Stand with Tara: Bring Summit Home

My name is Tara Branch.

Around Noon on Friday the 4th of July, my son Summit Hesseltine (16) was taken from my custody by his father.

I went to get pizza before we went to the pool and I came back so Summit GONE.

His grandfather called him to go get the VIN NUMBER from his truck that Summit was borrowing for the summer, which was parked on the street at my sister’s. His father pulled up, assaulted him in the street, threw him in a car and took off.

Summit called me crying after I had gotten back saying his father came and kidnapped him.

Summit & I had a talk earlier this summer that he absolutely did not want to go back to California and I was not going to force him on a plane to go back when his dad asked that he be back on July 30th.

I told his father that so what did he do, he came here to Iowa and grabbed him out of my time and my care in broad daylight while I was picking up pizza for all the kids.

I called the Henry County Sheriff’s office and I will not name at this time but the officer I talked too told me there was nothing they could do. Then they made it to the Johnson County Sheriff and they told me there was nothing they could do after Summit blatantly voiced and you could tell he did not want to be the presence of his father, let alone go back to California.

I already had an appointment with a lawyer. But his father showed up on MY TIME, took my son from me in broad daylight, and there ain’t a thing I can do about it, because his dad will not listen to the well-being of his son.

This is going to get as messy as messy can get and he loves his hometown and loves Iowa. I have never asked for help, nor like this but I need to do everything in my power to fight his father and get him back HOME, where he belongs.

He will be 17 in October and his father refuses to listen to his well-being.

I am asking my community for help to help me fight his father and FINALLY BRING HIM HOME.

Whether his father’s family wants to say they had nothing to do with it or not, isn’t it ironic he just so happened to be looking at a VIN NUMBER and then gets taken in broad daylight?!

I can’t do this alone. I need more help than the help I will get.