Local : Return Boy to Tustin, Sweden Says

A Swedish court today ordered that a 3-year-old Tustin boy be returned to his mother after her estranged husband took the child to Sweden after staging a boating accident about seven weeks ago.

Marci Steele picked up 3-year-old Schyler Steele from the Swedish foster home where the two of them had been staying and left for Stockholm, from where she plans to leave for the United States today or tomorrow, according to a worker at the foster home. Marci Steele was awarded custody of Schyler when the couple separated last year.

The father, Scott Steele, remains in a Swedish jail pending his extradition to the United States on criminal charges alleging grand theft, forgery and bad checks in Riverside and Orange counties. Steele said in an interview from jail that the Swedish custody hearing was unfair and that he plans to appeal the custody when he returns to the United States.