Jacqueline Tempera| jtempera@providencejournal.com
Family and friends of Liana Waldberg, or Elaine Yates, rejoiced Wednesday after hearing the state dropped a 1988 child abduction charge against her.
“This is the best news of my day,” said Gary Richardson, a friend of Waldberg’s from Houston reached by phone . “This lady is loved. She is respected. I hope she finds peace now.”
Charles Patenaude, Yates’ second cousin, said the announcement came as a relief.
“It’s been a trying time for our family,” said Patenaude. “I think we’ve all been through enough.”
Waldberg, who legally changed her name from Elaine Yates in 2009, shot into the national spotlight last week after she was arrested on the decades-old child snatching charge involving her daughters. She pleaded not guilty to a felony charge of "abduction of a child prior to a court order" in Kent County Superior Court Jan. 18.
On Wednesday, citing the "laws in effect in 1988," evidence that was not available at the time of the original investigation, and the "fact that the well-being of the missing children has been established," Attorney General Peter Kilmartin filed a notice of dismissal.
Asked to explain the evidence found or the particular law Kilmartin was referring to in the release, Amy Kempe, a spokeswoman for the Attorney General's office, saidshe hadno comment.
“We reviewed all of the evidence submitted to us through the investigation by State Police. We are not going to comment on what pieces of evidence have or have not been available.”
But the nightmare isn’t over, Waldberg’s lawyers Bethany Macktaz and Lisa Holley cautioned in a statement Wednesday evening.
“The fact remains that she is now again living in fear,” wrote Holley in the emailed statement. “We implore the RI Attorney General to take the necessary steps to keep her safe, now that her identity and location has been compromised by this unwarranted arrest.”
Kempe said in a statement the Attorney General acted carefully with a difficult case adding "it is apparent Ms. Holley does not understand the role of the Attorney General's Office." Law enforcement in Texas executed the arrest warrant, Kempe noted, not Kilmartin's office.
"Ms. Holley and her client have every right to file a criminal complaint with the appropriate law enforcement agency or seek court protection should her client fear her safety is at risk and we would encourage them to do so," said Kempe. "The proper venue for this to be addressed is with law enforcement and the courts system, not the media."
On Aug. 26, 1985, Russell Yates, Waldberg’s husband and high-school sweetheart, returned from work at his bar, Copperfield’s, and found his family was gone. His wife and daughters - 3-year-old Kimberly and 10-month old Kelly- had disappeared.
In a 1988 interview with The Journal, Yates said he hit his wife in the face days earlier during an argument over his many infidelities. He said he cut her with a diamond ring he was wearing and took her to South County Hospital for treatment. (Russell Yates described the hit as a slap on Jan. 18, according to the Associated Press.) During that same interview, Yates told the reporter his wife threatened to leave with the kids, but he didn’t think she was serious. Neither Waldberg or Russell Yates could be reached for comment Wednesday.
Thirty years later, it’s obvious she was.
Two days before Christmas 2016, Rhode Island State Police received a tip leading them to the women. They’d been living in Houston for decades under different names: Liana, Melissa, and Sarah Waldberg. Melissa is now 35 and Sarah, 32.
She lived a happy life in Texas, friends said, quickly becoming an integral part of a large ballroom dancing community.
Rick Archer, her former dance instructor, described her as an “ incredibly popular, poised, intelligent, and sensitive woman.”
“She definitely doesn’t fit the picture of America’s Most Wanted Criminal,” Archer said in an interview shortly after her arrest.
That life was upended Jan. 17 when police arrested Waldberg at her Houston condo and brought her back to Rhode Island.
During the three minute court appearance the next day, Magistrate Judge John F. McBurney III released Waldberg on her own recognizance and allowed her to travel back to Houston for living and working purposes.
But her life has not returned to normal, friends and family said, as the arrest caused a media frenzy that’s left Waldberg isolated in her home and afraid of stepping outside.
“I hate to see her put through this,” said Richardson, who knows Waldberg through dance class. She usually dances every Tuesday night, but she has been noticeably absent for the past two weeks, he said.
Though, she did call Richardson in the middle of her arrest to alert him she wouldn’t be able to help out with that night’s lesson, he said, chuckling on the phone.
“That’s the kind of person she is,” he said. “A real class act.”
Waldberg’s future is unclear. George Sargent, who dated Waldberg from 2011 to 2013 and was in contact with her last week, said he wouldn’t be surprised if she moved from Houston and started over again.
“There’s no real winner here,” he said. “She lost her real identity for 30 years and Russell Yates couldn’t see his children grow up. I wish them both the best.”
Patenaude said he’s happy to hear his cousins are OK, but feels sorry that much of the family she left behind in Rhode Island has died. He recalled many Sunday afternoons, sitting and drinking coffee with his cousin and her mother Mary Pigeon, both “outgoing, sweet people.”
He doesn’t blame his cousin for leaving, he said. Patenaude said he admires her strength for leaving an “abusive relationship” and prioritizing the safety of her children.
“It’s a little sad that the people who loved her and were close to her never got this closure,” Patenaude said. “But stuff happens in life and we do what we have to do.”
—jtempera@providencejournal.com
401-277-7121
On Twitter: @jacktemp
