BOSTON (WHDH) — A six-year-old Agawam girl and her mom are fighting to find a way back to Massachusetts after a trip to Brazil left them trapped.
“She really wants to go home every day. She cries because she misses her dog and her family. It's really tough on her but I think we are hanging in there okay," said Shauna Hadden, mother stuck in Brazil.
Shauna Hadden and her daughter Eva travelled to South America at her ex-husband's request. The pair was supposed to stay for three weeks but Hadden's family believed the two were set up from the start.
"When she got there in Rio she had a phone call and decided not to proceed with the rest of her journey down there because she was afraid. There had been some threats. Two weeks into her visit she actually was visited by federal Brazilian agents, and both her passport and her daughter's passport were taken," a government official said.
Without passports Shauna and Eva are stuck. Meanwhile, Eva's father has filed a custody suit.
"The laws are very different in Brazil," said Hadden.
Mom and daughter are safe but they say they need help from the U.S. Government to get home.
“We're blessed. We're with an amazing family who is really, really good to us. If it wasn't for them we wouldn't even be living at the embassy," said Hadden.
The case attracted the attention of Congressman Richard Neal and Senator Elizabeth Warren. Both of them are looking into details.