Missing mom, daughter found at Disney

ORLANDO, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35) - A mother and daughter, reported missing in Pennsylvania, have turned up in Orlando. Authorities took Bonnie Sweeten and her 9-year-old-daughter, Julia Rakoczy, into custody after the two were located at Walt Disney World early Wednesday evening.

According to investigators, the mother and daughter boarded a plane in Philadelphia bound for Central Florida on Tuesday afternoon.  Hours earlier, Sweeten called a 911 operator, claiming someone had forced her and her daughter inside the trunk of her car after a carjacking. She said the people held them against their will.

Philadelphia police found Sweeten's silver Denali Wednesday morning --the car she said she was driving at the time of the abduction.

Anthony Rakoczy, the girl's father and Sweeten's ex-husband broke into tears during a Wednesday morning interview with NBC's "Today."

"There's no reason why they would keep them," he said. "We don't have money. I don't understand."

Rakoczy had little to say about the ordeal after learning about Sweeten’s trip to Orlando, but added that that he was exhausted over everything that has happened over the last 24 hours.

“I'm just done, and I got to get out of here.”

The 38-year-old Sweeten made calls to 911 on Tuesday beginning around 1:45 p.m. She told a dispatcher that after a minor crash, she and her daughter were placed in the trunk of a black, late-1990s Cadillac driven by two unknown black males and taken from the crash scene.

Authorities traced the call to a cell phone tower in downtown Philadelphia, several miles from where Sweeten claimed the carjacking had occurred.  Pennsylvania State Police issued an Amber Child Abduction Alert later in the day.

"She's a good mom, and she loves her kids, and I know she's protecting Julia,” said one of Sweeten'srelatives, Kate Carr.

At a news conference late Wednesday, it was revealed that Sweeten was apprehended at the Grand Floridian Resport and Spa on Disney property by FBI agents, with the assistance of Orange County Sheriff's deputies and Disney security.

"She was with, at the time, her 9-year-old daughter, who is safe,"  said Michelle Henry, District Attorney for Bucks County, PA.  

Henry told reporters that Sweeten borrowed a co-worker's driver's license and presented it as her own when she bought an airline ticket and flew to Orlando, Fla., then checked into the Grand Floridian Hotel with her daughter, Julia Rakoczy.

The two were arrested at the hotel Wednesday evening, Henry said. They had minimal luggage and the hotel was paid through Friday, Henry said. Sweeten had withdrawn about $12,000 from several bank accounts over recent days but authorities were investigating whether that money had been stolen.

"We believe that there were some domestic concerns with her husband and some financial concerns as well," Henry said.

The child is to be picked up by her father, Sweeten's ex-husband, and Sweeten is to be extradited from Florida, Henry said. 

Sweeten has been charged by the Bucks County District Attorney's Office with filing false reports and identity theft.  

View a report from our sister station FOX 29 in Philadelphia
and follow updates on MyFoxPhilly.com

FBI news conference, May 27, 2009.

FOX 35 reporter Cheryl Getuiza contributed to this report