Fairytale Romance to Absolute Nightmare | The horror kidnapping of baby Sebastian | True Crime

when I was 19 years old I went to Mexico to travel I met Daniel it was something I'd always dreamed of but it was kind of Beyond a dream it was actually going to happen I was going to marry the perfect man I knew something wasn't quite right he sounded a bit dodgy you never love me you love my m as soon as Sebastian was born I realized that Daniel wasn't the man I thought he was I no longer was his princess I just became the [ __ ] when Samantha Lowry went to Mexico she thought she'd met the man of her dreams but then he vanished with their baby nobody's going to take a baby away from his mother Daniel had stated that he would kill [Music] Sebastian kept telling myself nobody nobody would do it they'll bring it back any second [Music] [Music] in 2002 19-year-old Samantha Lowry left her home in the Wilshire Countryside to go traveling in Mexico [Music] on one evening I went to a bar and and Daniel was sat across the bar from me and we were just looking at each other all night and well we just clicked straight away really Sam had been on a holiday in Mexico or she'd been there for 6 months and she had met some guy in a bar and she seemed to be very interested in him he made me feel very special he used to well treat me like a prin sounded like a fairy sale when she had met this man that she was in love with and he was wealthy and we spent about 3 months together in portata and then I left to go back to England to go to university and during the next 3 years we stayed in close contact by email I knew that I had strong feelings for Daniel and he said he was still in love with me so in August 2005 I booked a 2E holiday to go and visit Daniel in PL caran having graduated with a degree in mathematics Sam returned to Mexico to rekindle her relationship with Daniel pavon [Music] quar when I arrived we cre the he came straight away he owned a hotel and looked a room for me to stay in Daniel was an artist and he came from an incredibly wealthy family from Mexico [Music] City he looked quite mysterious a great fun to be with I felt completely secure with Daniel I loved everything about him I loved everything he did I love the way he treated me he' open the door for me all the time he'd always come and pull my chair out in every restaurant that made me admire him and love him more and we would go and visit remote beaches where just white sand for miles and miles life couldn't have gotten any better at that time she was living in a hotel by the beach is every girl's dream and she just seemed really bed with him by this point he was already asking me to stay and but I thought I'd wait at least a week and see how I felt and by the end of the two weeks I was quite deeply in love with him so I called my family in England to tell them I wasn't coming home the next thing we heard she didn't even want to move back to England she just wanted to stay there with him my family were quite shocked but they were also excited for me because they could see how excited I was and what an amazing thing it was so they were also happy for me Daniel gave the impression that he was a bit of a Playboy and that gave me the impression that maybe something wasn't quite right there after 6 months in Mexico the couple decided to move to Austin Texas [Music] Daniel's family owned a house there we thought it would be easier I could speak English he was an artist and he wanted to start selling his paintings which would have been a lot easier doing in America than in Mexico and we thought we would base ourselves there and then we could still go back to Mexico and England when and as we pleased Daniel Daniel planned a surprise for Sam to celebrate moving into their new home thank you baby this is a rose yeah every and as he opened the door there was all these presents laid out which was well very unexpected but very nice and I just started opening each [Music] one and this one is and it it was incredible to have that many presents it was like being a small child [Music] Sam [Music] Sam and then at the end he got down on one Lee and asked me to marry him will you marry me and I said yes and then I started crying and I think he had a few tears and we were just hugging and Incredibly [Music] happy my parents really liked him and really approved and were just really pleased with how happy he was making Sam and then on the other hand there was Joe who especially didn't like him my instincts from the beginning were that he sounded a little bit dodgy and I jumped to the conclusion that he's some kind of criminal [Music] in August I found out I was pregnant when I told Daniel I was pregnant he was incredibly happy and excited about it too but as I became more tired and I able to do things and you know my stomach got bigger I started noticing that Daniel's Behavior was changing he stopped being so nice to me the gifts stopped coming and we were getting on less and less and he was becoming a very different man to the man I thought he was Sebastian was born on the 29th of March it was an incredible feeling just to well the first time I hooked him and knew that he was actually mine and such a tiny little thing it was amazing and I just loved him so much there was nothing I wouldn't have done for him I wanted to be with him every single second as soon as Sebastian was born I realized that Daniel really wasn't the man I thought he was he took no interest whatsoever in Sebastian and when I was with Sebastian he took no interest any longer in me because I wasn't I wasn't paying all the attention to Daniel anymore I had Sebastian now and he was the one who needed looking after honey I'm the right now okay Daniel refed to help he refused to change him to feed him to do anything he would say a man's duty