For: Immediate Release (URGENT)

Re: New developments in the abduction of Greg Silah and Alex and Zaven Silah

Contact:  Cherie Kerr at KerrPR (714) 550-9900 or (714) 271-2140
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DISTRAUGHT MOTHERS OF MISSING SILAH CHILDREN LEARN TROUBLING NEW DETAILS ABOUT SONS’ DISAPPEARANCE, NOW HAVE GOOD REASON TO FEAR FOR THEIR CHILDREN’S LIVES

Mothers Make Urgent Appeal to Public, Missing Children’s Agencies and the Media Believing their Children Are in Imminent Danger

Los Angeles, CA -- In what was thought to be a typical abduction by a pair of divorced and disgruntled fathers (Syrian brothers George and John Silah of Los Angeles) who absconded with their sons sometime around July 2, 2008 during a court-ordered summer visitation, has now turned into a crisis—a matter of life and death—for the lives of Greg Silah, age ten, according to his mother, Christine Jeanbart, and Alexander and Zaven Silah, ages twelve and eight, according to the boys’ mother Zarouhi (Zanni) Meguerian. According to sworn declarations in court documents filed with the court, threats left on the fugitive fathers’ voice mail indicate that the men’s lives are in danger, which places the children directly in harm’s way.  

Today the mothers are issuing an urgent plea to the public, organizations dedicated to finding abducted children, and the media nationwide, to help them locate the young boys after the retrieval of a number of voice mail messages left for George and John Silah indicating, in graphic detail, that George and John Silah will be tortured and then killed.  As a result, the mothers fear that the children’s lives are in great danger.

The threats made against George and John Silah were from members of the Armenian community, from whom the pair had recently bilked more than five million dollars.  The pair had a long history of criminal activity, starting when George and John Silah lived in Philadelphia, and were forced to flee in the middle of the night, leaving a trail of creditors in their wake.

“We have some reason to believe that the children may still be in the United States,” said the mothers’ family law attorney, Ronald Brot, who along with his associate, Jennie Cerrati, are handling the case and who were originally told the children may be in either Mexico or Canada. “Our belief is based on the fact that the mothers had refused to release the boys’ passports, though they had been requested, and also because the identities of the brothers and their sons have been posted on various government agency ‘watch lists’ nationwide. Our hope is that the children will soon be found safe and unharmed,” Brot stated, “but time is working against us. We are in urgent need of the public’s help.”
 
The recent investigation of the brothers’ abandoned home revealed that George and John Silah, who left their Los Angeles residence in a hurry sometime on or shortly after July 2, 2008, may have fled in fear for their lives.  George’s girlfriend disappeared at the same time.  The mother’s fears are heightened in view of the fact that George and John’s parents, Alexander and Lucy Silah, with whom they lived in Los Angeles, left for Syria the week prior to the children’s disappearance, and remain in Syria at this time.  George and John left the home a disheveled mess, leaving behind a trail of evidence connecting them to numerous illegal activities.  The men may not immediately be in route to Syria as first thought, but instead could be hiding out somewhere in the United States to avoid their killers.

Along with the threatening voice mail messages, shredded documents were also found, which have now been reconstructed, representing fake documents of immigration applications, other persons’ identification documents, passport photos, notes verifying illegal transactions for thousands of dollars, evidence of bank and credit card fraud, and evidence of at least one firearm, shell casings, ammunition and a manual for a Smith and Wesson revolver.  The men may have been involved in selling fake identities to people entering the country illegally.  Christine Jeanbart now believes that her identity was sold by her ex-husband years earlier, based on an FBI investigation which took place in 2000, as well as the recent events.   

The court echoed the mothers’ and attorneys’ concerns, when on Wednesday July 24, 2008, Judge Frederick C. Shaller, of the Los Angeles Superior Court, Department 67, determined that both Christine Jeanbart’s son, Greg Silah, and Zanni Meguerian’s sons, Alex and Zaven, had been abducted and wrongfully retained. The Judge awarded sole legal and physical custody to the mothers, cut off all visitation rights for the Silah men, and ordered that an investigation be opened immediately by the Los Angeles District Attorneys office to “locate, retrieve and return the minor children” to their mothers.

George and John had talked their ex-spouses into arranging a coordinated summer visitation schedule so their respective sons, Greg, Alexander and Zaven, could spend time together over the summer.  The fathers informed the mothers at the last minute that they were taking the children to Big Bear on July 2, 2008, for the 4th of July holiday. While Greg was to return home to his mother, Christine, on July 6, 2008, George had asked to keep sons Alexander and Zaven, for another four days in order to take them on a Disney Cruise to the Bahamas. They were to return on July 10, 2008. The mothers granted their ex-spouses their special requests only to discover later that none of them had arrived or stayed in Big Bear, and though George Silah had paid for the Disney cruise, neither he nor his two sons ever boarded that ship.

All three boys had spent the night with Zanni Meguerian the night of June 28, and she saw her two sons again on June 30 when she took them to dinner before returning them to their father to finish their first two-week summer visit. When she dropped her sons off at their father’s home, Zanni recalls that her two boys were reluctant to return, Zaven having lost his appetite, and Alex acting especially clingy.” Alex kept saying he wanted to go home with his mother, according to Ms. Meguerian. The last time Zanni Meguerian saw her two sons, Alex and Zaven, was on July 2, 2008, when she dropped by her former husband’s house to pick up the boys’ itinerary, and to hug and kiss her children goodbye before they left for their Big Bear trip. She called that evening after arriving home to speak to her children. After George Silah did not answer his cell phone, she called Alex’s mobile number. When Alex answered, he said he couldn’t pass the phone over to his father,” states a tearful Zanni Meguerian. “He seemed scared and said his father was, in his words, very angry and agitated.”

Christine Jeanbart tried calling her former husband to speak to her son, Greg, on the evening of July 3, 2008, but John never answered his cell phone.  In fact, the phone never rang, and went straight to voicemail as if it had been turned off.

Though separated in June of 2001, Christine Jeanbart”s divorce was final in October of 2003. Zanni Meguerian left her husband in August of 2004, and her divorce Judgment was entered in March of 2006.

Both Christine Jeanbart and Zanni Meguerian, American citizens, whose sons are also American citizens, have told authorities that their sons had shown concern and anxiety about their recent summer vacation with their fathers prior to June 28 and shortly thereafter. ”It’s as if they knew something was up,” said Ms. Jeanbart.

Both mothers are now asking the public, the organizations committed to finding abducted children, and the media for help. “We want to tell our sons that we love them and are looking for them, said Ms. Jeanbart. “We will not give up on finding them.”  “We want to bring them home where they belong,” Ms. Meguerian added.

Brot indicated that due to the probe by the authorities, felony arrest warrants are expected to be issued for George and John Silah by the weeks end.

Those individuals who have any information as to the whereabouts of the three children or their fathers, George and John Silah, are asked to contact the following:  Ronald F. Brot, Esq. at Brot & Gross, LLP in Sherman Oaks, California at (818) 594-0800; Detectives Lopez or Britton of the LAPD (310) 482-6334; Investigators Newton or Duplesis at the L.A. District Attorneys Office (213) 974-7424.
    
For more information on the chronology of events relevant to the Silah case, please visit www.silahkids.com. A fact sheet of the chronology of events is also available to the media by emailing: This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it .

Mr. Ronald Brot and his clients, Zanni Meguerian and Christine Jeanbart, are available for in-print and on-air interviews. Please contact, Cherie Kerr @ 714 550-9900 for scheduling.

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