Boy, American father arrive from Brazil
Nine-year-old was subject of five-year custody battle
ORLANDO, Fla. – A father and son played with toys and puzzles and rested on a quiet nine-hour flight from Brazil to Florida, a peaceful conclusion Thursday after a tumultuous reunion that brought a five-year custody battle spanning two continents to an end.
David Goldman and 9-year-old Sean Goldman landed in Orlando on a jet chartered by NBC. Later they were driven away in a caravan of three SUVs, heading to an unknown destination. They did not speak with reporters at the airport, but NBC broadcast an interview with the father and footage from the flight.
“My little boy is 5 feet away, sound asleep, peaceful,” Goldman, of Tinton Falls, N.J., told the network. “We’re on our way. My heart is just melting. I love him.”
The reunion in Rio de Janeiro earlier Thursday ended an epic battle that pitted Sean’s father against the boy’s Brazilian stepfather, who had cared for Sean since his mother died last year. The dispute strained relations between the two countries and reached the highest level of government.
“It is now time for our new beginning, the rebirth of our family at such a special time of the year,” David Goldman wrote in a letter read to reporters after his departure.
Sean Goldman had lived in Brazil since Goldman’s ex-wife, Bruna Bianchi, brought him to her native country for what was supposed to be a two-week vacation in 2004. She stayed, divorced Goldman and remarried, and Goldman began legal efforts to get his son back.
After Bianchi died last year in childbirth, her husband, Joäo Paulo Lins e Silva, a prominent divorce attorney, continued the legal fight and won temporary custody.