is to go out and work and bring in the money and a woman's is to look after the baby in the [Music] house before Sebastian was born he said he' never held a baby in his life and he just had no clue about babies he didn't know that they needed constant looking after and he wasn't willing to get that come on hey come on it's crying when things did start to go a bit sour between us because I wanted him to be more involved and he wasn't interested I no longer was his princess as he used to B me I just became the [Music] [ __ ] so come on S [Music] something with baby okay thank you adding to Samantha's trouble Sebastian had an intolerance to baby formula milk creating more of a rift between her and Daniel baby I'm doing my work right now do something with baby I was breastfeeding Sebastian every 1 and a half hours and he wouldn't Rock him in the night if he cried so I was incredibly tired and I was struggling that he didn't want anything to do with it Daniel Daniel on one occasion we were sitting together eating and we were talking quite cily which we hadn't done quite a while suddenly he started listing what I'd done wrong in a relationship and things only he was saying what a [ __ ] I was how pathetic how I just always used him never loved him and that's the time when I called off the Wy I didn't want that type of man bringing up my son let's build our family I told him that I didn't I no longer wanted to marry him he picked up the glates and smashed them and all I said was Daniel I'm not listening to [Music] this what are you know my huh you love my money so you going to England right you don't go anywhere yeah you don't have any piz you know what you're going to build with I'm family right now okay it was really scary it's sort of thing you see on a filmom just wasn't normal he he just looked absolutely crazy and he was getting Crazier by the second mommy what do you know I thought if he's done this big a change within weeks you don't know how far he's willing to go is it like the movie it went on for about 3 hours him behaving like this you I don't care I was very very scared why you go to you and I was incredibly scared for Sebastian you can't go Sam decided that she wanted to take Sebastian back to Britain but there was a problem under international law she needed Daniel's Mission what's more her visitor's visa had expired making her an illegal alien I went from completely trusting him and knowing he'd do the best for me to realizing that he had complete power over me now and he was in control of everything I didn't do as he pleased then I would lose [Music] Sebastian Sam managed to persuade Daniel to let her stare at a friend's house for the night promising to return with Sebastian the next morning by morning I knew that I was not going to go back to the house that it was too dangerous especially with Sebastian and Daniel had emailed and phoned quite a few times that day telling me that I must go back that I had no right to leave the house for Sebastian and that I promised I'll be back um that morning and I said that I wasn't going to come back because of his behavior but after after 4 days of constant emails and phone calls Sam finally agreed to meet with Daniel to discuss their [Music] situation as agreed Sam returned with baby Sebastian to meet with Daniel at 4:00 I took Sebastian round to Daniel's how's the baby I then thought I could have a nap while Daniel was going to be Sebastian for a while so I went and lay down Sam but a few minutes later come on go away what are you talking just go just go come on Daniel told me to get out of his house so it's my time with service right now why don't you live come on just go come on are I'm serious come on so I didn't want an argument I didn't had enough of arguing I went and stood outside the door a few minutes later I thought this is ridiculous I can't bring Sebastian around and stand outside the door [Music] so I went back in hey hey hey what are you doing huh okay come come on I said I don't think this is right I should be inside the house with Sebastian he told me to get out the game this is my home it is my time 4 hours and shouted that I never sees fasan again and he slammed the door I was banging on the door trying to get in and he wouldn't let me in Daniel open the door come on come on open the door by this point I was crying and really scared of what was actually going to happen let me in open the door Daniel Daniel open the door come on Daniel come on and then I saw Daniel running out of the house with Sebastian he literally threw him into the car he was 8 weeks old he wasn't in a proper car seat and Daniel got into the car and wasted off at an incredible speed at this point I I kept thinking he taken him around the block I because it was so unbelievable that somebody would actually do this I think deep down I knew he probably had taken him further but I just kept kept telling myself nobody nobody would do it he's not going to do it he'll bring it back any a second nobody's going to take a baby away from his mother um but he didn't come back for the first time in my life you're in a situation where there's really nothing that you can do I received a phone call just saying I need to come home now I was just told that Daniel had taken Sebastian I woke up to a message from my brother saying Daniel's taking the baby I decided I was going to call the police because I had already decided I was going to go for custody regardless of my Visa and when the police arrived we went into to Daniel's house and then we started rumaging through things and we found some very strange notes on a map of Mexico so we guessed he was going to Mexico with him with nowhere to live Sam moved back into Daniel's house and with the help of the Austin city police who overlooked her expired visa she began