Nathan Slinkard was 5 years old when his mother failed to return him to his father as an Indiana court had ordered.
On Tuesday, the 23-year-old man was back home with his father, about a week after he walked into the United States Consulate in Guadalajara, Mexico, identified himself and asked to come home to the U.S.
His return 18 years after he went missing buoyed investigators who hope Nathan’s return leads to a bigger reunion with his siblings and their father, Steve Slinkard.
“We all thought that after all the kids were legal that this would happen. It’s just awesome that it still happened after all these years,” said Hancock County Sheriff’s Department Lt. Ted Munden, the last local investigator in the case.
Nathan Slinkard was 5, his brother, Andrew, was 7, and their sister, Sydney, was 3 in October 1995 when they went missing from Greenfield, a city about 20 miles east of Indianapolis. Authorities say their mother, Trena Slinkard, failed to return them despite a court order after their father filed a motion seeking full custody.
It wasn’t immediately clear when the children were taken out of the United States, or under what circumstances Nathan Slinkard and the others separated.
Investigators had tried to track the family for years, Munden said. He said officers regularly pursued tips about possible sightings, but they always proved false.
Then Nathan Slinkard walked into the consulate office and provided his Social Security card and birth certificate to consulate officials, who also used scars to confirm his identity.
“It’s great,” Munden said.
Nathan Slinkard arrived in Indianapolis last week after a stop in Houston, the Hancock County Sheriff’s Department and National Center for Missing and Exploited Children said Tuesday. He’s been reunited with his father and aunt.
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