Unsolved Mysteries Wiki
Don't have an account?
Register
Advertisement
Register
Unsolved Mysteries Wiki
Unsolved Mysteries Wiki
1,936
pages
in: Colorado, 1986, Disappearances,
and 3 more

Christopher Abeyta

Edit

Real Name: Christopher Enoch Abeyta
Nicknames: Chris
Location: Colorado Springs, Colorado
Date: July 15, 1986

Bio[]

Occupation: Minor
Date of Birth: November 28, 1985
Height: 2'2"
Weight: 17-25 lbs.
Marital Status: Single
Characteristics: White male with blond hair and blue eyes. He has a small freckle on his right hip. He was wearing a blue, white, and yellow-striped, one-piece pajama jumpsuit. He has a distinct crawl; he latches his right hand to his left elbow, throws it forward and draws himself to it. He is of Swedish, German, and Spanish descent. DNA testing indicated he is European (including Scandinavian and British) and Native American. His family believes his hair may now be brown and that he is of average height for his age.

Case[]

Details: Seven-month-old Christopher Abeyta is the youngest of Gil and Bernice Abeyta's seven children. They lived with four of them (including Christopher) in a house at 3311 Ashwood Circle in Cheyenne Hills, a neighborhood in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Bernice was surprised when she found out she was pregnant with Christopher because she thought she could not have any more children. There was a fourteen-year age difference between him and his siblings. Bernice remembers that he was a smart, happy, and funny baby.
In March 1986, Bernice found lipstick on the collar of one of Gil's shirts. She believed he was having an affair and confronted him about it. They decided to separate. He moved into a second home in Pueblo. However, he often came back home to Colorado Springs to spend time with his family. By July 1986, he and Bernice had reconciled.
On the night of July 14, Gil came to their Colorado Springs home and stayed over for the first night since the separation. That evening, Christopher's sister, Denise, fed him a bottle; shortly afterward, he fell asleep in her arms. She went upstairs with her mother and put him in his crib, which was located just three feet from Gil and Bernice's bed. The family went to bed around 12:30 p.m. They left the front door unlocked so that one of their older children could enter.
At 6am, Bernice woke up and discovered that Christopher was no longer in his crib. His blanket was left in the crib. She searched the other bedrooms but found no trace of him. When she went downstairs, she discovered that the front door was partially open. The police were called within minutes of the family waking up. They arrived at 6:45am and did a complete search of the house. They discovered that a basement window was open and the family's garage door opener was missing.
Arriving officers could not find any other signs of forced entry at the house. Nothing else appeared to be disturbed; a purse had been left out, and it had not been touched. Christopher's family and their neighbors said they did not see or hear anything unusual that night. The same day during a news conference, Bernice made a tearful plea for Christopher's abductor to return him.
Despite an extensive search of the surrounding area, no trace of Christopher was found. Three weeks after his disappearance, authorities drained Quail Lake, which was three blocks from his family's house. Once again, nothing was found.
Christopher's family were initially suspected in his disappearance. There were several factors that led police to be suspicious of them, including: Gil and Bernice's separation, the fact that Christopher vanished the first night Gil stayed over; the lack of forced entry, the fact that his crib was placed at the far end of an "extremely cluttered bedroom", and the fact that no one in the house heard anything. Gil confirmed that he was having an affair. He also admitted he "wasn't excited" about the unplanned pregnancy of Christopher. Police suggested he resented him and wanted him gone. He denied this and passed a polygraph exam.
Bernice failed one polygraph exam and agreed to take another and the second was inconclusive, which she attributed to stress and a withdrawal from the medication she was taking. She claims she was "grilled" by police for six hours after she failed the first exam. She said they accused her of smothering Christopher and throwing him into Quail Lake, but she denied it. Authorities never officially cleared her and Gil as suspects; they were never charged, either.
Authorities believe foul play was involved in Christopher's disappearance. They have looked into baby-selling schemes, stranger abduction theories, child predators, and revenge-type theories. However, they have not found anything to support one theory over the other.
Christopher's family believes he was abducted. Bernice believes authorities did not take the abduction theory seriously because of her failed polygraph exam. Christopher's family decided to do their own search and investigation. Gil quit his job to focus on searching for him. Two of his sisters took a semester off from school to help as well. His family set up a toll-free hotline following his disappearance. They also formed their own organization, Families of Missing Children Inc.
Christopher's family traveled across the country and into Mexico to publicize this case and follow up on leads. On some occasions, they wore disguises and trailed potential suspects. They also hired private detectives to investigate. They sold their house, cashed in retirement funds, and spent their savings to help with their search; they spent close to $1 million.
Christopher's family believes his abductor was someone who knew them, their habits, that they sometimes left the front door unlocked, where Christopher slept, and had been in the house before. They believe Christopher is still alive. They believe he either was raised by a family that did not know he's a missing child or was raised by someone who had lost their child. They believe he also does not know his true identity. They have created a website which features information about this case. They suspect he may now be in Texas or New Mexico; several sightings of him have been reported in both states.
Bernice scoured obituaries, trying to find someone whose baby had died and might have been desperate enough to steal Christopher. She discovered that the person who had signed his birth certificate lost a baby and quit her job at the hospital the day before he disappeared. She then followed up on a lead in Australia with the authorities. However, nothing came from the lead.
Christopher's family believes his abductor was Emma Bradshaw, a woman who had had an affair with Gil and a history of break-ins. The affair took place around the time Gil and Bernice were separated. Christopher's family believes she may have taken him as a way to "get back" at Gil. According to them, she attempted to make contact with Gil on the night of Christopher's disappearance, calling several times up until midnight.
Christopher's family also reported receiving hang-up phone calls for about six months prior to his disappearance. They stopped the day before he disappeared, then resumed several months later. Authorities traced them to Emma. Phone records reportedly indicated that his grandparents were also being "stalked" in the month prior to his disappearance.
Emma also had previously been charged with stalking and harassing a married man who was trying to end his relationship with her. At one point, she entered his home and took family photos off the wall. She also sat outside his children's school and threatened them. It was discovered that she had spent time in Colorado mental health facilities during the 1970s and 1980s. She maintains her innocence and police have not named her a suspect.
At some point following Christopher's disappearance, the Colorado Springs Police Department destroyed most of the evidence in this case. His family has accused them of negligence and incompetence in their investigation. They believe they lacked the experience to investigate a child abduction and that the police focused too much on them, instead of other leads and suspects. They claim that fingerprints were not taken at the scene, among other missteps.
Suspects: Gil and Bernice were considered initial suspects. They were having marital problems prior to Christopher's disappearance. They had previously separated but were reconciling. Christopher was kidnapped on the same night Gil returned to the family home. Police thought it was strange that no one there heard anything that night. Gil admitted that he was not excited when he learned of the pregnancy. Bernice failed one polygraph exam and a second was inconclusive. However, they have maintained their innocence.
Christopher's family believes that his abductor was someone who knew them and had been in their house. They suspect it's Emma Bradshaw, a woman who had an affair with Gil. She allegedly had a history of break-ins. Calls made to the family home before and after Christopher's disappearance were traced to her. Per public court documents Colorado Springs Police Department Det. Montez testified in 2015 Emma Bradshaw is a person of interest.
Extra Notes:

