Mother Held in Kidnaping of Daughter : Custody: Woman and accomplice are arrested four years after judge rejected accusations that ex-husband was abusing the girl.

A California woman was captured in Rochester, N.Y., four years after she kidnaped her daughter and became a fugitive when a judge rejected accusations that the girl’s father sexually abused the child, the FBI said.

April Robyn Curtis, 30, was arrested Friday at the home she shared with her two children and new husband, Christopher Meyer, FBI Agent Dale Anderson said.

Meyer, who married Curtis last year, was not charged.

Curtis evaded authorities by traveling and using false names, with help from an “underground railroad” of people dedicated to helping parents who make such charges against ex-spouses, Anderson said.

Agents also arrested Kenneth Moore Brewster, 43, an alleged accomplice. Both were held without bail on federal fugitive warrants.

Curtis took her daughter, Amanda, in 1988 after losing a child custody battle with the girl’s father, Brian Otter of Yucaipa, Calif.

The 8-year-old girl is under county care until she can be returned to Otter.

“It’s been four years. I’m so relieved that they’ve found them and that my daughter is safe,” Otter said Friday. “It’s going to be a happy reunion for us.”

California authorities said Curtis, with Brewster’s help, fled San Bernardino County with Amanda to avoid returning the girl after a visit.

The FBI says they traveled across the nation, sleeping in cars and staying with clandestine groups that give shelter and new identities to parents who believe that their children were molested by ex-spouses.

Curtis had appeared on nationally syndicated television talk shows before she fled.

The FBI found Amanda after getting a tip through the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in Virginia.