Missing: MELISSA

CBS Early Show
July 9, 2007
Source: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/03/31/earlyshow/main1458699.shtml

Patrick Braden says his daughter, Melissa, disappeared in March 2006, when she was 11-months-old, and he's convinced her mother brought her to the girl's grandparents' house -- in Japan -- and international law is keeping him from heading there to try to get Melissa back.

Braden vows to change the law, saying he won't stop until he succeeds.

He tells Early Show national correspondent Hattie Kauffman Melissa's mother ignored a court order and fled the United States with the girl, and authorities determined that she boarded a flight from Los Angeles to Tokyo.

Trouble is that, while Japan has a criminal extradition treaty with the U.S., it doesn't recognize parental child kidnapping as a crime.

Braden was in Washington, D.C. as late as last week, knocking on doors of members of Congress, seeking to get the law changed to enable parents in his situation to track their child and seek his/her return. It was his sixth such trip since Melissa went missing.

Braden says, without a new agreement between Tokyo and Washington on the issue, "I may never see my daughter again."

The video version shows Pat going around to congressional offices in Washington DC dropping off flyers. The announcer says that the US State Dept reports 17 active cases out of 1200 worldwide and that Japan does not recognize parental kidnapping as a crime.