Location: Warsaw, Kosciusko County, Indiana
First I'm going to preface that the person this is for does not use reddit; I am only doing my part to help her. The following is from her pov:
"My daughter wanted to have a sleep over with her friend, who happens to be my brother's girlfriend's daughter. I agreed to let my daughter stay the night with my brother, his girlfriend, and her daughter. They are in the process of moving out of their mold-infested house, so the four of them were spending the night at the brother's girlfriend's parents' house -- I don't know them, but trust my brother and his girlfriend.
While the girls were playing outside, others were packing up stuff and moving it to storage. Because the moving process was taking longer than planned, and because the girlfriend's dad was sick, her mom picked the two girls up and took them to a hotel. I was not aware of this at that time.
After picking up the girls and leaving, there was a verbal fight over the phone between the girlfriend and mom, and then later my brother and the dad. Long story short, they don't like my brother and don't approve of him dating their daughter because he's not Christian, they didn't get married before hooking up, etc. They said they would call the cops if he comes over to their house.
I agreed for my daughter to stay with my brother and his girlfriend, and if my brother wasn't going to be allowed to stay the night, I wanted my daughter back home. The mother was told nearly 2 hours in advance that my brother was coming to pick my daughter up when they were done moving stuff to storage.
They arrive at the hotel to pick her up, and the mother refuses to give my brother my daughter. The hotel staff threatened to trespass my brother if he didn't leave -- and I know they were just doing their jobs. The police were called, and despite me verbally telling them over the phone that I want my daughter brought home by my brother, they told me that it was a civil matter and they couldn't force the mother or hotel to release my daughter unless I was physically there; I live in Goshen and this was in Warsaw.
I had to drive 45 minutes to this hotel, and only then did the mother give me my daughter back. The police told me that is wasn't technically kidnapping, because my brother didn't have legal custody of my daughter and I wasn't physically there. And since I got my daughter back after getting there, they couldn't escalate the situation further. There wasn't anything they could do.
Is there anything I can do? This feels like kidnapping, or something! Especially since this woman was telling a bunch of lies to my daughter the whole time, leading her to believe she was in danger and my brother was violent and dangerous and she was "protecting her from my brother!" I'm beyond happy I have my daughter back, but she's traumatized thinking her uncle was coming to hurt her! I'm beyond pissed off and I don't think it's fair that this woman who kidnapped my daughter, technically or not, just gets to go home with no punishment!"