to search for her baby there was another reason for the urgency Sebastian's intolerance to formula milk my greatest fear them was that um Sebastian was intolerant to formula and I wasn't there to feed him so I didn't know what would happen to him within 24 to 48 hours he could die of dehydration he survived one day he may not survive the [Music] next hoping that Daniel would make contact the police hastily set up recording equipment to monitor phone calls while the police were still there the phone L and it was Daniel he told me that I needed to go down to Mexico that day he gave me a list of things to pack what to do with the house and then I'll go and join him he told me that if I told the police or my family or anyone else what he had done then I would never see Sebastian again I was crying and begging I didn't know what to do and I was just saying please please like you know don't do this to me don't frighten that I'll never see my son again um luckily the police detective was listening in on this phone call so we got all these threats recorded I was really desperate now cuz I realized he actually meant that if I did not do what he said then I wouldn't see my son again [Music] Daniel wanted me to go to Mexico where he could have complete control over me and I told everyone I was going and I was 100% set on going but the police said it's it's just not safe for you to go and eventually I was persuaded with Sebastian in any one of Daniel's several houses across Mexico the US authorities issued an international warrant for Daniel to return him to America the problem was that Sebastian was under the jurisdiction of Mexico um and the US authorities all the British authorities are not allowed to work in Mexico without their permission in a bid to help her secure Sebastian's return Sam's family joined her in Austin Daniel's house became the Larry's Command Center it's not in my family just to sit by and let something bad happen to us we set the entire house up around trying to find Sebastian we brought new computers in we set up new internet connections and we started trying to log any information we got on Sebastian's whereabouts or Daniel's intentions we didn't stop morning till night one person would be checking the emails another would be plotting on a map his latest movements somebody else answering phone calls and it just it didn't seem to stop we didn't eat we were sleeping in 2our shifts sometimes it just it just seemed like there was too much to do there seemed to be people running everywhere it was it was manic as Sam's family investigated Daniel's background they discovered he had a history of abusive relationships he had a current arrest warrant for unpaid child support from a lady who he had a child with years ago and we found a previous arrest warrant on Daniel for stalking his ex-wife and harassment and threatening harm of a knife I mean he had done this his whole life he had abused a lot of people it made us fear a lot moreful what he could do to [Music] Sebastian throughout the whole time Daniel was contacting Us by email they were generally completely disgusting emails calling me a prostitute and a [ __ ] telling me I slept with the police and the FBI and even George Bush and that's why I had the LW on my side in this case the team found a way of using these emails to track Daniel to locations back in Mexico it wasn't precise but without any clear information on his whereabouts it was the best they had and we saw that every 2 to 3 days he was generally moving okay even though at this time I know was in complete Despair and didn't know if I would ever make it and at times I really didn't think I could go on or want to keep living something inside me did keep me going on and I did know deep down that you know even if it took me the rest of my life I would keep searching for Sebastian that was what I was going to do forever while Sam attempts to track Daniel and baby Sebastian from her Base in Texas her brother Joe went straight to Mexico City we recruited a close friend of mine Tristan he was going to go with me to Mexico we realized we were in potentially very dangerous Waters our aim was to try and find out any information we could try and find where Daniel was and try and be undetectable so nobody would know where we were so there could be no chance of us getting Court we bought cameras of various descriptions GPS trackers spy equipment equipment that we might need to do our own investigation Joe and Tristan were completely unqualified for the task at hand but they decided decided to stake out Daniel's houses regardless the main house that uh Daniel's parents had was in a very very nice air indeed there was high bar wire fences all around all of the properties they had security guards every 4 500 M which meant that we couldn't break into the property because someone would find out before we got anywhere and then we had been Cast Away by the Mexican police So the plan was to put up some wanted posters for Daniel uh which had a picture of Daniel on and said Sebastian being abducted we put these up around the areas that his parents lived in purpose of this was to show the family that this was very serious they could not just brush this under the carpet when we were putting the posters up outside the parents property we actually spotted Daniel Daniel's retaliation for Joe and Tristan's efforts in Mexico City was terrifying [Music] Daniel started a six day countdown that Sebastian will die he wouldn't say why he die he just would say he would die [Music] at this point we were quite desperate and we didn't really know what to do to stop it we were on the phone to every Authority again and just hounding them you you've got to do something Sebastian's going to [Music] die as each day passed we were getting more frantic