Police in the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau on Saturday took testimonies from an American man and his Vietnamese girlfriend as they were accused of abducting his own daughter from her mother at a resort last month.

Karl Leonhard Werner, 37, and Nguyen Phuong Quynh, 26, were captured while hiding in the Mekong Delta province of Bac Lieu, the latter’s hometown, after allegedly kidnapping a 5-year-old kid, Cecilia, on July 15 from her Indonesian mother, Ela Herawati, 35, at Lan Rung Resort in Ba Ria-Vung Tau.

Social media and netizens played an important role in helping police officers find the couple by sharing the information about the American man and his girlfriend so that many others could recognize them.

Talking with Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper, lawyer Nguyen Thi Diem Phuong from Minh Lawyers Office in Ho Chi Minh City, who represents and protects the interests of Herawati, said some people found Werner, Quynh and Cecilia staying in a hotel in Bac Lieu based on the information shared on Facebook.

They then reported their find to Phuong and the lawyer went on to keep police officers informed of it, she added.

Werner and Herawati married in Indonesia in 2008 and their daughter were born two years later.

They divorced in July 2014, and Werner went to Vietnam to work as an English teacher after that.

But five months later, Werner contacted Herawati from Vietnam and asked her to travel to the country with their daughter to visit him.

He said that he was suffering from a very serious illness then.

So the Indonesian woman and her daughter agreed to that suggestion and they arrived in Vietnam on July 10, 2015.

On July 15, the three people made a trip to Vung Tau, a famous beach city in Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province.

That same evening, Werner and his girlfriend carried away his daughter along with many belongings of his ex-wife when Herawati went out of her room at Lan Rung Resort.

What Werner and his girlfriend did was captured on film by a security camera of the resort.

Herawati then reported the incident to police officers in Vung Tau and contacted the Indonesian Consulate General in Ho Chi Minh City for help.

The Indonesian Consulate General then sent a note to the police force, asking them to verify the case.

The mother went to Ho Chi Minh City to scatter flyers that included all the details of the case in the hope of finding her daughter before information on the abduction went viral online, leading to the arrest of the couple.

An official from the Ba Ria-Vung Tau office of foreign affairs said Herawati had secured the right to raise her daughter, citing an Indonesian court’s ruling.

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