Report Says Brazilian Grandfather Once Locked in Custody Dispute Over Tinton Falls Boy is Dead

Associated Press has reported that the Brazilian grandfather of Tinton Falls 10-year-old Sean Goldman—who was at the center of a lengthy international custody dispute—has died from lung cancer.

According to the AP report, Raimundo Carneiro Ribeiro Filho, 65, died Monday night at Rio de Janeiro’s Copa D’Or Hospital.

Goldman was returned to his father, David Goldman, in the United States in 2009 after being taken to Brazil in 2004 by his mother, Bruna Bianchi, for what was supposed to be a two-week vacation. Bianchi died in childbirth in 2008 and her new husband, a prominent divorce attorney in Rio de Janeiro, won temporary custody.

Numerous delays prevented Sean from being reunited with his father until the Brazilian Supreme Court ordered his return, which took place on Christmas Eve and ended the five-year custody battle.

Last month, a New Jersey state Superior Court ruling denied Bianchi’s parents permission to visit the boy in the United States.

“Because of a cowardly and unjust decision, my husband died with immense sorrow in his soul,” Ribeiro Filho’s widow told Globo TV’s G1 Web site.

According to the AP report, David Goldman’s Brazilian attorney considered it unlikely Sean would attend his grandfather’s funeral.