my hope that this House will continue that work and help bring our 
children home.

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