Burns recounts the custody abduction and dramatic recovery in her new memoir, ‘Stolen’
Lauren Burns was dressed in a cheerleader costume for Halloween weekend in 1987 when she climbed into her father’s car. But instead of taking her trick-or-treating, he drove the 7-year-old to the airport and flew her thousands of miles from her Dallas home.
Ali Bayan assured the little girl that the trip to his home country of Jordan was a “surprise” and that her mother, Cathy Mahone, knew all about it. But as days turned into weeks and her father refused to let her speak to her mother, Burns began to realize she might never return home.
“I didn’t think I would ever see my mother again,” Burns recalled to Fox News Digital.