Fact Sheet

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Fact Sheet / Chronology of Events

Re: Abducted Silah Children

Greg 10, Alexander 12, Zaven 8

  1. Christine Jeanbart (formerly Christine Silah) mother of:Greg Alexander Silah – born July 23, 1998Christine was married to John Silah on August 30, 1996, separated on June 5, 2001 and divorced on October 16, 2003
  2. Zarouhi (Zanni) Meguerian mother of:Alexander Zaven Silah – born April 1, 1996and Zaven Philip Silah – born October 29, 1999

    Zanni was married to George Silah on August 1, 1988, separated on August 15, 2004 and divorced on March 2, 2006

  3. Father of Greg: John Silah
  4. Father of Alexander and Zaven: George Silah
  5. Both mothers had joint legal custody with their former husbands. Zanni had physical custody of her children, and Christine had primary physical custody of her child.
  6. George Silah had every-other weekend visitation, half the summer, one night weekly and alternate holidays.
  7. John Silah had “reasonable visitation”.
  8. Both men are Syrian citizens.
  9. The fathers of these children requested that they be granted the same visitation schedule in the beginning of June 2008, so that the children would all be able to spend time together over the summer. The mothers were notified on July 1 (Christine) and July 2 (Zanni) that the father intended to take the three boys to their timeshare at Worldmark Resort in Big Bear, California. Neither of the fathers and none of the children ever checked into the resort. Greg was to be returned home to his mother on July 6, 2008; Alex and Zaven were to return home on July 10, 2008 after Zanni granted her former husband an extra four days to take the children on a Disney cruise line ship, Disney Wonder, that was to debark from Florida.
  10. On July 2, 2008, Zanni Meguerian went to John and George’s home at 7371 W. 81st Street, Los Angeles (the Westchester area) to obtain a copy of the confirmed cruise itinerary, to provide George copies of Alex and Zaven’s birth certificates and to say goodbye to her sons. She later phoned to get the itineraries for her sons’ airline flight from Los Angeles to Florida to board the cruise, but her ex-husband refused to answer his cell and her son Alex said that his father was angry and would not come to the phone. She then asked Alex to call, and if unable to do so, to email her every day that he and his brother were gone. That was the last time Zanni spoke to or has heard from Alex.
  11. On July 3, 2008, Zanni called Alex’s cell phone. It went straight to voice mail. Similarly, she tried to call her former husband’s two cell phone numbers and that of his brother, John, but both went straight to voice mail. On July 3, 2008 Zanni telephoned Christine who had also left a voice mail message for Greg on John’s phone. She reported not having heard back from either of them.
  12. On July 4, 2008, after not hearing from any of the children despite Christine and Zanni’s repeated phone calls, they telephoned the Big Bear Sheriff’s office to have them visit the resort and confirm that their ex-husbands and sons were there. They reported back that no one had checked in under those names or descriptions. Also, on July 4, 2008, Christine went to the LAPD, West Valley Division and notified Officer Pina that she believed Greg was missing. Christine was told that since the boys were not scheduled to return until July 6, and that it was the father’s custodial time with the children, there was nothing LAPD could do, at that time.
  13. Later that day, both Christine and Zanni drove by the Silah men’s address and discovered two newspapers in the driveway and mail in the mailbox. They tried calling George and John again, but were immediately connected with voice mail.
  14. On July 5, 2008, Christine visited Officer Pina once again. She was told to wait until 10 a.m. on Sunday, when John’s custodial time ended, before the police could get involved.
  15. On July 5, 2008, when Zanni’s children did not return from Big Bear to fly from Los Angeles to Florida, Zanni contacted the FBI and reported the children missing.
  16. When John did not return Greg at 10 a.m. on Sunday, July 6, as per the court order, Christine and Zanni went to the LAPD, Pacific Area division. That same day, the Brevard County Sheriff’s Department in Florida contacted the Disney Cruise Lines and Zanni learned that neither her sons nor her ex-husband had boarded the cruise for which George had paid. The Brevard County Sheriff’s Department went to the port where the Disney Cruse Line ship George, Alex and Zaven were to be on was docked. When the sheriff arrived, the ship had already departed. LAPD opened both missing persons and child abduction cases for the children.
