2 Thousand Oaks Children Found in Tennessee; Dad Arrested

Two young children from Thousand Oaks have been reunited with their mother after spending seven months on the run with their father, who now faces felony charges of abducting the youngsters.

Sheriff’s deputies posing as campers found them living in a rural Tennessee campground early Friday morning and arrested their father, 36-year-old Patrick Sean Carty of Moorpark.

The arrest at the Trail of Tears Campground in Madisonville, Tenn., brings to a close a nationwide search by local and federal authorities that began on Mother’s Day, said Ventura County Deputy Dist. Atty. Pam Grossman.

The children, 6-year-old Marlena and 2-year-old Daniel, returned home to Thousand Oaks at 9 p.m. Saturday with their mother, 31-year-old Allison Oliver.

“There’s nothing that could be better than having them back,� said Oliver, upon arriving home. Friends and neighbors sent flower bouquets for the trio’s arrival, and the students from Marlena’s kindergarten class at Aspen Elementary School hung a large welcome-home banner, complete with class pictures, on the patio awning.

Oliver was a bit overwhelmed by the scene, not to mention the fact that this would be the first night in a long time that she could rock her children in her arms.

“For a mother to hold her children against her chest and not say anything, just hold them, is the best thing in the world,� Oliver said.

The saga began May 12, when Carty failed to return the children after a routine weekend visit. When her former husband did not show up, Oliver went to his Moorpark home.

There she found a “rambling note� from Carty, explaining that he had taken the children and that he was leaving the state, Grossman said. Oliver contacted the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department and the district attorney’s Child Abduction and Recovery Unit.

“The thing that concerned us in the beginning was that he was rather distraught,� Grossman said. “We didn’t know what danger the kids would be in.�

The FBI joined the search and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children also got involved, distributing fliers nationwide seeking assistance in locating the children. And Oliver appeared on a national talk show with “America’s Most Wanted� host John Walsh and Mark Klaas, father of 12-year-old murder victim Polly Klaas, to ask for the public’s help.

A resident of Monroe County, Tenn., recognized the children from their pictures on a poster and contacted the Monroe County Sheriff’s Department, Grossman said.

Just after midnight Friday, two sheriff’s deputies posing as campers who needed a place to stay went to the Trail of Tears Campground, where Carty had taken a job as manager, and asked about renting one of the log cabins, said Monroe County Sheriff’s Deputy Chris White.

“The officers just went up there as renters and got him by surprise,� White said. Carty was taken into custody without incident, and the children were found inside his cabin unharmed, White said.

Using her middle name, “Lizzy,� Carty’s daughter had been attending the nearby Coker Creek Elementary School since August, White said, meaning Carty had been in Monroe County, population 35,000, for at least four months. Authorities said Carty had also begun calling his son by his middle name, Derek.

Carty is being held without bail in the Monroe County Jail. He has waived extradition and will be returned on Thursday to Ventura County, where he faces two felony counts of parental child abduction, Grossman said. If convicted, he faces more than four years in prison, Grossman said.