Zarouhi Meguerian's older son started first grade at Westchester Lutheran School in 2002 and since then, she's never missed the first day of class.
On Sept. 8, Meguerian continued her ritual, visiting the classrooms of sons Alex and Zaven Silah. But the industrial engineer walked alone, holding hands with other mothers instead of her boys.
Authorities say Alex, 12, and Zaven, 8, were abducted in July by Meguerian's former husband, George Silah, 46, an Armenian Syrian. The same day, Silah's brother John left town with his 8-year-old son Greg.
Parental abductions are not unheard of in Los Angeles, where freeway signs often advertise amber alerts for the missing. But the Silah boys' case has had a profound effect on students, teachers and parents at Westchester Lutheran, a 58-year-old private school of 400 students on busy Sepulveda Boulevard. The school has rallied around Meguerian with fundraisers, Internet postings -- and comfort.
Meguerian, 36, grew up in Philadelphia as a naturalized U.S. citizen. She had an arranged marriage in Syria at age 16, then returned to Philadelphia, Three years later, they had another wedding ceremony in Philadelphia and her husband, who graduated from medical school in Armenia but was not licensed to practice in the U.S., moved here to live with her. His brother later joined them and married in 1996; the two men worked for chiropractors, Meguerian said.
In 2000, the Silahs moved to Los Angeles, and George and John started a consulting business in Marina del Rey. John Silah and his wife, Christine Jeanbart, divorced in 2003, and Meguerian and George Silah divorced in 2006.
After the divorces, George and John Silah had limited custody of their sons. This summer, they initially agreed to take the boys to George's time share at the WorldMark Resort in Big Bear for the July 4 weekend, Meguerian said. George Silah was then supposed to take his sons to South Florida, the start of a weeklong Disney cruise in the Caribbean. John and Greg Silah were due to return July 6.
Soon after the boys left, their mothers say, they stopped answering their cellphones. After fathers and sons failed to show up at the resort or board the cruise July 5, police declared the boys missing.
On July 23, a Superior Court judge found that George and John Silah had violated conditions of their custody orders and the district attorney issued warrants for their arrest on three felony counts of child abduction. Los Angeles police are working with agents at the local FBI field office but have yet to find the group.