  • This case first aired in a Missing Infant Roll Call on the January 25, 1989 episode, along with those of Marlene Santana and Carlina White.
  • The roll call was excluded from the FilmRise release of the Robert Stack episodes.
  • It was also released on October 19, 2020 as a part of the second volume of the Netflix reboot of Unsolved Mysteries. It is featured at the end of "Stolen Kids" as a part of a long-term missing children roll call along with those of Andre Bryant, Cherie Barnes, Amber Crum, Corey Edkin, Desiree Carroll, Ke'Shaun Vanderhorst, and Aaron Anderson.
  • It was also featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Phil Donahue Show, Inside Edition, and Still a Mystery.
  • Some sources state that Christopher was put to bed at midnight, Bernice woke up at 6:30am, he was abducted between 12:30 and 2:30am, and Gil and Bernice were in a nearby bedroom.
  • Following the disappearance of Lisa Irwin, Gil traveled to Kansas City, Missouri, to help her family with the search.

Results: Unsolved. In January 1996, a fifteen-year-old boy tried to kidnap an infant from a mall in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. He abandoned the infant after its mother ran screaming after him. Police arrested him and his companion, thirty-four-year-old James Bergeron. In a bizarre coincidence, police learned that Bergeron's truck was registered to Christopher's brother, Gale.
Gale had sold the truck to Bergeron, but he had never changed the registration or license plate. Christopher's family said they did not know him otherwise. Police wondered if Bergeron was involved in Christopher's disappearance. He had been living in Colorado Springs at the time. However, nothing was found to connect him to this case.
In 2013, Emma filed a lawsuit against Christopher's family, saying that emails to her boss and Facebook posts from Denise defamed her and interfered with her employment. In November 2015, a jury sided with her for her loss of employment and awarded her $150,000, but did not find any of the facebook posts defamatory. In 2017, authorities said they had identified a person of interest in this case. It has not been named, however, it is believed to be Emma.
In May 2016, Bernice was diagnosed with terminal gallbladder cancer. In October, she met with the District Attorney's Office; she felt hopeful after the meeting. One of her last wishes was to find out what had happened to Christopher. Sadly, that did not happen. On February 12, 2017, she passed away at the age of seventy-three.
In October 2018, a Florida man named Chris came forward. He was told that he was born in Colorado just a few months after Christopher. He did not have a record of his birth certificate. He did not have any pictures of himself when he was a baby. Pictures he had of himself as a toddler looked similar to Christopher. He believed he was Christopher. A social worker who had worked with him as a child also believed he was Christopher. She had tracked him down and told him about Christopher's disappearance, which led to him coming forward. His father did not want to talk to journalists.
For reasons unknown, CSPD did not seem to take the lead seriously at first. The social worker had reached out to them years ago. She contacted the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in 2017, and they forwarded the information to CSPD. Chris also tried to call their phone numbers, but no one answered. They later stated that the lead "did not seem credible." DNA was collected from him; in February 2019, it was announced that he was not a match. DNA was also collected from two other men who believed they were Christopher. They were not matches either.
In August 2020, Gil passed away of a heart attack. Christopher's siblings are still searching for him. A $100,000 reward is being offered in this case.
Links:

Community content is available under CC-BY-SA unless otherwise noted.
Advertisement

Fan Feed

More Unsolved Mysteries Wiki