A woman from Georgia was arrested in Croatia after she allegedly helped Utah mom Elleshia Seymour kidnap her four kids after she travelled abroad with them.
Lovie McVeigh was arrested in Dubrovnik, Croatia, in connection with the international manhunt, according to WALB.
McVeigh, 49, was first connected to the case when Robert Preston from Douglas Now revealed she helped Seymour, 35, on Sunday, February 1. Preston reported that McVeigh was allegedly hosting Seymour at the home she shares with her 13-year-old son in Dubrovnik, Croatia.
While McVeigh is originally from Coffee County, she has reportedly been living in Croatia for about 18 months. Preston also reported that McVeigh and Seymour met via social media.
The Coffee County Sheriff’s Department did not immediately respond to Us Weekly’s request for comment.
Seymour vanished from Utah with her four kids in November 2025 after she shared posts on social media about how she believed that the “end times” were near.
An international manhunt began for the kids, and Seymour’s ex-husband, Kendall Seymour, took to his GoFundMe page to alert the public about the situation.
The Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office confirmed that Seymour had been arrested on January 16 in Dubrovnik, Croatia. She was arrested after she was charged with four counts of Custodial Interference – Remove Child from State in December 2025.
Kendall revealed that the kids were located at a Croatian orphanage on January 25, and he later shared that the kids had been cleared to return home on January 29.
After McVeigh was linked to the case, her family confirmed they were aware of the situation. Her former stepdaughter, Saige Cruz, told WALB that McVeigh had a similar social media platform to Seymour, in which they shared apocalyptic messaging.
Cruz, 24, added that McVeigh told her family she would be out of the country, though they weren’t aware of her whereabouts until the story about Seymour made international news.
“If you go look at Lovie’s TikToks and then you go look at Elleshia’s, the mother from Utah… They talk about the same things. They relay the same messages,” Cruz said.
After she learned about Seymour’s case, Cruz said that she quickly realized how similar the mother of four and McVeigh were. She said she grew even more interested when the aunt of Seymour’s kids shared in an interview that she fled to Croatia with the four kids.
“During that interview, [the aunt] had mentioned that the woman from Utah was actually with an American originally from Georgia,” Cruz said. “And so, from there, I kept watching interviews and kept digging, researching.”
After noting that McVeigh’s son ended up in the same orphanage as Seymour’s kids, she confirmed that the son is still in the orphanage’s custody.
“The family is definitely trying to get him home,” Cruz said. “He needs to have a stable home, environment, and an everyday school. Just your average childhood life.”
Cruz added that the boy’s family is working with the U.S. Embassy and Croatian authorities to bring him home.
