A man who allegedly snatched his four elementary-aged boys and fled to a remote area in California is being held at the Bucks County Correctional Facility.
A man who allegedly snatched his four elementary-aged boys and fled to a remote area in California is being held at the Bucks County Prison.
The man identified by police in Bucks County as Moussa Abel Hakin Awyan, 41, faces various felony counts of concealment of the whereabouts of a child and endangering the welfare of a child. Police said the children, ages 12, 11, 9 and 6, were reunited with their mother March 13 in California. The mother is separated from Awyan, police said.
Authorities said the incident occurred when Awyan took the children during a February visit to Hilltown Township, Bucks County. Their mother had met Awyan in a parking lot in New Britain Borough and only agreed to allow Awyan to take the children if he returned a short while later. He never returned despite the mother attempting to contact Awyan several times, police said.
The children were then entered by authorities into the National Crime Information Center database. Hilltown detectives tracked Awyan across the country and determined he was in a remote section of California. Awyan allegedly told police he would not return the children to their mother.
The Bucks County Court of Common Pleas on Feb. 14 issued an order for the children’s return to their mother and blocked Awyan's custody rights of the children. The Bucks County District Attorney’s Office also authorized extradition of Awyan.
Investigators obtained a warrant for Awyan’s arrest on the felony charges and sent a copy of the warrant to the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department. Deputies located Awyan’s motor home in the desert and he was arrested without incident March 7, police said. The children were taken into California Child Protective Services until their mother was able to fly to California and regain custody, according to police.
Awyan waived extradition and was transported to Pennsylvania via a prisoner transport bus, arriving April 3 in Bucks County, police said. He was arraigned on the charges April 4 before Senior District Judge Robert Schnell Jr. in New Britain and sent to county prison in lieu of $1 million bail.
According to phillyburbs.com, the couple is married and has a long, entangled history.
Awyan, who also goes by Moses, and his wife fled Egypt in 2011 when widespread protests broke out, the report says.
He is an Egyptian national and his estranged wife is an American from Hawaii. The couple had spent time in Hawaii before moving to Minnesota and then immigrating to Egypt, the website reports.
Following violent protests that erupted during the Arab Spring of 2011, the couple and their four sons fled their home in February 2011, according to the report. They landed in Buckingham, Pa., and lived with one of the wife’s relatives before getting a place in Hilltown.