Saturday, September 6, 2008

Mother is arrested with missing children at local shelter

Clara Garcia News-Bulletin Staff Writer; cgarcia@news-bulletin.com

A woman who has been profiled on TV's "America's Most Wanted" for allegedly taking her two children away from their father last year in Montana was discovered and arrested Friday in Valencia County.

Valencia County Sheriff Rene Rivera said deputies received a call from a detective in Montana working the case on Friday, Aug. 29. He told them that he believed 45-year-old Valerie Dunkle was at a Valencia Shelter for Victims of Domestic Violence safe house. Dunkle was wanted on a fugitive warrant on charges of parental interference for allegedly taking her two children from their father, Shawn Hargrove, of Kalispell, Mont.

"The deputies went to the shelter, and, apparently, the supervisor was refusing to allow the deputies in," Rivera said. "They (the deputies) called me and told me that they weren't allowing them in. I told them to go back and advise the supervisor that if they didn't allow them in, they would be arrested for harboring a fugitive."

Lt. Jeff Noah returned to the safe house and, when he relayed the sheriff's message, deputies were allowed in and found Dunkle and the two children, Indigo, 12, and Donovan, 6. Rivera said Dunkle was arrested and taken into custody and the children, who were reportedly in good condition, were taken into CYFD (Children, Youth and Family Department) custody.

Rivera said no charges have been filed against the supervisor at the safe house. A representative of the shelter did not return a telephone call asking for a comment.

Dunkle is currently being held at the Valencia County Adult Detention Center on a $50,000 cash-only bond on a fugitive warrant on charges of parental interference. She is scheduled to make her first court appearance in front of Magistrate Tina Gallegos on Wednesday, Sept. 10.

According to the Flathead Beacon, a newspaper in Kalispell, Mont., Hargrove and Dunkle were nearing the end of a lengthy divorce process and sharing custody when she failed to show up for a mediation hearing. The newspaper reported that Hargrove became suspicious when Dunkle's family and the customers for a day care center she ran out of her home hadn't heard from her.

Because Hargrove couldn't file a missing children's report until two weeks later when it was his turn to have the children, he felt the legal loophole gave his soon-to-be ex-wife a big head start, the Flathead Beacon reported.

After a missing children's report was filed, detectives got their first lead in April 2007 when Arkansas State Police were alerted that someone tried to get a replacement for a lost vehicle title for a car registered to Dunkle. The newspaper reported that police discovered that the women and the two children were renting an apartment under an alias in Diamond City, Ark. But when they located the apartment, it was empty and there were no signs of where the family had relocated.

The newspaper also reported that there had been sightings of the children in Seattle, Wash., and elsewhere. The case was not only profiled on "America's Most Wanted," but posters had been circulated around the country by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Hargrove, the children's father, sold his house in October 2007 and used the money to pay a private investigator from Arkansas to help find his children, the Flathead Beacon reported.

One of the last tips police received shortly before Christmas was that the daughter, Indigo, could be found through an on-line game she liked to play. When authorities tried to track the location, the server wasn't able to capture the address, Hargrove said.

Hargrove and his children were reunited on Wednesday afternoon after a long 17 months of being apart. He said when he received word the Friday before, he could hardly believe it.

"I didn't believe it," Hargrove said in a telephone interview Friday. "We had other major leads and hints here and there, but nothing really had ever panned out."

It wasn't until he was finally able to speak to a sergeant with the Valencia County Sheriff's Department who told him that his kids were fine that he finally let himself believe that his nightmare had come to an end.

"It's been one long and giant gray numbness with spikes of activity and hope," Hargrove said. "I received a phone call from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children on Friday at about 4 o'clock wanting to know if I had heard from police yet. They told me that my ex-wife was found and picked up about an hour ago."

Hargrove then called Kalispell Detective Scott Warnell, the investigator who has been trying to find the two children for the past 17 months, to ask if the news was true. It was.

The father who had waited and hoped for months to find out if his children were safe finally had an answer and it was good news. The children were OK. Hargrove said he was able to talk to his son; his daughter was having a harder time.

Hargrove had to wait to travel to New Mexico over the long Labor Day weekend when CYFD officials were able to verify jurisdiction and custody. He said he finally got the go-ahead that he could come to Los Lunas and pick up his children on Wednesday.

"I was totally nervous because I didn't know what their mother had told them or what they had been through," he said. "I was very nervous, but when I saw both of them, I started crying because I was so happy."

Hargrove said Donovan ran up and hugged him, while Indigo was a little more reserved. He said he thinks it's going to take his daughter a little more time to readjust.

"But I can't even describe how thrilled I am. I wasn't totally comfortable until we crossed the Montana state line," he said.

Hargrove said he hasn't asked the children where they were during the time they were with their mother. He did say he heard something about Phoenix, but still isn't sure about their experiences.

"I don't want to pursue it, and I don't want to hurt them," he said of his children. "I'm just trying to make the transition as easy as possible right now."

When the children returned home to Montana this week, Hargrove said he took them shopping for new school clothes and to get them library cards.

"I'm just so happy they're home and that they're safe," Hargrove said. "I've waited for so long."

Warnell said a lead was called in to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that Dunkle and the two children were in Valencia County. He said he immediately called the Valencia County Sheriff's Department and requested that they follow up on the lead.

"I've been getting a couple of tips a week on (this case)," Warnell said in a telephone interview. "I don't know how long she (Denkle) was in New Mexico. It's a relief to me — this was a real stressful case."

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