  17. On July 6, 2008, Zanni again contacted the FBI, and informed them that Greg was not returned to Christine, and neither George, nor her children boarded the Disney cruise. The police listed all three children and George and John on their watch list.
  18. On July 8, 2008, Christine tried calling John’s cell phone once again. He did not answer; the call went to voice mail. Christine tried calling friends and family. No one knew of George or John’s whereabouts.
  19. On July 8, 2008, Zanni received a phone call from a woman identifying herself as “Garene” who was looking for George, claiming he owed her thousands of dollars. On July 9, “Garene” also called Christine.
  20. On July 8, 2008, Ronald Brot of Brot & Gross, LLP was retained by the mothers with respect to the child abduction matter.
  21. On July 10, 2008, Christine and Zanni sent a Request for Notification of Children’s Passport Application Alert to the United States Department of State, Children’s Issues.
  22. On July 12, 2008, Zanni and Christine visited their former husbands’ home. It was then that Zanni and Christine discovered a briefcase containing shell casings, gun cleaning tools, and a manual for a Smith and Wesson revolver. They also found bags of shredded documents including US immigration applications, other persons’ identification documents, other persons’ passport size photographs, John’s current driver’s license, IOUs and handwritten notes referencing transactions of thousands and thousands of dollars. John and George had previously been implicated in smuggling people across the border for money. Christine Jeanbart had been told by the FBI, while living in Philadelphia some years earlier, that her identity was being used by an illegal alien. Christine believes that John had smuggled the woman in and sold her Christine’s identity. When Zanni and Christine entered the bedrooms of the house, the rooms were in utter disarray, and appeared as though everyone had left very quickly. The two women took photographs. Later, phone messages left for George and John Silah, indicated threats by members of the Armenian community for the brothers’ deceitful acts, who provided graphic descriptions of how they would torture and kill the two men.
  23. Since the disappearance of the Silah men, both Christine and Zanni have been approached by many individuals claiming that George and John owed them money. Claims from people within the Armenian community, together with reconstructed documents from the shredder indicate that the notorious pair took not less than five million dollars under pretenses.
  24. Later it was discovered that a car often driven by George and John, a 2008 Jeep Wrangler, had been impounded after the two had abandoned it.
  25. On July 15, 2008, the women discovered that George and John had deceitfully gained access to two leased cars—a black Chevrolet Tahoe and a silver 2008 Infiniti (California plate: 6DZS016). The lessee of the two later filed a claim for automobile theft on July 21, 2008.
  26. On July 16, 2008, Christine and Zanni hired private investigator John Nazarian to help them retrieve their children. The three have met with LAPD. A Detective Lopez indicated that she would be contacting various other detectives within the LAPD and also the On-Star Network to try to locate the Chevrolet Tahoe. On-Star insisted that a request to locate a car based on missing person or child abduction claims must be processed through their legal department. On-Star determined parental child abduction is a ‘civil matter’ and would not activate On-Star would not activate the device until the car was listed as stolen within the National Crime Information Center database, or they had a stolen car police report. On-Star has since been unable to activate the device (if the car is turned off for 48 hours – On-Star will not activate).
  27. On July 23, 2008, 2008, Ronald Brot took action on the child abduction case from a family law perspective, and petitioned the court to act on the abduction.
  28. On July 23, 2008, during an ex parte hearing at the Los Angeles Superior Court, based on the abduction Judge Frederick Shaller revoked all visitation privileges of the Silah men, awarded immediate sole custody to the mothers, ordered the LA District Attorneys office to open an investigation and further ordered them to locate, retrieve and return the minor children to the mothers.
  29. Neither Christine Jeanbart nor Zanni Merguerian have heard from their children or John or George Silah since Wednesday, July 2, 2008.
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