Two children who were reported missing in Ohio in October have been found thousands of miles away in a hotel in Reykjavík, Iceland, authorities said.

Newsweek reached out to the U.S. Marshals Service for comment via email on Wednesday. Newsweek is not naming the family to protect their identities.

What To Know

The two young siblings, aged 8 and 9, from Canton, Ohio, had been reported missing on October 25, 2024.

An initial report indicated that their mother, 34, had stopped taking her mental health medication, had left her apartment, and that the children had stopped going to school, per the U.S. Marshals Service’s statement.

The Canton Police Department shared police reports with Newsweek that said the children’s grandmother first reported them missing to police. She expressed concern about her daughter’s mental health and believed she had not been taking her medication.

Investigations first tracked the children to Denver, Colorado. They then traveled to London, England, and then to the Island of Jersey in the English Channel.

After that, they went to a remote fishing village in Iceland, and were eventually found by Icelandic police at a hotel in the capital city Reykjavik on January 10, per the U.S. Marshals Service’s statement.

Reports from the Canton Police Department also claimed that at one point, the mother and two children were stopped while trying to cross the border into Canada.

Vinny Piccoli, the deputy U.S. Marshall who oversees the missing child unit, told local outlet 19 News about the mother: “She kind of spiraled when she took the kids and it was out of the ordinary, out of the normal, for her to not return with the kids.”

The investigation to find them was conducted as a collaboration between the U.S. Marshals Service in Northern Ohio, the Canton Police Department (CPD), the U.S. State Department, Interpol and two U.S. embassies.

“The mom would constantly be on the move with these girls, they were never really in one location overseas for a long period of time. So we knew that as soon as we got information on our end, we needed to put that out in order to locate them and get them back safely,” he said.

What People Are Saying

U.S. Marshal Pete Elliott said in a press release: “The collaboration of effort in this case can’t be overstated. The ability to respond and recover these children abroad is an extremely difficult task. Our investigators did an outstanding job. We are lucky to have such strong and dedicated law enforcement partners and credit should be given to them for helping bring these children home.”

What Happens Next

The children were placed in the care of Iceland social services until they could be united with a family member, the Marshals Service said.

Their mother was admitted to a hospital where she will stay until she is well enough to travel back to the U.S., they said. It is not known if she will face any charges.