SPARC Forums

Hi Im new here and been getting some good information so far and hoped I could get some advice on what I can do in my situation. My now ex g/f took off with our 6 month old daughter and left with another guy in middle of night. There was no notice or info on where she was or where they were going. I was at work at the time and only found out when i got home that she was gone. Police were no help at all. I found from caller id number what city they where going to but had no address to find them. After couple weeks of not hearing anything on where the mother and daughter was i found a lawyer to try and get something done to find them. Lawyer filed custody papers to get things started and afterwards I found an address that they were living at. We got writ of attachment signed by judge and papers to appear in court for the mother. At this time I still had no contact for over month with ex g/f. When we went to serve the papers sheriff discovered from this guys family that they got scared for some reason and had packed up that day and left the state for massachusetts where her parents live. Lawyer now tells me that we gonna have to try and find them in massachusetts and have them served there. This is where we are now and Im worried that this is gonna get dragged out for long time and Im not gonna see my daughter grow up. What happens if the mother tries to file for custody in massachusetts, will Texas still have jurisdiction since I filed here or does she have to actually be served with papers before jurisdiction can take place? Is there anything i can file to get my daughter back to me until desicion is made in court? If ex does get served where she lives will they be able to enforce the temporary custody order? Thanks for any info I can get it just isnt right that someone can take a child and leave the other parent with no knowledge of whats going on with the childs where abouts. Every day that goes by is a day I am missing in my daughters life.

Thanks
Van

In Texas you can serve by publication if you are unable to locate the other party for service.

Have you discussed this with your attorney?

http://tlo2.tlc.state.tx.us/statutes/fa.toc.htm (http://tlo2.tlc.state.tx.us/statutes/fa.toc.htm)
see title 5 chapter 102

Right now we know where they are living at but they are in process of moving from what I was told by landlord. Hopefully they can served them before they move again. I talked to lawyer about publication and he said they wanted to try few things before that because if they got served by publication then the court would have to provide them with lawyer. Lawyer said right now we dont want to help them fight this while they are out of state.