An Irish-born man and his daughter, at the centre of an alleged abduction in the US, have been found safe and well on a tropical island off Central America.
At one stage is was thought that Mr Dominic Mooney, from Co Derry, was in hiding in the North with his daughter Kathleen. They disappeared from Mr Mooney's home in Pennsylvania in October 1998.
Although he had custody of the child, his wife, Ms Vicki Ann Laposa, had visiting rights and he had been ordered not to leave the state.
The RUC said it was believed that Mr Mooney rang Ms Laposa from Northern Ireland, and concentrated a search for the two on the Ballymoney area. A Belfast High Court judge ordered a firm of solicitors to make public details of the case in an effort to trace the girl and ordered that photographs of the child and father be circulated in the local media.
Other agencies, including Interpol and the FBI, were involved in a search spanning three continents. A spokesman for the Belfast solicitors Cleaver Fulton Rankin confirmed that the missing girl and her father had been found.
"We received a fax from an American solicitor confirming both Kathleen and Dominic Mooney had been located on an island near Honduras. I am delighted to confirm Kathleen has now been reunited with her mother," he said. It is expected that Mr Mooney will be extradited to Pennsylvania to face trial.
The Belfast News Letter reported a family friend as saying that until the news of the discovery came, "it seemed there was little hope of them ever being found. "It was entirely fortuitous they were discovered, basically living in a simple island home in the jungle thousands of miles away. It's an amazing story with a really happy ending."