Missing: Melissa Braden

The Early Show on CBS
September 19, 2006
Source: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/03/31/earlyshow/main1458699.shtml?CMP=ILC-SearchStories

Note: This is the transcript of a segment of a television show, which can be viewed on the internet.

(BS) Each week, the CBS drama Without a Trace profiles a real missing person at the end of the show and, the next morning, The Early Show gives details on the case.

Check here for numbers to call if you have any information on the possible whereabouts of any of the people shown.

Monday, Sept. 19, 2006

MELISSA BRADEN

Patrick Braden and Ryoko Uchiyama moved in together more than two years ago and had a baby girl, Melissa.

But, reports Hattie Kauffman, the couple's relationship soured and Patrick got a shock when Melissa's mother announced she was moving to Japan when Melissa was 11-months-old.

"I said," he told Kauffman, "I didn't want any part of a plan where I wasn't able to see and be in my daughters life every day."

Patrick went to court. A judge ordered Ryoko not to travel and to turn over her passport. She didn't. Days later, her car was found at the airport. She and the baby were gone.

FBI agent Herb Brown says, "We do have a very strong indication that she did flee California, then left on a flight into Japan. As far as where in Japan, we don't know."

And, he adds, there is little the FBI can do. The agency couldn't retrieve Melissa even if it knew where she is.

"I'm astonished to find out," Patrick says, "that there are all these children who are kidnapped to Japan and no one can do anything: not any of the government agencies, not the State Department, not the U.S. ambassadors, the U.S. embassies. No one can do anything."

That's because Japan hasn't signed the Hague Convention treaty, so it doesn't have to honor the child custody rulings of other nations, Kauffman explains.

So, even though Patrick you went to court and got custody of Melissa, Japan doesn't respect that court order, Kauffman says.

"Japan won't even acknowledge that court order," Patrick laments, "and, every year, there's between 120 and 250 children in the U.S. who are abducted to Japan, and there is absolutely nothing anybody can do." Patrick is left with photos and memories of the baby, who is now a toddler. And he's determined to keep fighting, saying, "There's no way I can let it go, and there's no way I will abandon it, and I'm working to get the laws changed.

"I miss hugging her every day. I miss seeing her smile at me every day. I miss playing with her every day."

Patrick thinks his daughter and ex-girlfriend are living with her parents in Japan. But U.S. government officials have warned him not to go there, because he could be arrested in Japan.

Monday, Aug. 28, 2006