Reunion Makes It Father’s Day : Encino Church’s Detective Work Brings Back Missing Daughter

Floyd Greenman spent Father’s Day last year wondering if he would ever see his 9-year-old daughter again.

With the help of Bethel Lutheran Church in Encino, Greenman was able to celebrate “the best Father’s Day ever” this year with his only child, Talia Andrea Greenman.

The two were reunited Friday when a private detective hired by the church located the girl living with her mother, Laura Dee Greenman, 35, in Casper, Wyo. Acting on a tip from the detective, Casper police arrested the mother, who remains in custody on kidnaping charges, authorities said.

“I can’t believe it,” Floyd Greenman said as he and his daughter emerged from services at the church Sunday. “The church really went all-out.”

Church Committee

The Rev. John R. Steward, church pastor, said a church committee was formed two years ago to help find children abducted by their parents. The committee contacted Greenman after learning about Talia’s disappearance in February, 1987, through a state-funded agency called Find the Children, he said.

The committee distributed flyers with Talia’s picture on them in churches and schools throughout the state, Steward said. After contacting newspapers, radio and television stations, the committee raised money through donations to hire a private detective, he said.

Greenman, of Chatsworth, estimated that the church had spent about $4,000 to locate his daughter. “I think the church spent more money than they planned on,” Greenman said, adding that he would not have been able to afford to look for his daughter on his own. “The support they’ve shown me has meant a lot.”

Joint Custody

Greenman, a 40-year-old computer-program analyst, said he and his wife were granted joint custody of Talia after their divorce in 1986.

But he said he was later granted full legal custody of his daughter after his former wife began threatening to kill herself and Talia if the girl continued to visit him. He said Talia was abducted Feb. 14, 1987, while visiting with his wife’s parents in Sepulveda.

Despite the grief caused by the incident, Greenman said he wants his daughter to be able to see her mother again, as long as it’s in the presence of a state social worker.

“My daughter loves her mother and needs to see her,” Greenman said. “She’s such a sweet and loving child that to have to go through all this is very unfair.”