AUBURN – For more than a year, police around the world have been looking for Jacques Clermont. Last week, an international police agency caught up with the 50-year-old kidnapping suspect in Mexico. They held onto him for two hours and then let him go.

Clermont is accused of attempting to snatch his daughter outside an Auburn day care in September 2002 in what investigators described as a carefully planned kidnapping attempt.

Police say Clermont sprayed the girl’s grandmother in the face with chemical spray and tried to pull his 4-year-old daughter away outside St. Joseph’s Day Care on Minot Avenue.

The bid proved unsuccessful when the grandmother, 57-year-old Sheryl Mathews, held on to the girl despite being sprayed, punched and shoved. Witnesses outside the day care chased Clermont away, police said.

Investigators believe Clermont then drove to New Hampshire and burned down Mathew’s summer home on Lake Winnipesaukee before fleeing to Mexico.

Since then, police have had no luck finding Clermont, despite numerous tips and a few possible sightings. Mathews and her family have kept in touch with police as the search continued.

Last week, Clermont was taken into custody after Interpol, a world police organization, caught up with him in Guadalajara, Mexico.

“He was in custody for about two hours,” said Auburn police Detective Mitchell Sweetser. “And then they let him go.”

Although police in Auburn and New Hampshire had warrants out for Clermont’s arrest, the federal warrants necessary for extradition were not secured. Instead of waiting for police to get those warrants, officials in Mexico set Clermont free.

Sweetser is working with the FBI in Portland to get the proper warrants to arrest Clermont if and when he is found again.

A grand jury in Androscoggin County Superior Court Wednesday indicted the suspect on three counts of assault and one charge of criminal use of disabling chemicals. Sweetser said the indictment is part of the process involved in getting federal warrants to charge Clermont with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.

For Mathews and her family, the latest news on Clermont was disappointing but not altogether surprising.

“He is not dumb. He’s a very smart man,” Mathews said Wednesday. “He manipulates, he uses the system and he lies.”

Mathews said it was a female companion of Clermont’s who helped set up the arrest in Guadalajara. That woman may help police and prosecutors in the future, Mathews said.

“Maybe that was the positive move we needed,” Mathews said. “It’s going to take a while and we know that. We’re being patient. That’s the roller coaster of life. Up and down we go.”

Clermont is known to have lived in Canada as well as various parts of Mexico. Police also believe he may have had help from several people in the kidnap attempt and subsequent escape.

Clermont is described as 5 feet, 9 inches tall and weighing 185 pounds. He has strawberry blond hair, graying sideburns and hazel eyes. Police said he speaks both French and English. His speech is marked by a French accent and he is considered dangerous.

Sweetser said police from various agencies will continue searching for Clermont. If he is found, police in Auburn plan to have him extradited back to that city for prosecution. How long that might take is anybody’s guess.

“My daughter thinks he might get cocky now,” Mathews said. “But I think he’s probably packing his bags because he knows we’re onto him.”

mlaflamme@sunjournal.com

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