CENTRAL OHIO Mother who fled with daughter convicted
The woman fled to Ohio with her daughter and had her take an assumed name.
NEWARK, Ohio (AP) -- A woman has been convicted of disappearing in 1995 from California with her daughter in a custody dispute and coming to Ohio, where the girl lived under a different name.
Sheri Lyn Taylor, 36, entered no contest pleas to charges of forgery and interference with custody and was convicted by Judge Thomas M. Marcelain of Licking County Common Pleas Court.
Taylor and her daughter, Vanesa Brancheau, were reported missing by the girl's father in 1995 from the Los Angeles community of Woodland Hills.
Then and now
The girl, 5 when she was reported missing, was found last July in Johnstown -- about 20 miles northeast of Columbus -- when a neighbor recognized her picture from the Web site of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
Vanesa Brancheau, now 14, had been living under the name Ariel Rose Wiggins with her mother.
Marcelain has not set a date for Taylor's sentencing. Her attorney, John Obora, said he will ask for probation.
Despite the charges, Taylor was awarded custody of Vanesa Brancheau in December. Her father, David Brancheau, who now lives in Auburn Hills, Mich., was granted liberal visiting rights.
Brancheau, 42, who traveled from Michigan to be at the hearing Wednesday, had no comment. He and Taylor never married but shared custody of their daughter when they lived in California.