Joyous Reunion Ends a Mother’s Time of Trial

Faith Canutt’s seven-year obsession came to a joyous halt Thursday morning just outside a truck stop in Topeka, Kan.

The 35-year-old woman, who has become a leader in the nationwide campaign to find missing children, was vacationing with her fiance when she read a newspaper story that said authorities were trying urgently to find her.

Her two daughters--abducted by her former husband from their Valencia home in 1978--had been found and they were back in Los Angeles with Canutt’s parents.

“It was a wonderful moment, but one that I had been expecting. All down through the years, I knew this would happen one day,” Canutt said Thursday evening after a press conference in her attorney’s Westwood office.

The girls--Alisa, 14, and Kristin, 11--sat holding their mother’s hands, the oldest only remembering her mother vaguely; the youngest not at all.

“It was neat,” Alisa said of the reunion, “because she looks exactly like I thought she would look like . . . a lot like me.”

At the same time Thursday, Ronald Whitelaw, 38, sat in the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station, awaiting arraignment today in Newhall Municipal Court on charges of felony child stealing and unlawful interstate flight. He is being held in lieu of $200,000 bail.

On April 7, 1978, he picked up his daughters for a weekend visit. Four months earlier, Canutt had been given custody after the divorce. Whitelaw and the children never returned, moving first to the Sacramento area and then, for the last six years, living in the small town of Lebanon, Ore.

On Monday night a Lebanon-area bus driver recognized a photo of one of the girls on a television show about missing children. He called authorities, and on Tuesday morning, Whitelaw, who once was a wealthy real estate developer in Santa Barbara, was arrested.

Arriving at Burbank Airport on Thursday afternoon with sheriff’s deputies, Whitelaw said he does not regret taking his children, adding that he “had no other choice but to do what I did. I had to live with my children, and she (Canutt) had threatened my life and lives of my kids if I tried to get them back.”

Canutt’s lawyer, Stephen A. Kolodny, said he had “listened to that rhetoric . . ,” and described it as “some kind of way to justify his behavior.”

Whitelaw could face up to three years in state prison if convicted, Los Angeles Deputy Dist. Atty. Elliot Fisher said.

Canutt, who now lives in Hawaii, has devoted much of her time since her children’s disappearance to the campaign to find missing children--particularly those who were taken by non-custodial parents, Kolodny said. She has appeared on numerous television shows and has actively worked for Child Find, an organization devoted to finding missing children.

Her case gained prominence last year when a Los Angeles Superior Court judge awarded Canutt $1.5 million in damages from Whitelaw, Whitelaw’s mother, and his current wife for the emotional distress caused by losing her children. It was called the nation’s first civil damage case involving parental child stealing. Kolodny said Canutt has not yet received any money from the court action.

“My advice to parents,” Canutt said, “is don’t quit, and push as hard as possible for legislation to prevent this kind of thing from happening.”

Canutt said Thursday that Kristin did not know that her mother was alive, and Alisa knew that her mother was looking for her, but did not know what to do.

“The only thing uncomfortable about seeing them again was trying not to cry,” Canutt said. “But the first thing I did was hold my oldest--and I cried.”

Still Love Their Father

Both children said they still love their father and want to see him as often as possible.

“I have my mom and dad and everybody I love,” Alisa said. “It feels good.”

Looking down at her daughters, Canutt said, “They seem pretty happy, but this is day one, and we have a lot to talk about and see what kind of relationship we can build . . . . I got through with all the anger and desire for revenge. You can’t buy all the years back. It’s time to start over.”