Roberth Vega has lived his whole life in Ecuador, and for the most part, so have his children. That changed in February of 2024 when he says the mother of his children, Deisy Tenesaca, abducted them out a bedroom window in the middle of the night in Charlotte.
“Since the first day she took them away from me, I haven’t stopped thinking about my children – 24 hours a day,” he said. “There are times when I can’t hold back the tears. I’m on medication because otherwise the crying prevents me from speaking.”
Now, he says he’s turning to the federal government for help to get his kids back home.
“There is serious harm every day that the children are kept apart from their father, which is why we are fighting, but with the difficulties in locating the mother, it is impossible to continue with the case at this time,” Vega’s U.S. attorney Derrick Hensley said.
ALSO READ >> Ex-boyfriend arrested for kidnapping, assaulting woman for 2nd time in weeks
Vega and Tenesaca first met in 2015 in Ecuador, and while they never married, they did have two children and lived together. In 2021, Tenesaca moved from Ecuador to Spain without her children, according to Vega.
At the time, the children were one and three years old, and since her departure the children lived with Vega in Ecuador where he was granted full custody of them – not once – but three separate times. Vega shared videos of his home and his children’s rooms with Channel 9 which were adorned with princess-themed toys and furniture for his daughter.
“They have everything at home, they lack nothing. Even before we left, my children had everything,” Vega said.
Despite living thousands of miles away Vega held out hopes that he could rekindle his relationship with Tenesaca – but his attempts to do so were anything but heartwarming.
In 2022 Vega said he was asked to meet Tenesaca in Mexico – but the reunion never happened. According to Vega Tenesaca never showed up, but things went from bad to worse when he was kidnapped by a cartel for eight days. After he was released, he went home to Ecuador to be with his children where life continued as usual for more than a year.
Then, in 2024, Vega said he was once again convinced to meet up with Tenesaca, this time, in the U.S.
“She started telling me that we should go there, that I should take the babies, that we should give ourselves another chance. She started filling the child’s head with dreams that we would be a family again,” the Ecuadorian father told us.
Vega along with his children traveled to the U.S. and eventually made their way to Charlotte where Tenesaca was supposedly living with her aunt, but that first day in Charlotte would turn out to be the last day Vega would see his children for more than one year.
“During the night, the aunt and her family made noises to distract [Roberth] while [Tenesaca] took the children from their bedroom out of a window. Upon discovering the children were missing, [Roberth] called 911 to report their kidnapping,” according to the lawsuit.
But when police responded Vega said they told him they had already been contacted by Tenesaca herself, who told them Vega had attacked her. It appears nobody was arrested or charged, and ever since then Vega has been fighting to get his kids back home.
Following the incident Vega said he did talk with Tenesaca again, but his efforts to get his kids bad were in vain.
“I told her not to do this – told her she’s putting herself at risk because what she was doing is kidnapping – I have custody of the babies, I have the immigration papers that make me responsible for the children,” Vega said.
Although kidnapping is illegal, Tenesaca hasn’t been charged with any crime. While that could change, right now it’s a civil matter playing out in federal court. Vega is relying on The Hauge Convention and the International Child Abduction and the International Child Abduction Remedies Act (ICARA) to have his children returned.
The international law is found in the Hauge Convention, and both the United States and Ecuador are signatories to the convention – meaning these international laws are applicable in both countries.
The case is currently ongoing in federal court for the Western District of North Carolina, but law enforcement has so far been unable to locate Tenesaca – both the Sheriff’s Office as well as the US Marshals have attempted to serve her with court documents – to no avail.
Vega and his attorney have since found a new address where they believe Tenesaca lives in Charlotte. When Telemundo Charlotte and Channel 9 went to the residence nobody answered the door, and a neighbor said she had not seen anyone matching her description. Because of the difficulty of locating Tenesaca and the children, the judge has agreed to an extension of time for them to serve her until the end of the year.
VIDEO: Charlotte man accused of smuggling guns, drugs and even cheese on planes