Week in Review : MAJOR EVENTS, IMAGES AND PEOPLE IN ORANGE COUNTY NEWS : MISCELLANY / NEWSMAKERS AND MILESTONES
Monique Nicole Pace, 9, was reunited with her mother in Costa Mesa last week and her father was arrested on suspicion of abducting the girl four years ago.
A woman, whose name was not released, recognized Monique as one of the missing children pictured in a restaurant’s customer newsletter.
On Monday, police arrested Monique’s father, Angelo Pace, shortly after he dropped her off at a Costa Mesa private school. They also took Monique to the station for an emotional reunion with her mother, Vickie Croes of Hialeah, Fla.
Warrants for Angelo Pace’s arrest were issued not only to Hialeah police for parental abduction, but also to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration for narcotics charges contained in a 14-count, federal grand jury indictment, a Costa Mesa police spokesman said.
Since Croes last saw her daughter on Aug. 26, 1982, Monique has had facial surgery to remove a prominent birthmark on her chin, and has traveled as far as Rome, where her father was living with his parents, authorities said.
Later, there were reports that she had been seen in Louisiana, Texas and Utah.
On Tuesday, she returned to Florida with her mother.
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