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Amina and Belel Kandil

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Full Names: Amina and Belel Kandil
Nicknames: No known nicknames
Location: Williamsburg, Virginia
Date: August 28, 2014

Bio[]

Date of Birth September 1, 2003 (Amina); January 4, 2006 (Belel)
Occupation: Students
Height: 5'2" (Amina); 4'5" (Belel)
Weight: 82 lbs. (Amina); 55 lbs. (Belel)
Characteristics: White female with brown hair and blue eyes (Amina); White male with blond hair and blue eyes (Belel)

Case[]

Details: Amina and Belel Kandil are the children of Ahmed Kandil and Rebecca Downey. Ahmed and Rebecca met when she was twenty-eight and he was thirty. At the time, she planned to attend medical school while he was pursuing an MBA and planning to work in finance. Their initial dates involved sports such as soccer, racquetball, and volleyball. They also went swing dancing every Friday.
Ahmed is Muslim and grew up in Cairo, Egypt. Later, he became a U.S. citizen. Rebecca is Christian and grew up in Berlin, Germany. They both came from middle-class upbringings. As a result, they shared some of the same values, even though they came from different religious backgrounds. These values are what brought them together.
Ahmed and Rebecca got married in 2002 after knowing each other for several years. Nine months later, on September 1, 2003, Rebecca gave birth to Amina in Augusta, Georgia. She had started medical school just three weeks earlier. Then, on January 4, 2006, between her second and third years of medical school, she gave birth to Belel.
Rebecca said Amina is warm and shyer than Belel, but she has a core of "inner strength" that comes through sometimes. Rebecca said Belel is more outgoing and fun-oriented. He likes to engage everyone.
Rebecca and her friend, Daphney Frederique, met on their first day of residency in Boston, Massachusetts. They subsequently followed each other to Williamsburg, Virginia, for work. Daphney says they had dinner together every Wednesday. They had sleepovers and game nights for Amina and Belel. She said Ahmed was always welcoming and took good care of Amina and Belel.
According to Rebecca, when she and her family moved to Virginia, Ahmed was out of work. He had a finance job in Boston but lost it during the 2008 financial crisis. According to Daphney, he no longer showed interest in getting a job. Rebecca said he smiled less, was less positive, and was not open to any dialogue or discussion.
Rebecca said Ahmed began to regard her solely as Amina and Belel's mother rather than as a woman or a professional. She felt he was not the same person he was when they met. She believes he would have been fine with them staying together, but she was unhappy with their relationship. In June 2013, she asked for a divorce, and they separated.
Based on a court-ordered visitation schedule, Rebecca had Amina and Belel two days a week, and Ahmed had them on the other weekdays. They then split the weekends. But, according to Daphney, Ahmed tried to make it difficult for Rebecca to see Amina and Belel since she was the working parent.
According to Rebecca, Ahmed also began moving in a more conservative religious direction. Amina and Belel started attending school at the mosque on Saturdays. It became clear to Rebecca that Ahmed was on one trajectory in how he wanted to raise them, and she was on a different one.
In August 2013, Ahmed took Amina and Belel on a trip to Egypt. His family lived in the Giza area, adjacent to Cairo. During that time, Egypt was going through the Arab Spring. His brother, Walid, was involved in its uprisings and protests. During one of the protests in Tahrir Square, Walid was killed. Ahmed was with him at the time.
According to Rebecca, when Ahmed returned from his trip, he was angry about Walid's death. He became more militant. He also became more interested in and involved in Egyptian issues and events. She thinks he found a purpose, which he had been lacking in the years prior.
In late August 2014, about a year after Ahmed and Rebecca's separation, Ahmed planned to take Amina and Belel to Toronto, Canada, to look at a college with their cousin during the Labor Day weekend. He told Rebecca they would return to Virginia on Monday, September 1, Amina's eleventh birthday.
On the evening of Thursday, August 28, Ahmed came to pick up Amina and Belel at Rebecca's house. At the time, they were sitting on the couch, watching something on their iPad. When Ahmed knocked on the door, Belel took the iPad, showed it to him, and ran to the car. Rebecca told Amina that it was time to go. While at the front door, Amina gave Rebecca a hug and two kisses. Rebecca told her to have a good time and that she was looking forward to wishing her a "Happy Birthday" when they returned. Rebecca watched as Ahmed, Amina, and Belel drove off. That was the last time she ever saw them.
