E263: Amina and Belel Kandil

Coffee and Cases Podcast

Allison Williams, Maggie Damron

Unsolved, Murder, Conspiracy, True Crime, Cold Cases, Mystery, Society & Culture

4.8 • 608 Ratings

🗓️ 3 April 2025

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Labor Day weekend in 2014 was supposed to mean a short trip to Canada for Amina and Belel Kandil with their father, Ahmed, before the celebration of Amina's 11th birthday on Monday, September 1 and the start of school on the following day. However, as the weekend came to a close, Amina and Belel's mother--Rebecca Downey-- found that her phone calls were going unanswered. Her daughter's birthday passed and school began but her ex-husband and her children didn't return. In fact, they didn't even go to Canada. And that was just the beginning of Ahmed's plan.

Transcript

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0:00.0	It was supposed to be a routine custody exchange, just a long weekend trip before the start of a new school year.
0:06.1	On the evening of August 28, 2014, a mother hugged her two children as they left with their father, something they often did.
0:13.7	He promised they'd be back in time for the big sister's birthday and the first day of school.
0:17.9	But sadly, the children didn't make it home in time for the anticipated
0:20.9	birthday party. Days passed and the mother's calls went unanswered. At first, she thought the father
0:26.3	was being difficult, perhaps just ignoring her as a form of control. But when the children
0:30.6	didn't show up for school, the situation took a terrifying turn. Authorities soon uncovered the
0:35.7	truth. The children had been abducted, vanishing across the
0:39.2	globe. The kidnapper? Believed to be the children's father. For nearly a decade, there has been a
0:45.0	relentless search navigating bureaucratic red tape, foreign governments, and the crushing uncertainty of
0:50.4	not knowing where a desperate mother's children are, or even if they're still alive. Leeds
0:55.0	have surfaced, but none had brought them home. Where are they now, and how did they disappear so completely?
1:00.5	This is a story of a mother's fight against time, borders, and a system that seems stacked against her,
1:06.4	one that may never bring the answers she so desperately seeks. This is the story of Am to and the I'm The Welcome to Coffee and Cases where we like our coffee hot and our cases cold. My name is Allison Williams.
1:55.0	And my name is Maggie Damron. We will be telling stories each week in the hopes that someone out there with any information concerning the cases will take those tips to law enforcement so justice and closure can be brought to these families.
2:07.5	With each case, we encourage you to continue in the conversation on our Facebook page, Coffee in Cases podcast, because, as we all know, conversation helps to keep the missing person in the public consciousness,
2:18.9	helping to keep their memories alive.
2:20.9	So sit back, sip your coffee, and listen to what's brewing this week.
2:25.9	Lord, if you all were only here, that took us 15 minutes to get through that introduction.
2:30.8	It's okay.
2:31.9	It had lots of background noise.
2:33.9	It's fine. Here we are. We're struggling, but we're here. We had lots of background noise. It's fine.
	...

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