Emily disappeared from Park Ridge, Illinois on August 3, 1998. She was abducted by her non-custodial mother, Eva Sloboda. Sloboda's photograph and vital statistics are posted below this case summary.

Emily's parents married in November 1994, and in October 1995, while she was pregnant with Emily, Sloboda filed for divorce. She was given custody of Emily after the child's birth and Emily's father, John Izykowski, had visitation. In October 1997 and again in 1998, Sloboda asked the court to revoke John's visitation rights. Both times her requests were denied.

A week after the second denial, Sloboda said she was giong on vacation with Emily. She took Emily and to Bratislava, Slovakia. Sloboda was born in Slovakia, which was then part of Czechoslovakia, and moved to the United States with her family in 1968, when she was seven years old. Sloboda was supposed to return to the United States with Emily on August 18, but she never did. On August 21, the state of Illinois granted full custody of Emily to John and Sloboda was charged with kidnapping. A federal warrant was issued for her arrest in November 1998, and the custody ruling was confirmed in November 1999.

In an interview with a Slovak magazine, Sloboda said John exhibited "aggressive and strange" behavior and Emily cried and tried to hide from him during his visitation times. She said she felt the American courts would not protect her or her daughter and she had no choice to flee the country. Sloboda applied for and received Slovak citizenship for herself and Emily in June 2000. John argued that this shouldn't have been allowed, since Sloboda is an international fugitive and he hadn't been consulted on the matter of Emily's citizenship. The Slovak government has refused to charge Sloboda with kidnapping in their country, since she left before the 1999 court ruling that confirmed John's custodial rights.

After the abduction, John hired a private detective to locate his ex-wife and daughter. He learned their address, and in December 2000 he flew to Slovakia and confronted Sloboda. He attempted to take Emily away with him so he could fly with her back to America, but the police stopped them and returned the child to her mother's care. John was unaware at that point that Sloboda and Emily had both become Slovak citizens, and the Slovak government has refused to either return Emily or extradite Sloboda because the Slovak Constitution says Slovak citizens cannot be made to leave the country against their will. John eventually went back to the U.S. alone. He hasn't seen Emily since.

Emily and Sloboda are still believed to be in Slovakia; when John attempted to take her back, they were living in an apartment on Špitálska Street in Bratislava. The child's case remains unsolved.