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Update - April 15, 2015: Husband Scott Kelley surrenders, daughter returns ahead of Kelley’s trial.
Update - November 18, 2014: Genevieve Kelley turns herself in after 10 years.
This story was originally reported August 24, 2014.
Mary Nunes grew up in Whitefield, New Hampshire, between two feuding parents, Genevieve San Martin and Mark Nunes, who divorced in 1998 when Mary was just 2 years old. The two divorced parents wouldn’t even talk to each other. Instead, they’d send a notebook with Mary to relay their communications about drop-off and pick-up times.
The first accusations of abuse that Genevieve leveled against Mark stemmed from Mary’s perceived weight loss during her visits with her father, according to investigators. Later, she accused Mark of abusing Mary during a visit to Littleton, New Hampshire. The sheriff’s investigation found no basis for the accusations and charges were not filed.
Genevieve Kelley, 50
Genevieve and her new husband, Scott Kelley, decided to make a videotape at their Whitefield home to document what she believed were signs that Mary had been victimized. Then-Whitefield Police Chief Wayne Rioux watched the tape for “any evidence of wrongdoing by Mark Nunes.”
“But throughout the tape all I saw was this bizarre, strange conduct by the mother, who was absolutely brainwashing the daughter and trying to get the daughter to say things against her daddy,” Rioux said.
On the tape, which has not been publicly released, Rioux said, Mary Nunes at no point says anything negative or incriminating against her father.
“I was totally shocked. The moment I saw that tape, I stopped looking at Mark as the abuser,” Rioux said. “It was clear that we needed to take a closer look at Genevieve.”
But that never happened. Genevieve and Scott Kelley, who had moved to Colorado, failed to show up at a custody hearing in New Hampshire. The court gave Mark Nunes full custody of Mary, who by that time was 8 years old.
Genevieve Kelley later refused a court order to return Mary for evaluation in New Hampshire.
Then, the Kelleys and Mary Nunes disappeared altogether. The U.S. Marshals issued a warrant in 2006.
With the help of private investigator Phil Klein, Mark Nunes set up a website and a special phone number, hoping the reach of the Internet would help him find his daughter, who is now 18.
“We began to get phone calls with ‘Hello’ and then a hang-up,” Klein said. “Most of the phone calls were coming from the São Paulo, Brazil, area.”
Klein said they investigated the phone call and believe that Mary Nunes had been in São Paulo, but they had missed her by a couple of weeks.
Genevieve Kelley is a devout Catholic and speaks fluent Spanish. She once served in the Air Force as a flight surgeon. She is professionally known as Dr. Genevieve San Martin, M.D., and officials believe she could be working as a physician using a false name.
In March 2014, Genevieve Kelley informed the New Hampshire prosecutor through her attorney that she wanted to negotiate her surrender. She turned herself into New Hampshire authorities in November 2014, after 10 years on the run. Weeks before Kelley’s trial is scheduled to begin on May 8, Mary Nunes and Scott Kelley turned themselves into the U.S. Embassy in Costa Rica on April 13, 2015, according to People magazine. CNN affiliate WMUR reported that Mary Nunes is on the list of witnesses submitted by her defense attorneys.
