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Christopher and Lisa Zaharias

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Real Names: Christopher Louis and Lisa Mae Zaharias
Nicknames: Chris (Christopher)
Location: Mission Viejo, California
Date: November 20, 1987

Bio[]

Occupation: None
Date of Birth: March 25, 1984 (Christopher); August 18, 1986 (Lisa)
Height: 3'0" (Christopher); 2'0" (Lisa)
Weight: 40 lbs. (Christopher); 20 lbs. (Lisa)
Marital Status: Single
Characteristics: Both siblings had blonde hair (or strawberry blonde) and blue eyes. Christopher had fair skin. Their hair may now be brown.

Case[]

Details: Christopher and Lisa Zaharias are the children of Louis and Susan Zaharias. They met in 1977 and were married in 1981. They lived in Mission Viejo, California. According to Louis, in 1986, Susan began having personal problems. She felt lonely and isolated at home with Christopher and Lisa because Louis worked up to fifteen hours a day. She was also upset because her family disliked him.
Susan began behaving recklessly. She abused alcohol and took drugs such as cocaine and crystal methamphetamine. She reportedly left Christopher and Lisa alone in the car while she went to buy drugs. She also did drugs in front of them.
According to Louis, Susan took money intended for household bills and spent it on drugs. She spent the family's savings on drugs. She also stole thousands of dollars from Louis' mother and wrote about $6,000 in bad checks. In serious financial and legal trouble, she went to her family, who were eager to help. They reportedly promised to help her escape the drug dealers, check fraud, and other problems.
Meanwhile, two of Susan's best friends told Louis they believed she was abusing drugs and having financial problems. One day in mid-November 1987, he and his mother decided to confront Susan about the unpaid bills and her drug and alcohol abuse. She immediately went upstairs and refused to talk to them about it.
A few days later, on the morning of November 20, 1987, Louis and Susan had a serious argument, which he said she started. He left the house to cool off, leaving her with his mother, three-year-old Christopher, and fifteen-month-old Lisa. According to him, after he left, she beat up his mother and threw her down a flight of stairs. She then took Christopher and Lisa and left. For reasons unknown, she did not take any bottles for Lisa, nor any toys or clothes for them. By the time Louis returned later that morning, they were gone.
Louis and Susan were together for ten years. He considered her his best friend. He trusted her more than anyone else, and he never believed that she would do anything to hurt their family. He believes that drugs caused her to do what she did. He wishes he had the chance to help her.
According to Louis, Susan took Christopher and Lisa to a relative's home in Lake Elsinore, California, immediately after the abduction. The next day, her aunt and grandmother took her, Christopher, and Lisa to an airport. They flew from California to her hometown of Wetumka, Oklahoma. They were also sighted in Oklahoma City.
Susan, Christopher, and Lisa then traveled to Detroit, Michigan, and stayed with relatives. They also stayed with her sister and brother-in-law in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, for a few weeks. In January 1988, they flew from Detroit to an unknown location. Since then, there have been confirmed sightings of them in Washington, New Jersey, and Michigan. There have also been sightings of Susan alone in Michigan and Oklahoma.
Louis claims that following the abduction, Susan's family accused him of various wrongdoings, including abuse, to justify their actions. He said they used all the right "buzzwords". The allegations were heavily investigated by the police, children's groups, and private investigators and were determined to be false.
On February 17, 1988, the state of California issued a felony and extradition warrant against Susan for "crimes against persons". She also has a warrant out for her arrest for custodial interference.
Following the abduction, Louis sued several of Susan's relatives, claiming they gave her money and helped her escape. The lawsuits were later settled out of court. He tried to get prosecutors to charge her relatives for helping her, but was unsuccessful. Her parents claim they have not seen her since she disappeared. They, along with other relatives, deny helping her.
About a year after the abduction, Louis moved to Thousand Oaks, California, because he could not stay in the house where he lived with Christopher and Lisa. In 1993, he moved to Arizona to start a new job and a new life. He also remarried. But he has not forgotten Christopher and Lisa. Over the years, he has spent thousands of dollars and most of his free time searching for them. He sold most of his belongings, including his furniture and car, to help pay for attorneys and private investigators.
In January 2016, Susan's mother, Norma, died at the age of eighty-three. Susan, Christopher, and Lisa are listed as survivors in her obituary. One witness who was at her funeral claims to have seen a woman resembling Susan there. There were also reported sightings of Christopher and Lisa in Wetumka around that time. Louis believes that Susan, Christopher, and Lisa are alive and that Susan's family is in communication with them.
Before his abduction, doctors diagnosed Christopher with having fluid in his ears, which caused him to be unable to clearly hear the way words were articulated. He had a slight speech impediment and was prescribed speech therapy lessons. Louis is worried that Christopher never got the therapy he needed. Louis was blonde until he was about ten, so there is a chance that Christopher and Lisa's hair has changed to a light brown or brown color.
Most likely, Christopher and Lisa do not know their true identities. Louis said it is not unusual in parental abduction cases for the abductor to change identities several times. He believes there are people who helped Susan change identities and may be able to provide leads for her new identity. He suspects Christopher and Lisa were either told that he was dead, abusive, or had left them.
Three decades later, Louis is desperate to see Christopher and Lisa. He wants to share with them some of the things that he saved. He still has Christopher's favorite blanket and Lisa's dolls. He also kept furniture from his mother that was supposed to go to Lisa if and when she got married. He said his heart is empty without them. He wants them to learn about their heritage, their relatives, and all the people who have helped search for them. He says they have the right to know the truth about their lives.
Susan has relatives in Oklahoma, California, and Pennsylvania. She, Christopher, and Lisa might be in Sarina, Michigan; Wetumka, Oklahoma; Ada, Oklahoma; Lake Elsinore, California; Dana Point, California; Orange County, California; northern California; or Canada. Authorities have stated that if someone comes into contact with Susan, Christopher, and/or Lisa, they should not approach them. Instead, they should call the police.
Suspects: Susan is believed to be responsible for the abduction. Her relatives are believed to have helped her escape.
Extra Notes:

  • This case was uploaded to the Unsolved Mysteries website on July 15, 2016. The person interviewed in the video is Louis.
  • It was also released on November 1, 2022 as a part of the third volume of the Netflix reboot. It was released in the third part of a three-week Halloween event. It is featured at the end of "Abducted by a Parent" as a part of a parental abduction roll call alongside those of CJ and Billy Vosseler, Luis Alderete-Martinez, Huaiyu and Binyu Chin, Kayla Unbehaun, Reuben Blackwell Jr., and Tammy and Diego Flores.
  • It was also profiled on the website of America's Most Wanted, Missing, and the pilot of the show Stolen.
  • The decomposed body of a young girl was found in San Francisco Bay on May 24, 1988. She had been beaten to death. Initially, the police suspected that the body was Lisa's. However, DNA testing later ruled that out. It was later identified as eighteen-month-old Marta June, who, along with her mother, Renee, was murdered by her father, Arthur Mount.
  • Some sources state: Susan, Christopher, and Lisa disappeared from Santa Ana; Susan abducted them while Louis was at work; and her sister lived in Detroit.

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