This was not your typical family reunion.
A mother, her boyfriend and their teenage daughter escaped their respective state custodies in Massachusetts before reuniting and traveling to New Hampshire this week where they visited relatives.
But the reunion was cut short when authorities learned of their whereabouts and took all three back into custody.
The escapes began April 26 with Joanna Snyder, 41, a federal inmate living at the Women in Transition prerelease center in Salisbury, Mass.
Essex (Mass.) County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Paul Fleming said Snyder, who has a lengthy record of drug and alcohol charges, disappeared from her job at a local supermarket.
The same day, Snyder’s 14-year-old daughter disappeared from a state residential home in Beverly, Mass.
Department of Social Services spokeswoman Denise Monteiro said the girl met up with her mother at the supermarket. A month later on May 28, Snyder’s boyfriend, James Hussey, 34, disappeared from his Saugus, Mass., home.
Hussey was under house confinement and was being monitored by electronic bracelet following a larceny conviction, Fleming said. Hussey had been scheduled to be freed June 21.
Essex County authorities began searching for the trio after Hussey’s monitoring system alerted them he had disappeared. Fleming said several leads indicated the family had fled to Grafton, N.H.
U.S. Marshal Steve Monier said all three were taken into custody without incident Tuesday night. Snyder and Hussey were arrested, while their daughter was returned to Massachusetts child custody officials.
Montiero said the daughter has been placed in a foster home in an effort to provide her with more of a family atmosphere. “She’s never been a problem. This kid has always done real well.” She was in state custody because her mother had been incarcerated.
Monier said it appeared family connections had drawn the trio to Grafton. No one has been charged with harboring fugitives.
Fleming said Hussey has been jailed in Middleton, Mass., on an escape charge. If convicted, he could be locked up for up to 21/2 years. Snyder, who had been scheduled for release in November, was returned to federal custody.
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