LADA Child Abduction Section

Child Abduction Section - How The DA Can Help You

We Can Help:

Did you know that the District Attorney may be able to help you find your child? The District Attorney's Child Abduction investigators have the responsibility of locating and recovering children taken or held in violation of a custody order. If you are a resident of Los Angeles County and you have a legal right, pursuant to a valid court order, to custody of a child and another person denies you that right, the District Attorney may be able to help you locate and return your child.

It doesn't matter if the child is taken to another part of California or even to another state or country, the District Attorney's Office will take measures to help obtain the return of your child.

If you have filed for custody, or have filed to modify an existing custody order, and do not know where the other parent and your child are, we may also be able to assist in locating the other parent to serve him or her with notice of the upcoming court date.

These services are available to you whether or not you have contacted the police or filed a police report. However, although our direct assistance may ultimately lead to the recovery of your child, contacting the police about your situation is the only way that an abductor can be arrested, prosecuted, and convicted for violating criminal child abduction laws.

How to Obtain our Assistance:

You will need to come to our office. The Child Abduction Section is located in downtown Los Angeles, at 320 West Temple St., Room 780, Los Angeles, California 90012. You can make an appointment to speak to one of our investigators by calling (213) 974-7424. You can also simply walk in to our office Monday through Friday, between 9:00 a.m and 4:00 p.m. A Child Abduction Investigator is always on duty to address your concerns.

What You Will Need to Bring With You:

Bring with you a currently valid custody order that specifies that you have primary physical custody of your child or children. If you do not currently have a custody order, you must begin the process of obtaining one before the District Attorney’s Office can assist you. You can, for example, file for custody, at which time you will be given a future date for the hearing on custody. This document is sometimes called an Order to Show Cause (OSC). This OSC would then need to be served on the abducting parent. Our office would then assist you in locating the abducting parent and serving him or her with this order.

If you have a current custody order, but it only provides you with visitation (and gives primary physical custody to the other parent) you must go to court and obtain at least an order to show cause to modify your visitation, so that we can then serve the abducting parent with this order.

Once you arrive at our office, you will be asked to fill out a Child Abduction Questionnaire. This questionnaire is also available here on the website so that you can print it out and fill it out in advance, if you wish. Your answers to these questions will provide leads to our investigators who will then begin to search for your missing child or children. In the questionnaire, you will also be asked to state truthfully that your child has been abducted, and that you do not currently know the location of your child and the abductor.

The questionnaire also requests that you provide us with photographs of your child and the abductor, if available.

You will meet with one of our investigators who will review the information you provide to us. A case will then be opened, and the search for your child will begin.

What We Will Do:

The District Attorney’s Office will then take all steps necessary to locate and recover your child. These steps can include going back to court to obtain additional orders and/or traveling to other states to physically recover your child and return him or her to you. You will be notified of our progress in our investigation.