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Utah mom who believed in ‘end of times’ is arrested over taking kids to Croatia

A Utah woman who said the end times were near and who is accused of taking her four young children overseas in violation of a custody order has been arrested in Croatia, authorities said Tuesday.

Elleshia Seymour, 35, was charged in December in Salt Lake County with four counts of custodial interference by removing the kids from the state despite not being entitled to custody. Croatia’s foreign ministry confirmed via email Tuesday that she was arrested earlier this month and was being held on suspicion of violating children’s rights.

The kids are being held in foster custody in Croatia while her ex-husband, Kendall Seymour, works to bring them home. He told The Associated Press he’s currently in the Southern European country and has been visiting the children while completing paperwork. He is the father of the three oldest children, and said he has power of attorney for the child who is not his.

The Salt Lake County district attorney, Sam Gill, said his office is exploring options with federal partners to extradite Elleshia Seymour. She was unavailable for comment while in Croatian custody, and Utah court records did not list an attorney who could speak on her behalf.

Elleshia Seymour posted videos of herself on TikTok last year describing apocalyptic dreams and urging people to prepare, according to her ex-husband, who identified her in videos viewed by the AP.

The end times is a Christian view with various interpretations of apocalyptic biblical passages, but many believe it involves a series of cataclysmic events before Jesus returns to Earth.

In one video, she said she dreamed about an electromagnetic pulse attack that caused aircraft to crash, computers to stop working and people to lose access to food, water and heating. “The Lord is trying to tell people that it’s going to be a cold winter.”

Elleshia Seymour and her children were last seen in the U.S. in late November. They were staying with an American family in Croatia who apparently didn’t know at first that she and her children were being sought, according to her ex-husband.

One of the children tipped off a son of the hosting family, leading to her arrest Jan. 16, Kendall Seymour said by phone from Croatia. “One of my kids told him, ‘Hey, search my name, Google my name, you’ll find it.’”

The host family either turned her in or convinced her to do so, he said.

The FBI had been getting tips that Elleshia Seymour and the children — ages 11, 8, 7 and 3 — were in Croatia after allegedly leaving their home in a Salt Lake City suburb in late November, said Kendall Seymour.

A former boyfriend told police Elleshia Seymour had “recently discussed obtaining passports and leaving the country, expressing concerns about biblical events and the ‘end of times,’” according to Utah court documents.

Court documents said police went to Seymour’s home in West Jordan on Dec. 2 after friends and co-workers reported being unable to reach her. Officers found the apartment unlocked with nobody home, along with a notebook listing plans to shred documents, discard phones and take passports.

Police later found her car parked at Salt Lake City International Airport and reviewed video showing the family entering the airport Nov. 29 and boarding a one-way flight to Europe, according to court documents.

Elleshia Seymour divorced the father of her youngest child in 2024 and Kendall Seymour in 2021, according to court documents.

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Associated Press writer Jovana Gec in Belgrade, Serbia, contributed to this report.

Grandfather recovering from surgery after bison attack at Yellowstone sent him flying

By WTOP Staff
(CNN) — What started as a yearly trip for a grandfather and his grandson turned into a visit to a Montana hospital after a bison attack at Yellowstone National Park.Carl McDaniel, 65, was hospitalized with a broken femur after a bison charged and tossed him into the air Friday evening at the park’s Bridge Bay Campground, according to McDaniel and the National Park Service.He was visiting the park with his 13-year-old grandson when they decided to take a walk after dinner.Along the way, they encountered a large bison that appeared to be rolling around in the dust and was not bothering anyone, McDaniel told CNN.“We were about a hundred yards away,” McDaniel said. “He was not aggressive; he was not having problems and we took some pictures and decided to walk on.”McDaniel and his grandson snapped a quick photo and continued with their walk, video of the encounter shows. At the same time, a truck drove by, and the driver laid on his horn in what appeared to be an attempt to get the bison to move, McDaniel said. There is no audio on the video.The bison then appeared to become agitated and began running toward the pair.“There was little time to decide what to do. At that point, he was within 100 yards; he could be to us in seconds, so I told my grandson to run in one direction and I went the other to try and draw him away,” McDaniel said.The animal then pushed McDaniel with the top of its head, sending him flying into the air before he hit the ground, the grandfather said.“When I was on the ground immobile, unable to move, he was right on top of me. He could have stomped on me, he could have gored me, he could have done almost anything to take my life, and he did not do so,” McDaniel said.After McDaniel hit the ground, photographer Mike MacLeod, who captured the encounter on video, had to step in, he told Cowboy State Daily.“I was really afraid he was going to gore the guy on the ground, so I stopped videotaping and ran at the bison, yelled loud, and was trying to be as big and intimidating as possible,” MacLeod said.After the bison took off, people rushed over to McDaniel, who was in a lot of pain, MacLeod told Cowboy State Daily. Yellowstone EMS arrived soon after, he said.“Park emergency medical personnel responded and transported him to a nearby hospital,” the National Park Service said in confirming the incident in a statement to CNN.This is the second bison attack at Yellowstone this year. A 12-year-old was injured near Mud Volcano on June 26, according to the agency.After Friday’s attack, “all the people that were there were amazing; they were all positive, they were trying to help as best they could,” McDaniel said. A nurse started tending to his leg, while another bystander held his head.He was then transferred to a hospital in Bozeman, a two-hour journey during which he was in intense pain. He said he was grateful for the paramedic who helped him along the way.McDaniel broke his femur, the body’s strongest bone, in four places near his hip and suffered several bruises. He had surgery Sunday and could stand by Monday.“I will be doing physical therapy for the next few days to get to walk, but it was not as catastrophic as it could have been,” McDaniel said.The National Park Service advises visitors to stay at least 25 yards away from bison at all times and to never approach the animals. “If the bison follows you, spray bear spray as you are moving away, and seek cover behind nearby trees or cars,” the agency said.Correction: An earlier version of this story understated how far visitors should stay away from bison. The National Park Service advises visitors to stay at least 25 yards from them.The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
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