Missing boy found, mother arrested

Published 6:00 pm Wednesday, April 13, 2005

Sky Gilbert was located in New Zealand, and will be returned shortly.

Wakened by the ringing phone at 1 a.m. Saturday, Roby Gilbert got the news: his 9-year-old abducted son, Sky Gilbert, was finally, finally, coming home.

“There was this stunned feeling, and then absolute relief, that for the first time in three years, we actually knew where he was at that moment,” said Laura Schmidt, Roby Gilbert’s fiancée. “It took a while to sink in.

“All Roby could say was, ‘I can’t believe this. I can’t believe this.’”

After an intensive search aided by the FBI and Kitsap County Sheriff’s detectives, authorities in New Zealand arrested the boy’s mother, Juliette Cybell Peet Gilbert, in the community of Rorotua on New Zealand’s north island at about midnight Friday.

Sky Gilbert was temporarily placed with New Zealand’s Child Youth and Family Services.

Juliette Gilbert faces charges of custodial interference in Kitsap County Superior Court, and unlawful flight to avoid prosecution in U.S. District Court in Tacoma, authorities said. If convicted, she faces up to a year in jail.

For now, Roby Gilbert and Schmidt are concerned about Sky, who has been with his mother on the run for three years.

A team of therapists and others have been lined up to help the boy make the transition back into life on Bainbridge Island, where he is expected to live with his father and Schmidt, who will marry next month.

Kitsap County sheriff’s spokesman Scott Wilson said that authorities are now coordinating plans to return Juliette and Sky Gilbert to the United States.

Islanders welcomed the news of Sky’s pending return to Bainbridge with calls and notes and visits to the family.

“I came home from work, and written on my phone bill in my mailbox was a note from Dan, our mailman, that said, ‘I am happy that you will see your son soon,’” Roby Gilbert said. “I am really moved by the overwhelming support from the community.

“My friends have been so wonderful throughout this ordeal.”

At a press conference in the front of the Bainbridge Island police headquarters Tuesday, Gilbert and Schmidt met with a throng of reporters for the first time since the youth was located.

“In our hearts there is a celebration today as we await Sky’s return,” Roby Gilbert said. “And although we are all very relieved that Sky is no longer living life as a fugitive, our enthusiasm is tempered by the gravity of Sky’s situation.”

They thanked the community, including law enforcement officials, for support over the past three years. They also asked the media to respect their privacy in coming days.

“Sky deserves the opportunity to reunite and heal without the stress of heightened media attention,” Gilbert said.

“There is this feeling of elation, but at the same time it is restrained, because we know how much trauma he’s gone through,” Schmidt said. “The real celebration will be when Roby and Sky get to see one another again.”

Roby Gilbert last saw Sky on April 3, 2002. That was the day his mother took the boy to a birthday party and never returned. Roby and Juliette Gilbert had a joint custody agreement under their divorce decree.

Kitsap County Sheriff’s investigators have spent thousands of hours attempting to find the mother and son, deputy Wilson said. In January, the first solid lead as to their whereabouts surfaced.

That’s when Juliette’s boyfriend in New Zealand called authorities. Juliette and Sky had been living with the man for several months when they suddenly disappeared; the boyfriend’s suspicions led him to do an Internet search, and he discovered that Juliette was wanted by the FBI on child abduction charges.

The story garnered international media attention, and Juliette Gilbert surfaced to cut a deal with New Zealand immigration authorities for her return to the United States.

She surrendered the pair’s passports to civil authorities and promised to turn herself in within 14 days, after settling personal affairs. In interviews with reporters, she alleged that she fled Bainbridge Island because Roby Gilbert was verbally abusive, a charge he denies.

But instead of turning herself in, Juliette Gilbert disappeared again, taking Sky with her.

New information on the pair, developed by the FBI and Kitsap County Sheriff’s detectives, led authorities this month to the New Zealand tourist destination of Rorotua, population 70,000, where Juliette had applied to lease a residence.

When she and Sky arrived to pick up the keys Friday night at midnight, authorities took them into custody without incident.

“It must be just devastating for him,” Schmidt said, referring to Sky’s witnessing of his mother’s arrest. “We are talking to adult survivors of abduction to help Sky make sense of this whole thing. He was abducted once by his mother and taken from everything he knows, and now it has happened again.”

Roby Gilbert said the family is determined to help Sky return to a childhood that is as normal as possible.

“How his reunion is handled will affect him for the rest of his life,” his father said. “We can’t wait to tell Sky face-to-face how much we have missed him, and how much we love him.”