NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NEBRASKA STATE PATROL
www.nsp.state.ne.us
Contact: Deb Collins 402-479-4985
July 23, 2009

Furnas County Man Arrested for
Failing to Return Children

(Lincoln, NE)- An effort which combined the resources of six law enforcement agencies, and the Nebraska Department of Health & Human Services (DHHS), led to the arrest of an Arapahoe man for violation of a custody order and the successful recovery of his two daughters.

Shortly after 9:30 p.m., on Monday, July 20, 2009, employees of the DHHS Lexington office called the Nebraska State Patrol (NSP) Troop D Headquarters- North Platte, to report the failure of a father to return his two children to foster care.  Earlier in the day on Monday, July 20, William Eschen, 54, of Arapahoe, Nebraska picked up his two girls, ages 16 & 13 from their foster home in Red Willow County, Nebraska, for an unsupervised visit.   Eschen was supposed to take the girls to a 3:00 p.m. appointment in Lexington.  The father and daughters never showed up for the appointment and he failed to return the girls to their foster home by the agreed upon time of 5:00 p.m.

The Nebraska State Patrol working in conjunction with the Furnas County, Kearney County, and Hitchcock County Sheriff’s Office along with DHHS employees, uncovered information indicating Eschen may have taken the girls across state lines into Colorado to visit his son, who lives in rural Yuma County.

NSP investigators were in touch with law enforcement officials in Washington & Yuma Counties in Colorado.   On Wednesday, July 22, the Yuma County Sheriff’s Office conducted a check of the residence of Michael Eschen, 27, in Haxtun, Colorado, where they located both William Eschen and his two daughters.

William Eschen was taken into custody and lodged in the Yuma County Jail on two counts of Violation of a Custody Order.  The two girls were placed in protective custody and will be returned to their foster home in Nebraska.

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