Kathyja, thank you so much for the news !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/missing-australian-boy-andrew-thompson-found-after-three-years/story-e6frf7jx-1225916285616Missing Australian boy Andrew Thompson found after three years By staff writers
September 09, 2010 10:10AM
AN Australian boy who went missing almost three years ago has been found in Northern Europe, bringing an end to his father's desperate search. Andrew Thompson was abducted in 2008 by his mother Melinda Stratton after she was diagnosed with a mental disorder.
Despite a worldwide search, Ms Stratton eluded authorities until Monday when she tried to enrol Andrew in a school in Amsterdam, reported the Sydney Morning Herald.
Authorities were alerted after a school principal ran a security check when he noticed Andrew's passport was expired and discovered Andrew had featured in more than 180 Interpol alerts.
Andrew's father Ken Thompson, a former deputy commissioner of the New South Wales Fire Brigades, was last night on his way to meet his son.
A family Friend, Robin Bowles, told the Sydney Morning Herald, "Ken's ecstatic, emotional, relieved, overjoyed and still in a total state of shock," Ms Bowles said.
"It is no secret there were fears for both Melinda's and Andrew's safety and the longer time went on, the fear grew deeper within Ken that maybe he'd never see his son again. He wants to see him. He can't wait a moment longer."
Mr Thomson has spent every day of the last three and a half months cycling through Europe, looking for his son in a heroic search effort.
He has cycled through over half a dozen countries in his desperate mission to find his missing son.
Three-year nightmare overIt’s been almost three years after his ordeal began when his son and wife went missing on April 24, 2008.
Ms Stratton began showing the first signs of mental illness in 2006 according to Mr Thompson.
The symptoms were subtle at first, but they progressed, manifesting themselves in paranoia and false beliefs about various people, including Mr Thompson.
"I didn't realise it at the time, but it started slowly and just escalated, it was terrible," Mr Thompson said previously.
By December 2007, his wife had been diagnosed by one of Australia's leading psychiatrists as having a paranoia disorder, and left their family home on January 1.
She fled the country with three-year-old Andrew after fearing she would lose access to him over the psychatrist's report.
The Australian Federal Police issued a warrant for her arrest and together with Interpol managed to trace her to Frankfurt, but there the trail quickly ran cold.
Mr Thompson took early retirement and began to plot a way to find his son.
At that point the Family Court of Australia had granted an order lifting a ban on Andrew's name being published, to aid the search.
Mr Thompson got himself fit, organised a bike, set up a website, got a cycling shirt printed with Andrew's face on it and set off for Europe.
- With AAP