because in our mind there was a realistic chance that he was going to kill spastin at the end of six days in initially we felt like we had six days and that that would make people act but things were carrying on the same as before each day I was living in torture it was just a feeling of completing after helplessness and and it was scary because you know a mad man had the power on day six nothing happened Daniel just changed his tune to one of his abusive females and carried on as if it had never [Music] [Applause] [Music] happen the hate I felt towards Daniel was insane and it was really scary cuz I've never hate before let alone that strong I mean I just I hated him so much I was so angry at him I went crazy [Applause] [Music] I kept thinking I can't do this for much longer you know a few more days and I won't make it and at times I actually generally thought I I couldn't make it I I didn't want to be living without Sebastian I think she would have spent every single day wondering what her son was doing and where he was it just would have ruined her whole life I don't think I don't think it's something any mother gets over losing a child and especially if they don't know where they are or what's happened to them [Music] 6 weeks after the kidnapping Sam's family hired a female private investigator to help Joe locate Sebastian we went around all of his houses one of the evenings and we made the foolish mistake of going back around the same houses on the second evening we were trying to see if anything had anything had changed so we could see if anyone was living there somehow we were detected [Music] [Music] I don't really know exactly what happened cuz it was all so quick I think I was being being dragged down the slope and one or two other people were kicking and punching me one of them kicked me straight directly in the face the pi lady she was unconscious in a heap there was a lot of blood everywhere my mouth was bleeding my nose was bleeding the next day we had a meeting with the FBI and they they basically said this kind of thing does happen and in their opinion it was a strict warning don't go down this path do not track US finally several weeks after the kidnapping they got the news that they'd been waiting for a Mexican judge had approved the warrant for Daniel's arrest it meant that the Mexican police now had the power to raid Daniel's property in the search for [Music] [Music] Sebastian with the help of the British and American Embassy and the Mexican child welfare division a search warrant was issued by a Mexican judge all of Daniel's houses were raided by the me authorities but the houses were completely empty and had been emptied for a while so all the effort we put into trying to make them search Daniel's houses it was all for nothing to us it was suspicious because we knew Daniel had been in that house and then very shortly before the authorities did actually raid the house he seemed to have [Music] left in mid October 5 months after Sebastian's kidnapping Sam made a pivotal decision it had got to the point that nothing nothing was happening anymore and even we were other things to do we had used you know the FBI we had hired some of the best private investigators we could possibly find Sam was planning to go to Mexico and I was I was just really hoping that she'd change her mind somehow everyone else was scared for me but I wasn't and I wrote my will in case anything did happen and I went down there to help Sebastian nobody was Keen for her to go to Mexico so he thought it was dangerous however I I was of the opinion by the end that we didn't really have any options we had done everything that we could think of to try and save spy and and we couldn't we we couldn't find him to help him so I wrote to Daniel telling him that I would be in the center historico which is the center square of Mexico I said I'll be there from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at night and I begged him to come or to send someone for me or to just give me some sort of word of how Sebastian was if he was even alive me and tris were quite concerned for a safety and we were aware that it was a badly thought out plan and probably the full stupidity of it didn't really hit us Sam was determined to do this anyway so we didn't we didn't have a choice he have said he can send people to come and take you away they could you know keep you hostage they could kill you you know you're the cause of Daniel's problems right now and all he needs to do is get rid of you which isn't hard and then they're gone throughout the day in one hotel um a curtain kept moving there was somebody looking out and I was trying not to look directly at the window because I didn't want them to see that you know that I knew but nothing ever came with it didn't seem like it was them or if it was them then they left despite sitting in the Square all day there was no sign of Daniel or baby Sebastian low on funds the Lowes were running out of [Music] options because our finances had now you know pretty much completely run out we had found a hotel that was the equivalent of1 a night to stay in [Music] because we were trying to save money we were only eating rice and bread and bananas so we all got quite ill but it it just really didn't matter we just kept fighting through it I think we were possibly more depressed at this time because it seemed that life could not get any worse then out of the blue Daniel sent a photo first I couldn't even open the attachment I didn't I was too scared to see what he looked like then I did look at [Music] it and it was a sickening feeling to see it he was it looked like a hostage situation it was a baby with no clothes on lay next to a newspaper in a bare room it was the first hard evidence that Sebastian was alive and had survived his