The next day, Friday, August 29, Rebecca texted Ahmed and said she wanted to call Amina on her birthday. He confirmed that they were coming back on September 1. Rebecca did not have any contact with them on August 30 or 31. On Monday, September 1, she tried to call Ahmed multiple times on his cell phone, but he would not answer. She was concerned because they should have been back in Virginia by then.
Rebecca was infuriated that she was not able to reach Amina and Belel. She called multiple times from the hospital and could not get a response. She said it was a little disconcerting, although it was not unusual for Ahmed. She thought he was being passive-aggressive by not letting her talk to Amina on her birthday. That night, Rebecca texted Ahmed and asked him to wish Amina "Happy Birthday".
On Tuesday, September 2, Amina was supposed to start middle school for the first time, and Belel was supposed to return to elementary school. Rebecca felt that if they were in school, everything would be fine. But when she called both schools that morning, they told her that Amina and Belel were not there and had not shown up that day. She remembers feeling concerned, hurt, panicked, and angry.
Rebecca said she could not leave work at that point because it was a remote clinic, she was the only anesthesiologist around, and there were still patients that needed to be seen. Later that day, she contacted the police. She also called every hospital in Toronto to see if Ahmed, Amina, and Belel had gotten into an accident or something.
Rebecca next called Ahmed's father in Giza. She asked him where Ahmed, Amina, and Belel were. He claimed he did not know what she was talking about. But he did not seem concerned, which concerned her. That led her to believe that he knew something. She then called Daphney and asked if she could check on Ahmed's house.
When Daphney went to the house, she noticed there were no cars in the driveway, and nobody was home. The windows were blocked. She went to the back and noticed that the glass door's curtain was pulled aside. She looked through it and discovered that everything inside was gone. She knew something bad had happened, so she immediately called Rebecca.
Rebecca felt that Ahmed had torn everything away from her and turned her life upside down. Just moments after Daphney's call, Rebecca had to intubate a patient. She was in tears and started crying. The surgeon and the entire team asked if she was okay. She responded by saying, "I'm really not. I don't know where my kids are."
When the police searched Ahmed's house, they discovered that everything had been thrown out, and the entire place had been cleaned. On Friday, September 5, eight days after Ahmed, Amina, and Belel left and three days after they were reported missing, the James City County Police Department told Rebecca that they had discovered her family's flight records. It was clear that Ahmed, Amina, and Belel had not traveled to Canada. Instead, on Saturday, August 30, they flew from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City to Kyiv, Ukraine, then from there to Istanbul, Turkey. Rebecca was shocked and frightened by Ahmed's actions.
Later that September, the FBI joined the investigation. A federal arrest warrant was issued for Ahmed on two counts of international parental kidnapping (one for Amina and one for Belel). One of the first steps in their investigation was to thoroughly review his financial records, looking for anything that would lead them to him, Amina, and Belel.
Based on bank and credit card records, the FBI learned that Ahmed had once gone to a survivalist camp in the mountains. On multiple occasions, he went to a gun club to learn how to shoot. According to Rebecca, he was never a gun fanatic while they were together. FBI Special Agent Stacey Sullivan said survival training would be helpful to someone if they were crossing borders, doing something on foot, or spending a couple of days outside.
Ahmed bought different types of camping equipment, such as sleeping bags and children's boots, and sent them overseas. Agent Sullivan said these actions showed that Ahmed did not take Amina and Belel on a whim. He had a "well-oiled plan" before he left the country.
Rebecca checked Amina's email account multiple times. She discovered that Amina had used her iPad to check her email in December 2014. Based on the iPad's IP address, Rebecca determined that the device was in Hatay Province, near Reyhanli, at the southern tip of Turkey. The area is right on the border with Syria. It is also close to a war zone. This discovery frightened Rebecca.
Rebecca wondered if Ahmed had joined something and pulled Amina and Belel into it. She feared that he was in an unsafe place with them. Agent Sullivan said she does not know where Ahmed went. She also does not know if he created new identities for himself, Amina, and Belel. She said if that happened, it could explain why they can't be tracked.
