What began as a simple walk home
from a shopping trip more than five years ago became a nightmare, she says.
"November 3, 2006, is when they
stole my daughter," she told CNN Thursday. "I had left to go shopping. When I
came back, I did not realize that a woman was following me. When I entered my
house, my daughter stayed on the patio, and that was when she was taken."
But that account is not what she
has told other news organizations in describing what happened that day.
In 2008, she told ABC News a
woman appeared in her backyard and grabbed her out of her arms, while she was
trying to enter her house.
Last year, the Associated Press
reported that Rodriguez felt someone tug at her daughter as she tried to enter
her home, and then turned to see a woman get into a waiting taxi, along with her
young daughter.
And the El Periodico newspaper
reported that Rodriguez said she left her daughter on the patio with other
children while she went to deal with clothes on the terrace.
Reached Friday by phone,
Rodriguez told CNN she does not remember telling ABC or anyone that the girl was
snatched from her arms. She said she's given multiple interviews on the case,
and stood by what she said earlier -- that she left the girl outside after
returning from a shopping trip.
It all happened in about two
minutes, Rodriguez said.
Now, the 7-year-old girl is at
the center of an international custody dispute. She is a child with two
identities, in two countries, with two sets of parents who claim her as their
own.
In Missouri, they call her
Karen. In Guatemala, she is known as Anyeli.
Guatemalan authorities say
Anyeli was snatched from Rodriguez and sold to an international adoption
agency.
Last year, a Guatemalan judge
ruled that the girl belonged with Rodriguez and not with her adoptive U.S.
parents.
The Guatemalan government
suspended adoptions in 2007 after authorities found multiple cases of falsified
birth certificates and paperwork, as well as alleged thefts of babies.
This week, the U.S. State
Department weighed in on the case of the 7-year-old girl, saying a U.S. state
court would have to decide whether the girl should return to Guatemala, because
when the incident happened, the two countries had not yet signed an
international treaty dealing with abducted children.
"Our view remains that, at the
time, this appeared to be a legitimate adoption. So again, our preferred course
of action would be for any claims to be pursued in the state courts of the
United States," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.
Rodriguez told CNN she was
devastated by the news.
"I feel very sad, and I am still
suffering, because I had hope that the United States would respond to me and
would return my daughter. ... I do not know why they are unfair, because I have
my rights, because I am her real mother," she said.
In Guatemala at least 10 people
have been charged with human trafficking in connection with the case of this
adoptive girl. So far, two of those people have been convicted, and the others
are awaiting trial.
That's more than enough proof,
Rodriguez says, that her daughter should come home.
"There is very important
evidence, which revealed that she was stolen from me, and DNA evidence proves
that I am her real mother," she told CNN.
However, a source with knowledge
of the case told CNN that while Rodriguez's DNA matches the DNA of a child
brought to the embassy in Guatemala, there is no evidence the child in question
in the United States is the same child tested at the embassy.
Also, questions have been raised
about whether the person presenting the child at the embassy was, in fact,
Rodriguez's sister, which casts doubt on the kidnapping story, the source
said.
Guatemalan authorities say the
adoption agency falsified documents to make the girl eligible for adoption,
something that the adoptive parents in Missouri apparently didn't know.
Rodriguez says she now hopes to
go to court in Missouri to get her daughter back.
The adoptive parents were
unavailable for comment, referring CNN to their lawyer in Washington, who
declined to comment.
Last year a family
representative said the adoptive parents would "continue to advocate for the
safety and best interests of their legally adopted child. They remain committed
to protecting their daughter from additional traumas as they pursue the truth of
her past through appropriate legal channels."
Link to CNN Article
Link to CNN Article
