Given the circumstances, I'm sure she considered that she would be arrested if she came forward.  You are also assuming that she knew where he was.

My mother placed me with an adoption agency.  She didn't look for me as she didn't want to disrupt my life.  She had no idea that I was looking for her until I found her.  She thought I wasn't interested.  When I found her, she was nearly 77 years old.  She told her husband that it was the happiest day of her life.  If I had continued to listen to people like you, she would have gone to her grave never knowing what happened to me.  I searched because I didn't want that to happen.