A Coffee County woman has been arrested and held in Croatia in connection with the Utah “Doomsday Mom” case that sparked an international manhunt back in November.
Lovie McVeigh, who has been living in Croatia, was also arrested when authorities in Dubrovnik, Croatia picked up Utah runaway mom Elleshia Anne Seymour, 35, of Salt Lake City. Seymour fled the United States in late November with her four children because she believed the world was going to end and Salt Lake City would be the epicenter of the destruction. Seymour took her children without notifying anyone and boarded a plane for Europe after Thanksgiving on one-way tickets. She was last seen on surveillance video getting on a plane at Salt Lake City International Airport with her kids.
Seymour’s departure garnered international headlines; the manhunt came to an end on January 26, 2026, when authorities were tipped off that she and her children were living with an American family in Dubrovnik. As it turns out, that American family was McVeigh and her son.
According to online reports, primarily the True Crime & News and News with Jahlen’s Facebook pages, McVeigh and Seymour met online and hit it off because both share a similar theory that the world is going to end.
Seymour is being held on four counts of custodial interference and removing a child from the state. She shares joint custody with her children’s fathers; taking the kids from the state without permission is custody violation and a felony.
The fathers of Seymour’s children have been notified and have begun the lengthy process of getting them back to the United States. They are being held in an orphanage while the process plays out.
It is unclear exactly what McVeigh’s charges are – that information hasn’t been released yet – but her son is the orphanage as well.
McVeigh has an active misdemeanor criminal trespass warrant through the Coffee County Sheriff’s Office.
