Man faces parental kidnapping charges for refusing to return son

Robert Allen Keller, 34, of Mountain Grove, has been charged with parental kidnapping, a class E felony, after allegedly failing to return his child to the child’s mother in September 2023.

According to an amended probable cause statement,  prepared for by Ozark County Deputy Vesa Phelan, on the night of Sept. 25, 2023, Phelan and fellow Ozark County Deputy Jeff Lane responded to a Gainesville residence after a grandfather called the Ozark County Sheriff’s Department and reported that his granddaughter’s former boyfriend refused to give their child back to the mother. The grandfather believed Keller was going back to his home in Mountain Grove.

After the two deputies arrived at the residence they spoke with the child’s mother, and she stated that her 4-year-old son had been with the child’s father, Robert Keller, over the weekend, but that Keller failed to bring the little boy home on Monday. 

“[Keller] did bring the child back on Monday night, but then refused to give the child to [the mother] and left after a verbal altercation,” the probable cause statement says.

Phelan’s report says that a BOLO (be on the lookout) was put out on Keller’s car and officers in Douglas County were able to stop Keller’s vehicle on Highway 95, near Vanzant. The child was released to his mother while on the side of the road.

Keller was taken into custody and transported to Ozark County Sheriff’s Office. 

Charges against Keller were filed Dec. 30, 2024, and a warrant was issued. He was scheduled to appear Tuesday in Ozark County Associate Court before Judge Raymond Gross. Results of the hearing were unavailable at press time.