The signs were clear even at the outset but blinded by love, 80-year-old Diana failed to see the tell-tail strappings blinking red all over.

Her son had warned her of the danger and asked her to close that chapter – it was a scam, the romance type. She paid heed briefly and paused the chats, but in no time she was back and falling deeper into the danger that posed as love. She followed up on her would-be kidnappers’ charm and landed in Accra, Ghana, where she had been directed, and then became a prisoner, caged in demand for ransoms she was finding too difficult to secure.

But the kidnappers were clear: You get us the cash or you are going nowhere.

On Tuesday, December 17, the Magistrate Court at Adabraka remanded two of the alleged kidnappers into police custody to reappear on January 9, 2025. The police, in the meantime, are on the heels of other suspected gang members.

Here is how this intriguing romance scam unfolded, per investigator's records.

Dateline: Crestline, California, 2023: Diana Christine Nelson, born Nov 23, 1944, while on Facebook, met a man she believed was Mark Harmon, the American actor, for that is how this man identified himself.

His real name however, is Emmanuel Adeboye, a Nigerian and now the key suspect in this elaborate romance scam.

Adeboye had requested friendship, and soon he was chatting his way into Diana’s heart.

Over time their chats became very engaging, and Diana was head over heels in this new love chapter opening in her life.

So enduring were the chats that her online engagement could not escape the attention of her son, Blake Medina. A momentary pry was enough for him – mom, you must stay away, this is a scam.
Diana appeared to have heeded the good counsel and put a halt to it, however, by June 2024, she was back at it as her lover kept sending love notes.

The pair continued their virtual romance, culminating, upon the insistence of Adeboye, aka Mark Harmon, in Diana travelling to Accra, Ghana, via Delta flight 156 from JFK to Kotoka on November 22.

Adeboye had sent her the image of a fake $25,000 cheque with which he had waived away any challenges with financing their love life. With that difficulty ‘resolved’, Adeboye convinced Diana to facilitate a reverse mortgage on her home and she obtained $15,000, some of which she used to acquire a passport and facilitate her travel.

On the travel date, Adeboye had promised to pick her up at the Kotoka International Airport, instead, it was Esther, now a suspect and also remanded in police custody, who showed up.

She is alleged to have told the old lady that she had been instructed by Adeboye to fetch her home where he would soon join her. Diana obliged, and together with Esther were chauffeured to a ‘penthouse’ in Tema, near Accra.

That ‘penthouse’, Diana’s description of her new home, was to be her ‘prison.’

Mark Harmon (Adeboye) never showed up even at the Penthouse, instead, he communicated with her via phone.

Soon Diana was stripped of her phones, tablets and any gadgets, as well as her cash. She was restrained, and occasionally if she was taken out, it would be in the company of a couple of men and Esther. She was not allowed to interact with anyone.

Medina, Diana’s son, last saw his mom on November 16 and was not aware she had travelled. On November 30, he discovered that her mom's house was listed for sale online. He went to check on her and then discovered his mom had travelled to Ghana.

Sell the house
Medina began contacting her mom via text, until December 2 when he received a call from her. She told him he needed to speak to someone else and Adeboye’s voice came on the line.

In the meantime Diana Nelson was trying frantically via voice calls to raise money from other family members and claiming she was being held against her will and was not free to leave.

Adeboye (pretending to be someone else and assuming French accent), told Medina that his mom and her partner, Mark Harmon, had been detained in Ghana while attempting to go to Cape Town (South Africa) with undeclared gold and diamonds.

He claimed Diana Nelson was rescued by Harmon's friends but Harmon remained incarcerated in Ghana and that numerous expenses were made hence the need for the $150,000.

When Medina said he could not provide the money, Adeboye instructed him to sell his mother’s house and thus raise the funds, to which instruction Medina said he could not execute without his mother's physical presence to sign the paperwork.

Medina then requested his mother be allowed to return so he could settle the debt but Adeboye insisted without the payment she was going nowhere.

He called after an hour and asked if he understood what he had told him and handed the phone to Diana Nelson.

A now sorry Diana apologised to her son for going to Africa, and professed love to her son. She pleaded with her son to deposit $200 into her bank account. In the background, an angry Adeboye was screaming that, that might be the last time Diana would talk to her son.

Not long after, Khalil Dave, a realtor appeared to want to sell Diana’s house in Crestline, California, claiming to have been hired to sell the property.

In his possession was a photo shopped picture of Diana and the supposed ‘Mark Harmon’, claiming she was with friends and want the house sold. He was arrested briefly but investigators believe he was onto a genuine business.

Rescue Plot
At this stage Medina was under no illusion that his mother who had a flight scheduled to return to JFK on December 4, was a kidnap victim. He reported to the San Bernardino County Sheriff Department who in turn contacted FBI.

The FBI linked up with the Ghana Police Service and a plot was devised. The gang would be baited with cash, and once Diana’s credit card was recharged, a wide network of security men trailed the movement of the cash at various ATMs.

On December 11, the first withdrawal was made, sending the network of waiting law enforcement agents to work who swooped in on ATMs in the immediate vicinity.

That exercise netted Adeboye and Esther, and the police say the rest of the gang will be brought in to face the law.