Abducted children freed from Zapopan hideout

Two Canadian children kidnapped four years ago were finally reunited with their mother this week after being rescued from a safe house on the north-western outskirts of Zapopan, a sprawling suburb of Guadalajara.

Dominic and Abby Maryk,  now 11 and 9 respectively, were allegedly abducted by their father Kevin Maryk, 40, in 2008.

Following a private investigation, Mexican federal police raided a property in a gated community in a remote rural area just off the highway to Tesistan last Friday. Maryk and his friend Robert Neil Groen, 41, were arrested at the scene.

The raid occurred after private investigator Juan Manuel Estrada Juarez, president of the Guadalajara-based FIND Foundation, contacted Interpol and Mexico’s federal police. Estrada himself had been passed information by Wilhelm Von Mayer, another private investigator from the United States.

Estrada told the Reporter that criminal complaints have been filed against the two suspects for possession of firearms, drugs and child pornography allegedly found at the home.

The alert was first raised when Maryk and Groen’s neighbors recognized the kids from recent news reports. Police said the tip came after the children had been moved five times, including to Puerto Vallarta and Guadalajara.

The children from Winnipeg were reunited with their mother Emily Cablek over the weekend.

“I cannot put into words how grateful I am for the wonderful support I received from the community over the past three years,” Cablek said in a statement released Monday. “We have a long road ahead, and I want my children to feel completely safe through all of it, they deserve nothing less.”

The parents were divorced, with Cableck retaining custody over the kids, while Maryk had visitation rights. The children first went missing during a court-approved vacation with their father in August 2008.

The quiet Jardines de las Fuentes compound where the kids were held was an ideal hideout, one of many gated communities in the area offering residents both privacy and security.

Maryk and Groen had fortified their home, lining the perimeter walls with barbed wire, installing security cameras above the door and keeping four attack dogs to warn off uninvited guests.

Like many of those living in the compound, they kept a low profile. Many of their neighbors told the Reporter they had never seen the pair and none of the staff working in the nearest convenience store recognized their mugshots.

A security guard told the Reporter he often saw Dominic and Abby playing in the park in front of their home.

“They were calm and normal. They didn’t look at all unhappy or unwell,” he said, surprised at the news of what had allegedly taken place. “Sometimes things happen here that shouldn’t happen,” he added.

“Everyone thought it was strange that the kids didn’t go to school,” said another neighbor who had often seen the two men and the children. “They would only leave with the kids very late at night and return early in the morning.”

Winnipeg police said both men will be charged with conspiracy to commit an indictable offense, while Maryk also faces charges of abduction in contravention of a court order. The pair are being held in a federal prison in Mexico City and are expected to be extradited to Canada within the coming weeks or months.

Mexican authorities are investigating whether Maryk and Groen have links to local drug gangs, while police in Canada are still searching for a third suspect, Cody McKay, from Winnipeg.

I also wrote a freelance report on this story for Canada’s Winnipeg Free Press.