Craig Walker
Real Name: Craig Allen Walker
Aliases: None known
Wanted For: Abduction, Fraud
Missing Since: January 2000
Case[]
Details: Christy and Craig Walker were a married couple with two sons, Landon and Logan. They appeared to be the perfect family. Christy was a traditional woman who never thought she'd divorce. However, after the marriage, Craig began to change. He started drinking and spending long amounts of time away from home. When he would come home drunk, she would tell him to stop. Although he agreed to stop, he never followed through.
Christy later learned that along with frequenting bars, Craig also went to strip clubs. He also allegedly did cocaine and crack. She recalled that one morning at 7AM, Landon called her at work, saying that Craig wouldn't wake up, mostly likely due to drinking too much alcohol. Eventually, she felt that living with him was no longer possible. The couple divorced in 1999. Christy was given full custody of the boys. Although Craig was not given visitation rights, she felt that it wasn't right to keep the boys away from their father. Since allowed him to watch them every other weekend while she worked as head nurse.
In January of 2000, she planned to move into her new house in Collierville, Tennessee. During a weekend in November of 1999, she left the boys with Craig. She called him on his car phone and they spoke briefly. When they didn't return at the scheduled time, Christy went to his house and found it empty. A message for her was written on the wall: "You really screwed up bad". She called the police, who later found Craig's Dodge Daytona at the Little Rock Airport, with the boys' jackets and Logan's car seat inside.
It was later discovered that he sold his Germantown house by using another woman to pose as Christy. As a result, he was charged with fraud along with kidnapping. Investigators later learned from the woman that Craig and the boys may have fled to Brazil. However, they were later sighted at a restaurant in Florida. The man believed to be Craig mentioned that his wife's name was Christy; he also claimed that he and his sons had left Memphis, Tennessee to start a new life.
Craig and the boys were later spotted on a hiking trail with an unidentified woman. Craig asked a tourist to take their picture. However, as she took the picture, he purposefully backed out of the shot. Investigators believe that Craig and the boys are still in the southeastern United States. There has been no further trace of them in over a year.
Extra Notes:
- The case first aired on the July 17, 2001 episode.
- This case had also been profiled on America’s Most Wanted during the investigation.
- This case was excluded from the FilmRise released of the Robert Stack episodes.
Results: Captured. After eighteen months, an acquaintance of Craig's in Brazil tipped off authorities that he and the boys were living in Florianopolis. Craig was arrested by Brazilian police while the boys were put into protective custody. They were then put on a plane to the United States where they were reunited with Christy.
In June of 2003, Craig was given a twenty-seven-month sentence after pleading guilty to federal bank fraud and aiding and abetting identity theft charges. Additionally, he was placed on probation for five years. He later was charged with violating that probation. He was never charged with kidnapping because of an international treaty with Brazil. He was found dead by police on November 4, 2010.
Links:
- Craig Walker on Unsolved Archive
- Craig Walker on the AMW website
- Mother reunited with missing sons - May 24, 2001
- New legislation to boost custodial protection - May 9, 2002
- Craig Walker Update - June 21, 2002
- Man who took sons to Brazil during bitter custody battle found dead - November 18, 2010
- Memphis mother remembers ex-husband's international kidnapping of sons - February 7, 2013