AN American woman found in Australia is facing extradition back to the US for taking her infant daughter from the Isle of Palms 20 years ago.

US Attorney Bill Nettles said an indictment had been unsealed charging Dorothy Lee Barnett, 53, with international parental kidnapping and making a false statement on a passport application.

Barnett did not have custody of her then 10-month-old daughter Savanna Catherine Todd, who is also known as Samantha, when she left in 1994, Nettles said.

At the time, police said Barnett - who in 1993 filed for divorce from her husband, former Charleston stockbroker Benjamin Harris Todd III - left for a birthday party with her daughter and never returned.

Ms Barnett had married Todd in 1991 Savanna was born after the couple had separated. They later divorced and she received weekly visitation rights

Authorities said Barnett was located on Queensland's Sunshine Coast earlier this month after almost two decades of living under several aliases in South Africa and New Zealand.

She created a new life and identity for herself under the name of Alex Geldenhuys.



As revealed in The Australian, the former flight attendant escaped the US on a fake passport in 1994 with the help of a secretive organisation, Children of the Underground.



In 1995, Ms Barnett married a man called Juan Geldenhuys in South Africa with whom she later had a son, now 17. The family moved to New Zealand, where they gained citizenship, and then to Australia in 2007.



According to court papers, her father led authorities to find his ex-wife and a friend she had also raised suspicions from a friend of Mr Geldenhuys after he heard her call her daughter Savanna.



Nettles said that Todd, who is now 20, was also found in Australia and is living a normal life.

Federal authorities have not given details on how they tracked Barnett down.

In a news release, Nettles said federal law enforcement agencies from the US and Australia cooperated on the case.

Court papers show that an arrest warrant was issued for Barnett in 1994.

But in an affidavit tendered to the court, she described her mother as "an amazing woman, having raised both myself and my brother and always giving us the support we needed to become the people that we are".

Barnett has been denied bond pending extradition back to the US, where no court date has been set, Nettles said.

If convicted on all charges, she could face more than 20 years in prison, and court papers listed no attorney for her.