intolerance to formula milk and then there was another crucial development after Sebastian had been kidnapped for about 5 months the wife of our lawyer said do you think he might have narcissistic personality disorder I'd previously never heard of this personality disorder which stems from Child and it's really where a person deep deep down they feel so inferior and and inadequate that they can't deal with it so they make up a false self as it's called that they are the greatest person in the world and they actually for themselves to believe it we started to consult with psychologist and that gave us the idea that maybe there was the possibility of manipulating him the key was to take control control by finding Daniel's point of weakness with the help of a psychologist Sam began a barrage of aggressive emails the psychologist asked us um anything about Daniel's insecurities and fears we were going to Su to his level that that's part of the manipulating a narcissist you stoop to their level you copy what they do when he says you know you're a prostitute you write back saying you're a prostitute I mean it is that pathetic but it's what you do they became as disgust as his if not more they were based on a lot on Prison scenarios about gang rapes in prison about incidents in the shower and then they also paid a lot on Daniel's lack of achievements in life that he was still a mommy and daddy's boy and living off their money that he was a pathetic Criminal on the run but at the end of each one it gave him a way out if return Sebastian to me we will stop and we won't chase you to the ends of the Earth but if you don't we will and your life will end up in prison and he didn't want to go to prison as much as I wanted Sebastian I remember um reading the email from Daniel begging us to stop and it was quite a short email from him said in big bold capital letters I beg you to stop writing these emails I realized that for the first time during all this time that I had a bit of control cuz our plan had actually began to work finally Daniel relented his lawyers contacted Sam and offered her a chance to discuss custody and see her baby 6 months after the kidnapping Daniel's lawyers asked Sam to a meeting to discuss custody of their baby when we went up to the meeting we were I was told that Daniel wasn't going to come that one of the lawyers was going to go and get Sebastian cuz Daniel was scared he' be arrested they had a video camera in my face the entire time which I was asking them not to and they insisted I was very angry the way the lawyers would being I kept crying and just kind of very confused and more excited and scared Daniel's lawyers wound us up the wrong way quite a lot we found the lawyers to be quite arrogant but there was also obviously the fear that Daniel would chicken out of giving Sebastian back or something else would go wrong and it took about an hour to go through everything and sign it and although it felt we were so close we were still so scared that it wasn't going to [Music] happen and we just sat there waiting not knowing what was going to happen seems to take forever it was so hard not knowing you know if this was the time I was really going to see my son or if it was going to be messed up [Music] again at last news came that Sebastian was [Music] there I opened the door knowing sebie was inside there was Sebastian someone was holding him and I just went over and kind of grabbed him and was hugging him and it was incredible it was an incredible relief but it was also incredibly hard cuz I I didn't recognize him in the slightest he didn't look anything like the baby who was taken when I was crying and shaking and it was very emotional and I think probably quite a few people had quite a few tears then under her agreement Sam was supposed to return Sebastian the next day but with the assistance of the embassy officials they had hatched a different plan we played it pretty cool that day we chat them about what we're going to do tomorrow and what time we were meeting and didn't rush off we hung around we talked to them but we had no intention of keeping up with our end of the bargain leaving the lawyer office was still quite scary and we were you know looking around just trying to see if we have been followed we went out of a back door that no one else knew about we were still under threat Daniel could have us followed he could take us fast and back you could do anything that was scary and it wasn't probably over until I could take off in the plane take off it out of [Music] me my entire family gave up their lives they gave up their jobs the University at Sams everything and it broke us financially 6 months of this as taken away my parents' pension it's put us all into a lot of of that I'm really proud of my family and how everyone just dropped their lives to [Music] help then had no idea what how strong I was going to become and how close and strong my family were he didn't know that you know seven people would be flying out to help me and we would fight him and his family through the end and I would have I would have done anything to SA FASA [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]

Channel: True Crime Central

Views: 32,914

Keywords: Australian Crime, Crime Stories, Serial Killers, True Crime, True Crime Central, asmr, cases, cold cases, community, crim, crime, crime recaps, doco, documentary, full episodes, gangsters, murder, murder mystery, podcast, podcasts, treu crime, true crime, true crime asmr, serial killer, kidnapping, newborn kidnapped, mexico newborn kidnapped, true crime horror stories, best true crime horror stories, true crime kidnapping, true crime kidnapping stories, true crime podcast

Id: DsX2o9YHIWE

Length: 44min 44sec (2684 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 10 2024