‘Missing Boy’ Was Whisked Off by Mom

A frantic search for a youngster feared abducted Wednesday morning from a local elementary school ended several hours later when police learned the boy’s mother had covertly taken him to her home in Spain, police said.

Dozens of officers conducted a house-to-house search around Mariners Elementary and scanned local streets after a teacher reported that 7-year-old Daniel Miller was missing, said Police Sgt. John Desmond.

Investigators discovered that the child’s mother, Grace Legrue, had arrived in Philadelphia earlier in the week, eight months after sending the boy to the Newport Beach area to live with his father, Desmond said.

Legrue’s parents, retirees also living in Spain, initially told police their daughter was still overseas and unavailable, but they later admitted that she had flown to the United States with the intention of covertly regaining custody of the child, Desmond said.

The status of the child’s rightful custody was unclear Wednesday and the matter was turned over to the Orange County district attorney’s office for review, he said.

“There was a great deal of concern among parents and community members that this was a stranger abduction, but that does not appear to be the case,” Desmond said. “At this time we are not sure any laws were broken.”

The boy’s father, Ed Miller of Santa Ana Heights, had last seen his son when he dropped him off for school. The child’s grandparents told investigators that Legrue had plane tickets to return Wednesday night to Spain, Desmond said.