Missing mother and son found living in tent

Juliette Gilbert

A fugitive American mother in New Zealand for three years eluding the FBI has been living rough in a small tent by a remote track near Lake Rotoma.

Juliette Gilbert went into hiding with her 9-year-old son Sky two months ago. Friends said yesterday the pair had only a kayak for transport and presumably used it to paddle around the lake to replenish supplies.

On Saturday the 37-year-old artist from Washington state, who abducted Sky in April 2002 after United States courts awarded joint custody with her former husband, unwillingly came in from the cold.

Authorities were tipped off when she went to a Rotorua real estate office seeking a house to rent.

The Department of Labour's immigration service staff had been making inquiries in the Rotorua region for the overstayer but would give no further details.

Sky was taken into the care of Child, Youth and Family Services when his mother was arrested and placed in custody at Rotorua police station.

Mother and son will be escorted on a flight to the United States "as soon as possible" this week, said Workforce deputy secretary Mary Anne Thompson.

Ms Gilbert's Tauranga fiance, Craig Henwood, said she and Sky were upset over their capture and separation from each other.

He was relieved they were safe and could not believe they had been hiding only an hour's drive from his home.

"They've been doing it bloody hard," said the 38-year-old engineer with whom the pair lived for 10 months at Welcome Bay.

"What is she guilty of - being a decent mum?"

An upset Mr Henwood, who says he had not heard from Ms Gilbert for more than eight weeks, went to see her when an immigration officer told him on Saturday she had been found.

The reunited couple were left in a small locked room with a glass partition between them, unable to hug or hold hands.

"And she gets claustrophobic," he said.

A "pretty cut up" Sky had visited his "devastated" mother on Saturday night but Mr Henwood was not allowed to see the boy.

Yesterday, he was back at the police station carrying plastic bags containing changes of clothes and some of the toys Sky had left at his place. He did not bring Sky's pet rat which a friend was looking after.

Sky had yet to learn his adored pet, Easter, had had 10 babies but the friend's dog had got into the cage and eaten eight of them.

After being tracked down in Tauranga in January, Ms Gilbert surrendered both passports and seemed prepared to leave the country voluntarily. But she fled again, abandoning most of her possessions, although she had money from her divorce settlement and from her fiance.

Mr Henwood said she could not face having to return to an unknown future and possible imprisonment in the United States.

A call to her father yesterday was the first time she had spoken to a family member for three years.

Kept in the dark by authorities about what will happen next, Mr Henwood is talking about trying to raise money to go to the US to be with the woman he loves and the child he has built a bond with.

Married briefly when he was young, and with both his parents now dead, he said he felt as if he had finally found a "nice family unit. Then something out of the movies comes along and blows it all up".

Mr Henwood did not know Ms Gilbert was on an FBI wanted list until she left him without warning early in January. She returned a week later, indicating she would hand herself in, then fled again a fortnight after that.

He was sticking by her now in the hope they could eventually resettle in New Zealand.

Friends Mike and Maureen Broughton said Ms Gilbert had strong survival skills and was dedicated to her son.

They were worried Sky, a nature-lover, was missing out on his education.

But Mr Henwood said: "He's a pretty strong little fellow for his age. We are hoping everything works out well for Sky. That is what the heartache has all been about."