Mother accused of 1993 abduction appears in court briefly

Patricia O'Byrne

A woman accused of abducting her daughter 18 years ago made a brief court appearance on Monday, but her bail hearing was postponed to Tuesday.

Patricia O'Byrne, 54, was in a College Park courtroom on Monday morning, after she was arrested last week in Victoria where police believe she lived with her daughter for years.

The Crown, which was given another day to prepare for the case, is seeking to have O'Byrne remanded in custody, said her lawyer Todd White, adding O'Byrne was told not to contact her daughter or ex-husband while in custody.

"We're going to fight tooth and nail to get her released and to fight these charges," White said outside the courtroom. "There's always more to every allegation and always more to the story."

The daughter's father was not in court Monday, but her grandfather, great aunt and a family friend came to watch the proceedings.

"It's been generally upsetting for the entire family," a soft-spoken Don Chisholm said of the ordeal.
"We had a few leads here and there; we never expected it to take so long."

O'Byrne is alleged to have abducted 20-month-old Sigourney Chisholm from Toronto in 1993 while in the midst of a custody battle with the girl's father.

Chisholm, who is now 20, is attending school in Ontario.

A reunion could be in the works for her and the father.

Joe Chisolm has been searching for his daughter for years.

“Why did your mother do this?” Chisolm asked in a YouTube video posted in 2009.

“But, you know, none of that is worth a hill of beans. What’s important to me is counting the days until I find you, ‘til we’re together.”

An arrest warrant was issued, but O’Byrne was only arrested last week after police got a tip in September through the Missing Children Society of Canada and shifted their investigation to the West Coast.

During those years, she and her daughter were known as Pamela and Thea Whalen.

With files from The Canadian Press