On December 22, 2021, Sol Violet Vandever was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana, to our sister, Katie Vandever. Katie was also born and raised in Fort Wayne, the ancestral home of our Grandma Violet. Our youngest sister, Haley Hunter, was the only other person present in the hospital room for Sol's birth.

Hoping to be able to include Sol's father in Sol's life, Katie returned to Fort Worth, Texas, where they had met and dated while Katie was living and working. Because of increasingly violent behavior, it did not work out.

As the lawful custodial parent, Katie returned to Fort Wayne in March 2025 to start over again close to family and her roots. She and Sol fled and found transitional shelter in a YMCA domestic violence center in Fort Wayne. Sol's father was picked up in Texas for a probation violation for intoxication manslaughter with a vehicle and became incarcerated, and his mother, Deborah Wilkinson of Fort Worth, hired a private investigator to stalk Katie at the shelter.

On April 24, as Katie and Sol were having lunch at the Three Rivers Food Coop next to their shelter, Deborah and a Fort Wayne police officer approached Katie with an invalid Writ of Attachment and no custody order and took Sol out of Katie's arms. Witnesses described Sol as saying "I just want my mommy" when this happened. Deborah took Sol back to Fort Worth, Texas and has refused to let Katie talk to her on the phone or see her in person.

Katie needs legal representation NOW. Because this is an interstate event, it is a jurisdictional nightmare.

We have exhausted all of our resources fighting this to date.

Please help us raise money to hire federal and state legal support for Katie and Sol.

If pro bono representation is found and/or raised funds fall short of hiring or sustaining paid counsel, funds will be used to navigate the court and legal scape by purchasing such things as court transcripts, local personal assistance with hearing accompaniment and preparation, mailing and filing fees, transportation costs, and anything else related to bringing Sol home to her loving mom.

Short clip of Sol at the farm meeting a pig