For those of you who don’t know this story, this woman’s name is Nestralda “Nest” Mechaet Jorgensen.  She is from Palau, a small Pacific island country, and she has been desperately searching for her son Aage Jorgensen for the past fourteen years.  In 1999, she married Bruce Jorgensen, a man she thought would be the love of her life, but it quickly turned out to be an unimaginable nightmare.  After a short time being married, Bruce became verbally and physically abusive and was extremely controlling.  Nest and Bruce had two children- a son (Aage) and a daughter (Rebecca) born one year apart.  Her son Aage was literally stolen from her by Bruce in 2003, when Aage was only two years old.  Although they lived in Palau, Bruce’s job as a lawyer required him to frequently travel to the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands (CNMI), also referred to as “Saipan.”  In May of 2003, Nestralda and the kids visited Bruce in Saipan for two weeks.  On the day she and the kids were to fly out of Saipan to return to Palau, Bruce suddenly took off with Aage in his truck and never returned.  She can never forget the look on her toddler’s face as they drove off and he was crying and screaming “Mommy!”  Nest immediately reported it to the police but they told her that since Bruce is the father he had the legal right to take his child.  Nest stayed in Saipan for three months after this incident trying to get assistance to locate Bruce and her son to no avail.  She went from the police to the Attorney General’s office, to Micronesian Legal Services, and finally to the FBI who advised her that she should go back to Palau to start from square one and begin divorce and custody proceedings.  She returned to Palau and tried to file for divorce from Bruce and for custody of their children, but due to Bruce’s evasion, she has been unable to have him legally served with the court documents.  In fact, Bruce has been evading service of those legal documents for the past fourteen years.  As a result, Nest has been unable to get any assistance from law enforcement to get her son back.  Bruce is a sharp lawyer and knows how to work the system.  They are still legally married. 

Since this nightmare began, Nest has been desperately searching for Aage and Bruce.  In the first few years after Aage’s disappearance, Bruce occasionally called on the phone and allowed Aage talk to Nest, but he would never ever reveal where they were living or their location.  Her daily prayers to find Aage and Bruce were finally answered in January of this year (2016) when she was contacted by the FBI and informed that Bruce had been arrested in Florida on charges of neglectful desertion of a child.   His bail was set at $1 million. While she was happy to finally know where Bruce and Aage were living, Nest was horrified to find out that her son Aage, now 16 years old, was missing because Bruce had kicked him out of the car on a Florida highway for “being rude.”

Nest is extremely worried about Aage because he remains missing in Florida. The FBI told her that Aage has a history of running away from his father.  Bruce’s bail was reduced to $5,000 and he is now on home arrest awaiting his court date.  She needs to get a lawyer so she can file for divorce and custody in Florida and have Bruce served now that she knows his location.  Now that she finally knows after all these years that Aage was living and going to school in Plantation, Florida, Nest is desperately trying to find a way to get herself there to do whatever she can to find her son.  She wants to talk to people in the community in Plantation and at Aage’s school – his teachers, his classmatesand his friends.  She believes that if she finds a way to get to Florida, maybe Aage would feel confident to come out of hiding, knowing that she was thereand they could finally be reunited.  She believes that Aage may be keeping in touch with someone at his school (classmates, friends, etc.) and if they let him know his mother came all the way from Palau to look for him, he might come out of hiding. 

Once Bruce is served with the court papers, Nest can begin the legal battle for custody of her beloved son.  Nestralda is a hard-working woman.  She is a devout Christian and a single mother, having raised her daughter Rebecca (Aage’s younger sister) on her own all of these years.  She works full time as an Assistant Cook and Farmer at an all girls’ high school in Ngaraard, Palau.  She does not have the financial means to make this trip a reality and cover the legal expenses. Therefore, we are humbly asking for any donations to help Nest get to Florida and be reunited with her son, Aage.  Also, to finally be able to serve Bruce divorce and custody papers so she can start the legal process and Bruce can finally be held accountable for stealing Aage fourteen years ago.  She needs approximately $20,000 to make this trip happen.  It will cost approximately $12,000 for roundtrip airfare, hotel, car and food/gas expenses for two people for two weeks.  $8000 is estimated for a lawyer, court costs, and other associated legal fees.  Please help us to raise the minimum funds needed to help Nestralda make this trip a reality and give her and her daughter Rebecca a chance to finally be reunited with Aage.