Alec and his brother, Dominic, disappeared from Reston, Virginia on December 6, 2004. They were abducted by their non-custodial mother, Stefanie Barbel Judith Zacharidis Gardner. Photos and vital statistics for Stefanie are posted below this case summary. Stefanie is a German citizen and met her husband, Gregory Gardner, online in 1998. They married only two months later and she moved to the United States to be with him. In late 2004, Stefanie told Gregory her mother in Germany was terminally ill and traveled to that country with Alec and Dominic. They never returned and Gregory learned the story about his mother-in-law's illness was false.

Gregory traveled to Germany and petitioned for custody the children, but the German judge granted custody to Stefanie. Gregory has accused the judge of being biased against him because he was the children's father and an American. In February 2005, after Gregory returned to Reston, he filed for divorce and custody of Alec and Dominic in 2005. The final ruling granted him sole custody of the boys and ordered Stefanie to return them to the United States. He then went to the FBI and asked for their help in getting the children returned to him. A federal warrant for international parental kidnapping was issued for Stefanie on August 10, 2006.

Stefanie, Alec and Dominic are still in Germany. Stefanie maintains that the German ruling giving her custody is binding and American courts have no power to force her to return her sons to their father's care. The children's cases remain unsolved.