Join us in our mission to reunite Anna Curley with her father and bring her home safely to the United States.

https://www.missingkids.org/poster/NCMC/1460058/1

Bring Anna Home

A Little Girl was Abducted

Anna Curley, now ten years old, has been abducted. The Fairfax County Virginia Court granted sole legal and physical custody to me, her father, in 2022. Anna's mother, Magali Urquizo Franco, died in December 2024 in Peru and I am Anna’s sole surviving parent. Anna is currently being held by her maternal aunt, Marlene Urquizo Franco, and grandmother Bertha Soto Franco, in a remote region of Peru. Anna’s abduction is being supported by other members of her maternal family residing in the United States. Anna and her father have not been allowed to speak or communicate since May 2022; they have not seen each other since September, 2021. Her abductors have not provided any details about Anna’s health, welfare, or schooling; nor have they shared any photos or information about her hobbies and interests. [update: Zoom call on March 7, 2026]

Legal System

The state of Virginia issued a felony Child Abduction warrant for Anna’s mother Magali’s arrest in 2022, but federal, state, and local authorities have not taken action against the aunt and grandmother who are now holding Anna.

Marlene Urquizo Franco (who is unmarried and has no children of her own) is effectively raising Anna as her surrogate child.

Anna has two aunts (sisters of her late mother) who live in the United States with their own husbands and children. They claim they are “not bad people” yet they staunchly support Anna’s abduction to Peru. There is evidence they have also provided financial support. Anna's grandmother and aunts are permitted to travel without visa or legal restrictions between the United States and Peru, where they interact freely with my abducted daughter.

Although Peru is a signatory to the Hague Abduction Convention, the Central Authority in Peru declined to take action.

The US Department of State Foreign Affairs Manual contains a visa loophole for persons who abduct children to countries which are signatories to the Hague Convention, thus allowing child abductors to obtain visas and travel to and from the US with impunity.

Stolen Child and Stolen Childhood

Anna is a US citizen; she was born in the United States to a US-citizen father who is a retired US Air Force veteran. The Fairfax County Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court awarded full legal and physical custody of Anna to her father and found him to be "a fit and proper parent and is capable of providing a loving and save environment for the child." The ruling cited the fact that Anna's mother had "violated the previous court order and failed to provide court-ordered time and information concerning the child, including the child's address in Peru." The judge wrote: "court has serious concerns about mother's withholding of the child, and methods used to intimidate both the father and the child, and lengths she will go to alienate the child from her father."

Anna has been stolen from her father, and Anna’s father has been stolen from her. Anna is being denied her right to grow up in the United States and to know her father, paternal grandmother, and other relatives. She is being denied all the myriad opportunities to see, travel, experience, and learn things that her father and his family wanted desperately to give her. Anna will never know her father's love first-hand. That is wrong.

No one -- not aunts, not grandmothers, NOBODY -- has the right to take a child away from her only surviving parent to raise as their own.

United States law, specifically 18 US Code Section 1204 states "Whoever removes a child from the United States, or attempts to do so, or retains a child (who has been in the United States) outside the United States with intent to obstruct the lawful exercise of parental rights shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 3 years, or both." Marlene Urquizo Franco and Bertha Soto Franco are currently retaining my daughter.

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1204

Parental or Family Child Abduction is a form of Child Abuse

Decades of research across multiple fields have illustrated the serious and harmful effects that family or parental abductions can have on child victims, according to NCMEC. Parental child abduction—defined as the taking, retaining, or concealing of a child by a parent in violation of another parent's custody rights—has profound, long-lasting negative impacts on children and families. It is increasingly viewed by experts as a form of child abuse, often causing severe emotional, psychological, and developmental harm, with 50% of abducted children experiencing significant mental health issues. Abduction can have long-term effects on Anna (including Alienation, resentment, and attachment disorder) that will stay with her the rest of her life.

(references on "Details" page)