10-day hunt for missing Durban toddler is over

I love you mommy." These were the first words two-year-old Isabella Krog said to her mother when they were reunited after a gruelling 10-day abduction ordeal.

The Durban toddler was allegedly kidnapped by her 48-year-old father last Wednesday, triggering a large-scale manhunt amid fears that he may try to leave the country.

Her mother, Catherine Krog, 27, raised the alarm when Isabella failed to turn up at playschool after spending the night at her father's home, near Morningside, Durban.

Cradling the sleeping child in her arms, an exhausted and emotional Krog told the Sunday Times after landing in Durban at 1am yesterday: "I feel like I've been pelted by a watermelon. I'm just so happy to have my baby back."

Krog left Durban in a rush on Friday night after private investigator Brad Nathanson and police investigating officer Lieutenant-Colonel Anton Booysen told her they had found her daughter.

Her ex-boyfriend was allegedly in breach of a custody agreement stipulating that Isabella was allowed one overnight visit a week.

The child's mother turned to her friend Nathanson, who then teamed up with Booysen to track down the alleged runaway dad in a bid to find the toddler.

Krog - who runs a recruitment agency - said her daughter was in good health but would be examined by a doctor.

"Her dad wouldn't have hurt her but he wouldn't have looked after her properly. The first thing she said when she saw me was 'I love you mommy' and she gave me a kiss," she said.

The relieved mother said she could finally rest easy. "It's been horrible. I haven't been able to function, I haven't been able to work ... it's just been hell.

"My whole family live in Australia and there's been so many times I felt so lonely and I didn't realise that I actually have so much family here. The support has been absolutely amazing."

Booysen said police received a tip-off this week, following a television news report, that the child's father - Krog's ex-boyfriend and a businessman - had been spotted in the Free State towns of Bethlehem and QwaQwa.

He and Nathanson then drove to the Free State and discovered that the father had spent two days at a friend's wholesale store.

"The friend was aware of what was going on and I arrested him for being an accessory after the fact ... after that we established that the father had borrowed his friend's car but the tracking device had been disabled.

"I contacted the tracking company on Friday and they switched it back on."

Twenty minutes later, the car was traced to Kimberley in the Northern Cape and the investigating team arrested the father at his cousin's house.

The father of the child is in custody and will appear in the Kimberley Magistrate's Court tomorrow on charges of abduction and breaching the custody agreement. He is expected to be brought to Durban later where he would stand trial.