Nev. woman arrested in 1984 abduction returned to N.J.

RENO (AP) - A Nevada woman arrested on suspicion of abducting her daughter 26 years ago in New Jersey has been extradited there to face charges.

Nancy Dunsavage, 57, of Incline Village, was released Wednesday from the Washoe County jail in Reno, said sheriff's spokesman Armando Avina.

Dunsavage, who waived extradition at an Oct. 8 court hearing in Reno, was being accompanied by authorities from Somerset County, N.J., on the flight there.

She was arrested Oct. 5 on a fugitive warrant from Somerset County at her home near Lake Tahoe, where she had lived with her daughter, now 32.

Jack Bennett, spokesman for the Somerset County Prosecutor's Office, did not return a phone call Wednesday.

Dunsavage's attorney, James Wronko, told the North Lake Tahoe Bonanza that his client would plead not guilty to a fourth-degree felony charge of interference with custody when she's arraigned Friday in Somerset County.

"Nancy has devoted her entire life to her daughter, and that's going to be important ... in the resolution of this case," Wronko told the Incline Village newspaper.

New Jersey prosecutors have said Dunsavage did not have custody of Eva Marie Fiedler, then 6, when the two vanished during a break in a 1984 custody hearing in New Jersey. Her ex-husband, who is the girl's father, had full custody.

Dunsavage said in a court affidavit that she fled with her daughter and changed their names to save them from her abusive husband. Dunsavage had been going by the name Debbie Reed, while her daughter's name was changed to Melissa Reed.

Melissa Reed was applying for a marriage license last month when she learned she had been living under an assumed name.

A legal defense account has been established for Dunsavage in Incline Village.