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Teen finds his picture on missing children's Web site

Wednesday, February 18, 2004 Posted: 9:53 AM EST (1453 GMT)

The teen discovered he was allegedly abducted after finding his childhood picture on a missing children's Web site.

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Authorities arrested the mother of a 17-year-old boy who saw his picture on a missing children's Web site and discovered that he was allegedly abducted from Canada 14 years ago.

Acting on a Canadian-issued warrant, U.S. marshals arrested Giselle-Marie Goudreault, 45, at her home in the San Fernando Valley. She was being held without bail until Canadian authorities can extradite her on child abduction charges, authorities said.

Goudreault "was shocked and very emotional" during the February 11 arrest, said Jimell Griffin, a deputy U.S. Marshall in Los Angeles. The boy's father had custody of his son, and Griffin said Goudreault did not return him after a court-ordered visit.

The teen, whose identity was not released, was immediately put in a foster home.

The boy spotted his own photo, taken when he was 3, on a Canadian missing children's Web site a few months ago and told a teacher about it, authorities said. The teacher contacted police, who then confirmed the story with Canadian authorities.

Griffin said although it was Goudreault's son who initiated contact with authorities, the youth was upset at his mother's arrest and tried to comfort her while she was being led away.

The missing boy's father, Ron Steinmann, lives in Canada.

Goudreault initially took her son to live in Mexico, authorities said, and she moved to the Los Angeles area in 1995. She has been remarried twice.

"They were taking her child away and she did what she had to do," Melissa Goudreault, her sister-in-law, said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday from her home in Red Deer, Alberta. "The family is behind her and is trying to raise money for her legal defense."