Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

Boy's Mother Fears Ex-Husband May Have Taken Son to China

Aired July 12, 2002 - 08:42   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: We turn to news now of yet another missing child feared to be the victim of a kidnapping. The boy's mother fears her ex-husband may have taken her son to China. Four- year-old Griffin was seen last Monday night during a visit with his father, artist Ray Gao (ph). The two vanished, despite being tailed by a private investigator that Griffin's mother had hired. His mother, Camille Colvin, joins us now.

Good morning. Thanks for being with us.

Where do you think your son is?

CAMILLE COLVIN, MOTHER OF MISSING BOY: I hope he's still in New York, but I'm not sure. He could have been taken to China. Might have gone into Beijing, or to his grandmother's province, which is in central China.

ZAHN: You're searching everywhere now. There were pictures of you in the New York papers this morning basically going door-to-door in Chinatown and New York City, asking shopkeepers if they had sighted your son or your ex-husband. Has anybody confirmed that they've seen them in the area over the last couple of days?

COLVIN: There are leads that the police are following up, but we haven't heard anything new in the last 24 hours.

ZAHN: Why would your ex-husband kidnap him?

COLVIN: There is certainly disputes over visitation. His argument would be that he has no voice in the court system here, and has to take extreme measures to be able to see his son, which I would dispute, but that certainly, I think, would be his argument.

ZAHN: Would that be considered a compelling argument in China, if in fact he has gotten there?

COLVIN: In china that would certainly get sympathy. It is the only son of an only son in a country that really honors that, and yes, it would be something that would be dealt kindly in the court system there.

ZAHN: You had hired a private investigator, because you were concerned something like this might happen. What led to you believe this was a possibility? COLVIN: He's on record as saying that he doesn't think the United States is a proper jurisdiction for this case. He's threatened me, that I can take the child away, you know I can, I can do this anytime I want. I can certainly ruin your life and your career by doing so. And, so, yes, we had a lot of threats from that standpoint, saying that he could do this, he was willing to do this, and we've tried to go through the court system and say there really is a threat here.

ZAHN: And what did anybody do about it?

COLVIN: Supervised visitation through the court system is somewhat difficult to get. The onus of proof is on me to prove that he is in fact a flight risk, and that it is dangerous, and so it's difficult to get supervised visitation. It's not something you can just have.

ZAHN: Was your son shielded from any of this? I know he's little, but 4-year-olds understand a lot.

COLVIN: They do. He understood the tension all the way back prior to my leaving China with him. He knew that there was tension.

ZAHN: That's where your marriage started off, in China? He was born there.

COLVIN: Yes.

ZAHN: And then you came to the country when he was how old?

COLVIN: 2 1/2.

ZAHN: And then that was the point when things got bad between you and your new husband.

COLVIN: We had actually been married almost 10 years before we actually had the child. So it had been a rocky marriage prior, and just continued to get worse after we had the child.

ZAHN: What are your fears about your son right now?

COLVIN: That he's cold, that he's extremely tired, that there's no one there that he really knows to take care of him, that his father is probably dealing with a number of other issues. He's gotten police after him. The child is not getting attention the child needs. He's probably holed up somewhere. He's probably watching videos all day long. And he knows the tension. You say 4-year-olds, they pick up on the tension; he's probably scared to death.

ZAHN: Was his father a decent father to him over the years, or not?

COLVIN: Well, not really, no. And this is my concern. He hasn't been involved in the child's life. He hasn't really cared about it, was not involved in China when the child was born, and he wasn't working, had plenty of time to spend with the child, but didn't and now that the child is out of his life, or that he feels its out of his life, he suddenly wants the relationship.

ZAHN: How hopeful are you that investigators will help you track down your son and your ex-husband?

COLVIN: I think I'd going to be much luckier if my ex-husband produces the child. I think that investigators will do everything they can and try very hard, but it's just a very tough place to be. It's a tough community to crack, and if he gets to China, there's no hope.

ZAHN: Although you have argued in the past during these blistering divorce battle, that perhaps if someone wrote him the right check, he might change his mind about things. Explain to the audience why that's an issue at all.

COLVIN: In the marriage, I earned all the money. And so his desire to maintain a lifestyle that he had previously, in terms of alimony, et cetera, exist. And he was at one point willing to relinquish parental rights for a large check, which was ultimately vacated. But I think that if I'm willing to cut a deal with the devil, hopefully the child will be returned.

ZAHN: Of course, you said the story will be spun completely different in China, if he's there, that they'll be quite sympathetic to your ex-husband. Keep us posted. We wish you the best of luck to try to find your little son.

COLVIN: Thanks.

ZAHN: Camille Colvin, appreciate you being with us.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com