Russell Yates said he hoped his daughters would reach out to him, adding he didn't even know if they knew they had a father. "I hope they get in touch with me. I've been searching for them for 30 years."

SCITUATE, R.I. -- A Warwick woman who fled Rhode Island in 1985 with her two young daughters in a custody dispute with her husband has been arrested in Houston.

Elaine C. Yates is facing charges of child snatching and fugitive from justice while her two daughters, now in their 30s, have an opportunity to speak with their father, Russell, for the first time in 31 years.

Russell Yates came to the door of his duplex in Warwick Tuesday afternoon and acknowledged he was "stunned."

"I always hoped this day would happen," Yates said, "and now I hope they [his daughters] will want to get in touch with me."

State Police Lt. Col. Joseph F. Philbin said an anonymous tip two days before Christmas led detectives to solve a missing child case that had been national news.

Russell Yates filed a missing persons report in August 1985, after his estranged wife disappeared with Kimberly, then 3 1/2 years old, and 10-month-old Kelly.

In 1990 the New York Times said that Russell Yates, did not divorce Elaine Yates because he did not want to give his wife the legal opportunity to change her name and the girls' names.

But she was able to do so anyway, said Philbin. Elaine Yates was living as Liana L. Waldberg, he said, and her two daughters also had new names. He declined to identify the daughters, but said they were living in Houston with families of their own.

The state police had collected sightings of the Yates' family from across the country and around the world, Philbin said.

This time, he said, the anonymous tip on Dec. 23 sent them in the right direction.

State Police Detectives Adam Kennett and Ruth Hernandez used social media postings, court records and other sources to devise that Waldberg was really Elaine Yates.

She was arrested at her Houston home Monday at 12:30 p.m. by Texas rangers and Rhode Island State Police. She was arraigned by a judge in Houston and waived extradition to Rhode Island. She is expected to be arraigned in Kent County Superior Court on Wednesday.

The investigation is ongoing, Philbin said, and it's not known yet how or where the mother and daughters have lived for the last 31 years.

The state police spoke with the daughters and gave them their father's phone number, Philbin said. He declined to say what their reaction was or whether they knew about their true identity.

The state police also called Russell Yates with the news that they'd finally found his two daughters.

Yates said Tuesday that he didn't know how any of the discovery transpired. He said he couldn't believed his ex-wife had gone to this extent to keep the children from him.

Yates said he hoped his daughters would reach out to him, adding he didn't even know if they knew they had a father.

"I hope they get in touch with me. I've been searching for them for 30 years."

-- This report was updated at 12:23 p.m. and 2:08 p.m.





Correction: The alias Elaine Yates was living under in Houston is Liana L. Waldberg. The first name of Yates' alias, as obtained from the R.I. State Police, was incorrect in an earlier version of this story.

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