On February 23, 2009, Sean Collins, 37, of Boufford Lane, Uxbridge, contacted the Townsend Police Department to report his belief that his wife, Sandra Cordoso-Collins, 38, of 125 West Meadow Estates in West Townsend, from whom he has separated, had left the country. He believed that she had flown to Brazil with their four-year-old son for whom they shared legal custody.
Collins stated that due to the circumstances of how she left, he felt his wife had no plans to return to the United States with their son.
Several days after her departure, Collins started receiving e-mails and correspondence from his wife indicating that she had no plans on returning to the United States with their son. At this point, Townsend Police notified the State Department as well as entering the child into the NCIC (National Crime Information Center) database.
In May, Collins once again contacted the Townsend Police Department advising that his wife had still not returned and that he had been awarded full physical custody of his son by Massachusetts Family and Probate Court. The court had ordered that Collins’ son be immediately returned to the United States.
Subsequent to this order, the Townsend Police Department applied for and obtained a warrant from Ayer District Court for the arrest of Cardoso-Collins for custodial kidnapping.
On July 2, 2009, after receiving information that Cardoso-Collins and her son would be re-entering the country and flying into Logan International Airport, Detective Jeffrey Thibodeau and Officer Thomas Pearson of the Townsend Police Department, assisted by the Massachusetts State Police, met Cardoso-Collins as she was deboarding her plane with her son and took her into custody. Custody of the 4-year-old, who was with her, was relinquished to the father.
Cardoso-Collins was transported from Logan Airport to Ayer District Court by Townsend police where she was arraigned on kidnapping charges. She was released on personal recognizance for a pretrail conference date of Aug. 19 and with the conditions that she surrender her and the child’s passport, does not leave the state and reports to probation pending the hearing.