Rebecca became actively involved in the search for Amina and Belel. She hired three different private investigators and contacted congressmen and senators. She set up a webpage and asked people to contact her if they knew Amina and Belel's whereabouts. However, nothing seemed to be substantive – until September 2015, a year after the abduction.
On September 30, Rebecca received an email titled "Kids Are Okay". It was from Ahmed. It said, in part, "Just wanted to let you know that they are well and doing great. We live on a small farm, and they are loving it. They got all kinds of animals, and it's keeping them busy. I understand you must be angry at me, but you left me no other choice. I knew long before you asked for a divorce that it is coming, and I wasn't going to wait till you find a job somewhere and take full custody of them. So once they're old enough and can distinguish right from wrong, they will contact you. And at the right age, they can decide where they want to live."
Rebecca was infuriated by the email. She was relieved to hear that Amina and Belel were alive. But it was clear to her that Ahmed was heavily influencing them to adopt whatever approach to life he felt was appropriate. She also believed he was going to influence them to the point where they would never want to contact her.
Investigators discovered that the recovery email address used for the email was one of Ahmed's known email addresses. So, they were certain the email was from him. They also found that it had been sent from the same area in Turkey where Amina had checked her email.
Rebecca contacted a Turkish detective who went to Hatay Province to look for Amina and Belel. He also looked for the IP address of the email that Ahmed sent. He found that it was possibly connected to an Internet café. However, he did not find any other pertinent information.
Months passed with no new information. Rebecca said that was a hard time for her. Then, she discovered that Ahmed had applied for an Egyptian ID card in 2016. He registered his ID at his parents' address in Giza. Rebecca believes his father owns a farm midway between Alexandria and Cairo. Based on the statement in his email that Amina and Belel were on a farm with animals, Agent Sullivan believes they are somewhere in that area.
Rebecca hired an investigator to search for Amina and Belel in Egypt and find anyone who may have seen them with Ahmed or his parents. However, the investigator did not come up with anything. Rebecca wanted to go to Egypt herself, but others warned her against it. She said she is not protected overseas, and anyone could come up with a reason to arrest her.
Agent Sullivan said the possibility of Ahmed being in Egypt has made things challenging because the country does not consider parental kidnapping a crime. Amina and Belel are his children, just like they are Rebecca's. In Egypt, the father decides what to do with the children. As a mother, Rebecca can;t get them back or even communicate with them. She has no recourse there.
Daphney does not know why Amina and Belel have not tried to contact Rebecca. She wonders if Ahmed told them Rebecca died in an accident. Or, he may have banned them from the Internet. Daphney said there is no way that they would not have contacted Rebecca. They adored her, and she adored them.
Rebecca said she dreams about Amina and Belel often. In some of her dreams, they are in trouble, and she has to get to them. But in others, they spend time doing things they liked to do together. She said that in those moments, they are alive and with her. She loves dreaming about them because it means they are with her.
Rebecca said not having Amina and Belel is a great loss, and it would be crippling to feel those emotions every time she enters her house. So, every day, she writes in a journal to them, which allows her to feel those emotions and feel close to them again.
Agent Sullivan said her heart breaks for Rebecca. She feels bad that Rebecca has been searching for so long and that they have not been able to provide answers for her. She said Amina and Belel deserve to know that Rebecca cares about them.
Rebecca wants Amina and Belel to know that she misses them very much. She hopes she can see the people they have grown into. She is sure they are lovely and curious about the world.
Amina and Belel may now be in the Egyptian cities of Alexandria, Cairo, or Giza. They may also be in Turkey's Hatay Province.
Amina and Belel are just two of the thousands of children abducted by a parent in the United States each year.
Suspects: Ahmed Kandil
Extra Notes:

  • This case was first released on November 1, 2022 as a part of the third volume of the Netflix reboot. It was released in the third part of a three-week Halloween event.
  • It also profiled on In Pursuit with John Walsh: The Search Continues.
  • Some sources state they flew to Boryspil, Ukraine, then from there to Ataturk, Turkey.

Results: Unsolved
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