A Utah woman who said the end was coming has been arrested in Croatia and charged with violating a custody order by taking her four young children overseas, authorities said Tuesday.
Elleshia Seymour, 35, was charged in December in Salt Lake County with four counts of custodial interference for taking the children out of the state even though she was not entitled to custody. Croatia’s Foreign Ministry confirmed via email on Tuesday that she was arrested earlier this month and detained on suspicion of violating children’s rights.
The children were placed in foster care in Croatia while her ex-husband Kendall Seymour worked to bring them home. He told The Associated Press that he was currently in the southern European country, visiting the children while completing paperwork. He is the father of his three oldest children and said he has power of attorney for children who are not his.
Salt Lake County District Attorney Sam Gill said his office is exploring options for extraditing Eleshia Seymour with federal partners. She was unavailable for comment while in Croatian detention, and Utah court records did not list an attorney who could speak on her behalf.
Elleshia Seymour posted a video of herself on TikTok last year describing apocalyptic dreams and urging people to prepare, according to her ex-husband in the video seen by The Associated Press.
Apocalypse is a Christian perspective and there are many interpretations of apocalyptic biblical passages, but many believe it involves a series of cataclysmic events before Jesus returns to Earth.
In one video, she said she dreamed of an electromagnetic pulse attack that caused planes to crash, computers to stop working, and people to lose food, water and heat. “The Lord was trying to tell the people that it was going to be a cold winter.”
Elleshia Seymour and her children were last seen in the United States in late November. According to her ex-husband, they were living with an American family in Croatia, who apparently did not initially know that she and her children were wanted.
Kendall Seymour said by phone from Croatia that one of the children tipped off her host son, leading to her arrest on January 16. “One of my kids told him, ‘Hey, search my name, Google my name and you’ll find it.'”
He said the host family either reported her or convinced her to do so.
Kendall Seymour said the FBI received information that Elleshia Seymour and her children, ages 11, 8, 7 and 3, allegedly left their home in suburban Salt Lake City in late November and are now in Croatia.
An ex-boyfriend told police that Eleshia Seymour “had recently discussed obtaining a passport and leaving the country, expressing concerns about biblical events and the ‘end of the times,'” according to Utah court documents.
Court documents say police went to Seymour’s home in West Jordan on Dec. 2 after friends and co-workers reported they couldn’t reach him. Police found the apartment unlocked, no one home, and a notebook outlining plans to shred documents, discard cellphones and take passports.
Police later found her car parked at Salt Lake City International Airport and reviewed video showing the family entering the airport on Nov. 29 and boarding a one-way flight to Europe, court documents said.
According to court documents, Elleshia Seymour divorced the father of her youngest child in 2024 and divorced Kendall Seymour in 2021.
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Associated Press writer Jovana Gec in Belgrade, Serbia, contributed to this report.
