The children and their mother are from here in Central Illinois, Dwight to be specific. Apparently their father failed to return the children to their mother in Dwight, and is currently wanted for questioning in the murder of his girlfriend in Michigan. The mother is (as you can imagine) heartbroken and distraught. He and the kids have been missing for over 1 week. Here's the story from our local paper:
Bloomington's Pantagraph News
Sunday, December 1, 2002
Mom hopes for children's return
Father supected in homicide, kids' abduction
By Sharon K. Woulfe
Pantagraph staff
DWIGHT -- The best early Christmas present for Edna Smith would be the safe return of her two young children who vanished along with their father during a nightmare Thanksgiving week.
Missing are Ashley Michelle Gleeson, 5, and Joshua Andrew Gleeson, 3, who were last seen with their father, Patrick Gleeson, of Holland, Mich.
Patrick Gleeson is also being sought on a warrant charging him with the murder of his girlfriend, Dena Lynn Fuglseth, in Holland, according to the Ottawa County Sheriff's police in Michigan.
"Last night I found out she had been killed," said Smith, adding she fell apart when she heard the news.
"But you can't cry all the time," said Smith, 33, of 123 1/2 West Waupansie Street, before giving out details Saturday that might help locate her children. "It's hard. I want them home. I need them home.
"Thanksgiving was supposed to be my holiday.
"I've been in an utter panic when he didn't show up since the 25th."
Ashley is 41 inches tall and weighs 39 pounds, and Joshua is 37 inches tall and weighs 39 pounds, she said.
The little girl was last seen by her mother wearing a long-sleeved pink shirt with the word BRAT on it, and blue jeans with paint brush streaks as an artistic effect. She had on white tennis shoes with pictures of four little girls on them.
Joshua was clad in a blueSpider-man shirt, blue jeans and Power Ranger shoes. Both have light brown hair and hazel eyes, their mother said.
Joshua was wearing a Chicago Bulls winter coat with a hood, and her daughter, a hooded red coat of parachute type material with elastic around the waist and blue trim around the pockets.
The girl, who is missing a left front tooth, was carrying a Stuart Little stuffed toy, which is a little mouse in a soccer outfit. Joshua took a toy rubber shark with him, six to eight inches long.
"They're darling -- they look like they could be twins," she said. "They have to be scared to death."
Smith has called information in to 1-800-The-Lost and 1-800-Vanished.
She is hoping that if anybody sees anyone resembling her children or Gleeson, or a van like the one he is suspected to be driving, that they would contact police immediately.
Smith said she and Gleeson never married, but lived together in Gardner, which is northeast of Dwight. She and the children have lived in Dwight about two years."
