Mother accused of kidnapping daughter 18 years ago to appear in Toronto court

TORONTO - For 18 years, a Toronto father whose baby daughter was spirited away from him hoped messages in a bottle he cast out over YouTube would wash up on the "right shore one day."

Joe Chisholm never stopped searching for Sigourney, who vanished along with her mother when she was 20 months old in 1993.

He posted self-shot video blogs online, sharing baby photos and telling stories to his beloved daughter of the brief life she knew with him.

"If you find me before I find you, which is fine by me, you'll have a lot of questions — where you came from, who the rest of your family is, so on and so forth," he says in a video uploaded in August 2008.

The heartrending dispatches may have worked.

Last week, Chisholm was told by police his daughter had been found.

And Thea Whelan, now 20 years old, was informed her real name was Sigourney.

"None of (us) know what she's going through. I am overwhelmed by the love and support I have gotten from all of you. I am truly moved," the financial adviser and independent rock producer posted Saturday on his Facebook page.

The woman's mother is scheduled to appeared in a Toronto court on Monday, in connection with the disappearance. None of the allegations have been proven in court.

Police allege 54-year-old Patricia O'Byrne abducted her own toddler while in the midst of a custody battle. An arrest warrant was issued one month later.

A tip received by police in September, through the Missing Children Society of Canada, shifted the investigation to the West Coast.

Officers knocked on O'Byrne's door in Victoria, where she was arrested without incident.

Police believe she and her daughter lived in the B.C. capital together for years. The young woman is currently living in Ontario.

Asked for an interview on Sunday, Joe Chisholm said he and his family wouldn't be ready to comment for at least a few days.

"My daughter especially needs time to process," he said in a text message.

Among the "Sigourney blogs" posted online, old videos show Chisholm pretending to fly his infant like an airplane and moving her limbs like a dancing puppet.

Another video, with dad in the background, shows the girl being cuddled by her mother on Jan. 1, 1992 — the child's first New Year's Day.

"She's a little land-shark, all she wants to do is eat and eat and eat," her mother, wearing a floral-print dress, tells the camera as she kisses Sigourney on the cheek.

"We actually think she's the most beautiful baby on the entire planet, and I have people stopping me on the street to say what a pretty baby she is, which I of course agree."

— By Tamsyn Burgmann in Vancouver.