By all accounts, they were a happy family – a single mother living and working in Houston for at least two decades with her two growing daughters. They planted roots, bought a home and expanded their clan with husbands and grandchildren.

The long-running charade apparently collapsed on Monday.

A Houston businesswoman living under the name Liana Waldberg - who is well-known in Houston's ballroom dancing circles - was arrested Monday as the missing Elaine Yates, a fugitive from Rhode Island accused of abducting her children more than 31 years ago.

The woman, now 69, surrendered without incident after Texas Rangers and Rhode Island detectives arrived at her condo in west Houston.

"They just knocked on the front door," Lt. Col. Joseph F. Philbin, the chief investigative officer for the Rhode Island State Police, said Tuesday. "They told her the reason they were there. She understood and she was cooperative and she was taken into custody."

Yates appeared before a Harris County Criminal Court at Law judge Tuesday and waived extradition to Rhode Island. She is being returned to the Northeast to face charges there.

Russell Yates, the father of the now-grown daughters, said by telephone from Rhode Island that he hopes to hear from his children and regrets that their mother faces criminal charges.

"Hopefully, now, my children have my contact information and they'll get in touch with me," he said. "I was greatly relieved to know that they're still alive. I haven't heard from them yet. …They were just little babies."

Sightings and tips

New England authorities have been looking for Kelly and Kimberly Yates and their mother since they vanished on Aug. 26, 1985.

Just 10-months and 3-years-old, the children disappeared abruptly from their Warwick, R.I., home, and the abduction was front-page news.

A missing persons complaint was filed by Russell Yates, Elaine Yates' husband; the initial police investigation determined that the mother left with the children because of a domestic dispute.

A felony warrant for two counts of child snatching was issued for Elaine Yates in November 1988.

Posters of the girls and their mother were distributed by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. Over time, age-progressed renderings of all three were added to the listings.

Despite alleged sightings and tips over the years, the cold case didn't thaw until this week after anonymous information reported in December led Rhode Island State Police to Houston.

"With the help of the Texas Department of Public Safety, it was investigated," Philbin said. "They checked the locations we asked them to check to see if the individuals did in fact live there and they did. They confirmed it."

Philbin said each felony child-snatching count carries a maximum penalty of two years in state prison.

By Tuesday afternoon, the woman believed to be Elaine Carolyn Yates was headed back to Rhode Island on a flight with detectives to face charges. She is scheduled for arraignment Wednesday in Kent County Superior Court in Warwick.

Authorities told her daughters, now 32 and 35, how to reach their father.

"It's going to be up to the children to see if they want to reach out to him," Philbin said.

Russell Yates, still considered the custodial parent in court records, declined to discuss the circumstances immediately before his wife and daughters disappeared.

"I don't want to get into what was going on and why it happened," he said, before ending the call.

Secrets and name changes

George Rapier knew her in Houston as Liana Waldberg.

They both worked in information technology, and met when their children began dating. They eventually wed, though the marriage ended in 2005 after five years, said Rapier, who has since retired to Tennessee.

He knew Kimberly and Kelly Yates as Melissa and Sarah Waldberg.

"I still consider them my stepkids," Rapier said, adding that he knew there were details about Liana's background that they didn't discuss. "I am really distressed to hear this. … I had the impression that her ex - I thought it was an ex - was abusive to her and that is why she left him."

Harris County civil court records show that someone named Elaine Carolyn Pigeon, also known as Elaine C. Yates, applied in the summer of 2009 to change her name to Liana Lynn Waldberg. A judge granted the request in August 2009. In 2010, a person named Kimberly Ann Yates filed for a name change to Melissa Lynn Waldberg, but the effort was dropped in 2011.

Rapier said he was aware of his ex-wife's legal efforts to straighten out her name.

"I think she was getting a little worried as she gets to retirement age and Social Security that it would become a problem for her," he said. "She did mention that she had talked to a lawyer to help her with that process."

He remained shocked that the "very nice person" he knows has been a fugitive all of these years and that their union might have been considered bigamy.

"I'm distressed about it because I still love her, really," he said. "She told me once that she hated that she could never go back up there. She was completely cut off from Rhode Island. Her mother passed and she could really do nothing about it. It's very sad."

As it happens, Rapier remains in touch with the family because his son married, then divorced, the woman known as Melissa Waldberg, and that couple has a child.

Liana Waldberg joined one of Houston's largest dance studios 10 years ago, after her divorce.

She was popular, skilled and enthusiastic, and participated in local dance cruises every year from 2010 to 2015, said Rick Archer, founder of Houston's SSQQ Dance Studio.

"She was literally a very popular member of a very large dance community," Archer said. "There would literally be several hundred people who would know her through dancing."

She stood out on the dance floor, he said.

"About 5-foot-3, ridiculously trim for her age - she's pretty, she's a sandy blonde, she's a great dancer," Archer added. "She follows like a glove. She's fun to dance with, always smiling, very warm."

He said the allegations left him "flabbergasted," but he's reserving judgment.

"My first reaction is: What kind of man did she leave? And why did she need to acquire a secret identity?" he asked. "It's one thing to take someone else's child. It's another thing to take your own children if it's meant to protect them."