Teenager finds himself on missing-children list

By Monte Morin, Kevin Pang and Christina Sciaudone
Los Angeles Times

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The teen, according to the U.S. Marshals Office, told a teacher about what he discovered on a Web site devoted to missing children. That set in motion a federal investigation that ended with the arrest of his mother last week and ignited hopes among his father's family of a reunion they feared might never happen.

Yesterday, the 17-year-old was under the care of the Los Angeles County Children and Family Services Department and was poised to be reunited with his father, an electrician in Ponoka, Alberta. His mother, meanwhile, was awaiting extradition to Canada to face charges of child abduction.

The teen's grandparents on his father's side said yesterday that they and their son were thrilled at the prospect of getting to know him. Berni Steinmann remembered his grandson as a stocky 3-year-old with light brown hair. He can't imagine what the boy looks like today.

"We are happy something is finally happening," he said. "My son has been worried for the last 14 years. We'd like to give the young fellow all the support we can."

According to authorities, the teen's mother, Gisele Marie Johnson, now 45, and father, Rodney Steinmann, 43, shared custody of him in Red Deer, Alberta. Shortly after Steinmann was awarded sole custody in 1989, Johnson reportedly failed to return her son after a visit and disappeared.

Johnson and her son, whose name was not released, are Canadian citizens who were living in the United States legally. Jinell Griffin, a spokesman for the U.S. Marshals Office, said the mother had been working in an administrative office of the Los Angeles Unified School District for four years and had lived in California since 1995.

Johnson had been married twice since the boy was allegedly abducted and changed her last name, making it difficult to be tracked down, Griffin added.

Johnson was arrested by U.S. marshals Feb. 11, a few months after her son made the discovery on the Internet. She was about to go to work, and her son was preparing to leave for school, when six deputy marshals appeared at their doorstep with a warrant for Johnson's arrest.

"She was upset, crying," Griffin said. "The boy was upset and distraught, especially since he had to be turned over to the county, since there's no other family members in the area. ... And he was seeing his mother taken away in handcuffs."

Johnson is being held without bail at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles.
 
Johnson and her son lived in an apartment complex in Chatsworth, in the San Fernando Valley, where friends described her as a devoted mother who earned extra money by cleaning homes.

"She worked very hard, and everything she did, she did for him, to put him through school, to make sure he had a good education," said apartment manager Rina Rio.

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