Diana Flehyou is not only draining to the size of a skeleton because of the Pericardial Effusion she suffers, she is also grieving over the adoption of her twin children through Mariah Luyken, in a scheme that was tricked into 17 years ago.
Diana, 32, disclosed her health condition when she spoke with the Liberia News Agency (LINA) Panarama to make an SOS call in order to salvage her condition.
Pericardial Effusion, a heart disease that causes fluid around the heart. She can be reached at +231886474017 and for sendwave, +231881102511.
Explaining the ordeal of her children, Diana said in 2004, she was 15 and had the twins by a Lebanese man who abandoned the children with her. Life was difficult, especially at her age in a country just coming out of war. She, therefore, decided to seek help from a church where she met Maria Luyken, convicted in October 2020 for the trafficking of several children to the United States.
“She promised to help me with the children because she had a sister in the U.S. who was going to take my children to the U.S. so that could go back to school. And a girl my age and a single mother, I thought it was dream come true so I agreed, and she started helping to support the children. Later, she told me to take the kids to her house to get used to her sister who was coming from the U.S. and I did,” she said
The narration of Diana’s ordeal was often interrupted by cough and a gasp to catch her breath – probably due her medical condition.
She accused one Ernest Urey of knowing about the whereabouts of her children because he was working along with Luyken.
She further explained that when she arrived at Mariah’s house, she met her uncle who was cooking for Mariah by then. He told her his last daughter was also going to the U.S. with the same lady, so it was going to be alright. And after a while, she was called to finally meet the lady who was taking the children to the US, but when they were leaving with the children, they never informed her or her uncle – not until someone called to inform her the people were taking her children five hours prior to their departure time.
When I ran to the airport, they were already in the terminal, and when I started crying outside. They brought the children outside for me to say goodbye to them and we took photos together. When they left Liberia, my uncle’s daughter was eight and my kids were one year six months old. I used to communicate with them but after sometime, Mariah told me to stop calling because it was making my uncle’s daughter to cry to come back home,” she said.
Diana: “I stop talking with my children since they were 8 years old, because my uncle’s daughter called to tell me the white lady never wanted the children to know they came from Liberia, so there was confusion between the white lady and my uncle’s daughter because the lady accused her of brain washing the children. Because of that, the lady threw my uncle’s daughter out of the house and she got raped, but a black family took her in until she graduated and now she is on her own. My children will be 17 years old August 20th. When I last checked the lady on Facebook to ask about my kids, said she does not have any children for me, and I should ask Mariah, and she blocked me on Facebook.”
Mariah Luyken who was convicted for child trafficking last year has been released on by the court on bail, FrontPageAfrica gathered. It is not clear how she got released after being convicted.
FrontPageAfrica could not also confirm whether she is still in Liberia.
She was convicted for the sending of the children of two Liberian women, Mathaline Johnson & Elizabeth Johnson, to the United States without their consent.
Her alleged accomplices, Ernest Urey and Edwin Walk, were cleared by the court due to lack of sufficient evidence to link them to the crime.
Speaking to FrontPageAfrica on the matter, Urey said, there was an adoption agency called the West African Children Support Network, headed by Mariah, and many people gave their children out for adoption and went through the lawyers, where they signed papers to relinquish their children.
“The records are public records because it went through the court and the U.S. Embassy. I do not know this particular lady because there were many people who gave their kids out for adoption. This lady is lucky to know the family who took her children, so she can go the court for record on her children. I even used to tell Mariah to keep the people in touch with their children,” he said.
Urey said he never worked for Mariah but occasionally helped her. He, also, gave his son out for adoption.
“I myself put my son and niece on the program but he died on his 18th birthday in the U.S. so I am traumatized,” he lamented.
Source: FPA
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