Father's search for children nears end

By KATHY NUSSBERGER

Managing Editor

Nearly three years ago in the summer of 2004, a local father was stranded 20 miles from town when his then wife, became angry and abandoned him in a mountainous area.

Although most people would find it difficult to deal with this type of situation, Morgan Clark, 26, who is legally blind, was suddenly faced with not only the fact of being stranded in the mountains surrounding Boundary County, but also the realization that his wife Elishia Rowden-Clark, and two sons, Richard, three at the time, and Jacob, one, were not coming back.

"We had just gone on a huckleberry picking trip," Morgan said. "I had no idea that my wife was planning to abandon me in the wilderness and run off with the children."

With the help of a private investigator, Phil Thompson of Confidential Investigations in Hayden, Morgan finally has a clue to the whereabouts of his children.

"After his wife and children disappeared, Morgan filed for divorce and won full custody of the kids on May 11, 2005," Phil said. "However, due to the fact that Elishia could not be physically served the notice, the court awarded custody is not automatically recognized in other states."

The first place Phil tracked Elishia was to Eureka, Mont., where she now had another child with the man she had been living with since leaving Idaho.

Now with Morgan's two sons and a new baby in tow, she once again disappeared, thus leaving another father, Dale Miller, to wonder if he would ever see his child again.

Unfortunately, due to the time delays with the Montana courts recognizing his custody, Morgan was about three months too late in that last attempt to recover his children.

Due to the fact that Elishia was not physically served with the court papers regarding the divorce from Morgan and custody of the children, local prosecutors cannot file criminal charges against her for kidnapping.

Now, nearly three years after last seeing his children, Morgan, with the help of Confidential Investigations, finally has another lead to the possible location of where Elishia and the children now live.

"Morgan tried on his own for two years to find her, he even hired a local part time investigator, but after expending a lot of money with no results, he had no option but to stop the process," Phil said. "When Morgan came to me a few months ago, he was very honest about his lack of money, and although we couldn't work solely on his case, we have tried to help him as much as possible without a lot of charges. Morgan does a lot of the leg work himself including taking care of the legal aspects of getting his custody recognized in Vermont where his children now live. Elishia is someone who takes advantage of the system. She does not make decisions based on the best interest of her children, she makes decisions based on her interests, which are very self-serving."

However, despite knowing where his children are living, Morgan still cannot move forward until he the Vermont court recognizes the validity of his Idaho court awarded child custody.

But, even if the court recognizes his Idaho custody, Morgan has to overcome another obstacle, the money required to make the trip.

Since he is legally blind, he cannot make the trip alone. Therefore with the airfare costing about $783 per adult roundtrip, plus the one way tickets for the children to come home at approximately $483 each, the total cost of the airline tickets including the taxes and fees will come to $2,532. Then Morgan has the added expense of hotels, transportation and food while in Vermont, so it is going to be a fairly expensive trip.

"I am determined to do this, I want my children home, I have already lost way too much time with them and because of that, they are going to have to get to know me again," he said. "They were very young when she took them, and although I know they will remember me at least a little, it is still going to be difficult for them."

Anyone who wants to help Morgan bring his children home may do so by making a donation to the "Morgan Clark Travel Fund" at any branch of Wells Fargo Bank, account # 8122022406.