The U.S. is extraditing an American citizen back to France for allegedly abducting his children and taking them away from their French mother.

An international manhunt for 40-year-old oil industry consultant Timothy Sharp ended when he was traced to Carrollton, where he was living with his two daughters and son after fleeing his wife's homeland in June.

Sharp was living in a sparsely furnished Carrollton rent house owned by Covenant Church, a Pentecostal megachurch that also has campuses in McKinney, Colleyville, Sherman and Denton County.

Richard Roper, former U.S. attorney in Dallas, said the last local extradition of a U.S. citizen he could remember was to Greece in the early 1990s.

"It doesn't happen a lot," Roper said. "But if we want to be able to have French defendants brought back for crimes they committed in the United States, we have to be willing to do the same thing."

Reached this week, G. Thomas Sharp said he asked Covenant to help his son find a house for him and the kids, who later enrolled in the church's school, the American Heritage Academy.

G. Thomas Sharp said he, too, was unaware that his son was wanted overseas. He said he was upset about the extradition.

"I would think it's rare that the United States attorney would act as an emissary for the French government and send him back to France," he said.

Last week, State Department agents arrested Timothy Sharp at the George Allen civil courthouse in downtown Dallas, where he was about to attend a hearing in a divorce case. Sharp filed the case in Dallas late last year to get custody of the kids.

The judge, David Hanschen, threw out the case after learning a divorce was already pending in France.

"This is about as egregious a crime as you can commit without bodily injury," Hanschen said of Sharp's decision to take Chloe, 11, Emma, 7, and Simon, 6, away from their mother for nine months.

Attempts to interview Sharp were unsuccessful, and his attorney did not respond to calls or e-mails.

At a short hearing Monday, Sharp waived his right to oppose the extradition. French officials are expected to fly in next week to take custody of him.

If convicted of abducting his children, Sharp could face up to four years in a French prison.

Hanschen said he's concerned about what role Covenant played in helping Sharp avoid detection.

"In defense of the institution," the judge said, "I don't know what Mr. Sharp told them."

Church officials said they had no idea that they were harboring a fugitive.

"We would never participate in anything like that," said Larry Holland, pastor of administration at Covenant.

Holland said he got a call in August from Sharp's father, who was an old friend in Oklahoma. G. Thomas Sharp also runs a fundamentalist Christian nonprofit group, Creation Truth Foundation Inc.

The State Department was tipped to Sharp's whereabouts after his estranged wife, Cécile, received a summons in the mail informing her of the Dallas divorce filing.

Cécile Sharp hired a North Texas attorney, Charla Conner, who put a private investigator to work trying to find her husband and the kids.

On Feb. 24, the investigator staked out Sharp's lawyer's office and spotted Sharp. The investigator followed him to Covenant Church, where he picked up the kids. Then he went a few blocks away to a house, which it was later learned Covenant Church owned.

On March 10, State Department agents, armed with the French warrant, lay in wait for Sharp at the initial hearing in his Dallas divorce case. He was arrested before he made it into the courtroom.

Fearing for the kids' safety, Hanschen hastily wrote out an order on the back of a docket sheet allowing Conner to go get the children in Carrollton.

When she arrived, church officials did not believe the handwritten order was legitimate. Neither did Carrollton police, who also showed up.

They called the judge, who got in his car and drove to Carrollton to sort things out.

"It was raining," he recalled. "But there were three kids on the line."

Holland said church staff members were just being cautious and did not impede the handover of the children.

"Our guys expected something like that would come through federal marshals," he said. "They wanted to make sure it was legit. You can understand that, with kids at stake, you have to make sure you know who you are dealing with."

Conner said that when she finally made it into the house on Wentwood Drive where Sharp and the kids had been living, she found three bags, already packed, just inside the door.

The only furniture she saw was an 8-foot foldable table, a television and a ragged couch, with the foam in its cushions showing. The only food she saw was some moldy cheese and animal crackers. Clothes were scattered everywhere.

Conner said it appeared that Chloe, the oldest child, was taking care of the household.

Conner told her that their dad was working and that they were going to see their mom for spring break. "Doesn't that sound fun?" Conner said. The girl nodded.

"I looked at the other two. Chloe immediately became the big girl and told the little ones that it was going to be OK."

The children were put on a plane to France the next day.

Their mother, Cécile, said she was grateful for Conner's persistence and U.S. authorities' willingness to help end her heartache.

"When I wanted to get divorced, he lost it," she said. "He was very attached to his children. I didn't think he would go that far."