Mum who went on run extradited to US

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A former North Shore woman charged with kidnapping her daughter has been extradited to America.

Dorothy Lee Barnett, 54, arrived at the the Sheriff Al Cannon Detention Center in Charleston, South Carolina, on Friday after being arrested in Queensland, Australia, last November.

She is facing one charge of international parental kidnapping and two charges of falsifying US passport applications. Barnett faces a maximum sentence of more than 30 years in prison, Charleston news website The Post and Courier reported.

Barnett is reported to have taken her then 10-month-old daughter Savanna Catherine Todd, who now goes by the name of Samantha Geldenhuys, from South Carolina during a court-approved visit in 1994.

According to Queensland news reports, she initially fled to South Africa, where she married Juan Geldenhuys in 1995 and later gave birth to son Reece, now 18, before moving to New Zealand and becoming a citizen. She later moved to Australia in 2007.

The former flight attendant is reported to have fled the US with the help of Faye Yager, founder of shadowy organisation Children of the Underground, which helped women escape allegedly abusive relationships, The Australian reported.

Auckland midwife Geraldine Zulch told APNZ she met Barnett and Juan through mutual South African friends when she was using the alias Alex Geldenhuys in Mairangi Bay around 2002.

"We came to New Zealand [from South Africa] in 2001 and shortly after that a group of us met Alex and Juan.

"Our kids did a lot of swimming and a lot of surf lifesaving together.

"Honestly, she is an amazing woman. She was fantastic with those kids."

Samantha told Australia's Today Tonight programme last year that she stood by her mother's actions.

A petition published on the change.org website appealing for the US Attorney Office in Columbia to free Barnett has attracted more than 600 signatures to-date.

Barnett's next scheduled court appearance is on October 8.