I Came Home From A Hospital Shift To Find My Fiancée And Baby Gone. The Police Called It A “Civil Matter” And Refused To Help. How Do I Find My Daughter?

The Sister’s Confession

Jeffrey met with Becca’s sister on Tuesday afternoon. I wasn’t allowed to be present because she’d agreed to talk confidentially. Jeffrey called me that evening with an update.

What Becca’s sister revealed was worse than I’d expected. Keith was controlling about Becca’s contact with her family. He monitored her phone constantly, read her texts, checked who she called. Becca seemed anxious all the time, different from how she used to be. Jumpy, nervous, always checking to see what Keith thought before she spoke.

Becca’s sister had visited them in Arizona twice since they’d moved in together. Both times Keith was present for every conversation. He wouldn’t leave the room, even when Becca’s sister tried to talk to Becca alone.

The sister also witnessed Keith’s temper. He got angry when Lily cried or needed attention during meals. He’d yell at Becca to make Lily be quiet. Once he’d slammed his hand on the table so hard the dishes rattled. Lily had cried harder and Keith had stormed out of the room. Becca apologized for him afterward, made excuses about him being stressed, but her sister saw fear in Becca’s eyes.

We discussed whether this information was enough to request supervised visitation for Becca as well. Jeffrey thought it might be. If Keith was controlling and had anger issues, and if Becca was too scared or influenced by him to protect Lily, then maybe she shouldn’t have unsupervised time either. Not until she got away from Keith or until Keith completed anger management.

We decided to hold off on that motion for now. Let Megan’s evaluation process play out first. But we documented everything Becca’s sister said and Jeffrey prepared to call her as a witness if needed.

Establishing a Pattern

Reed found more records. Court documents from 3 years ago showing Keith had been involved in a custody dispute with an ex-girlfriend. The woman had accused Keith of trying to alienate her from her child, of inserting himself into the parental role and pushing her out. She’d claimed Keith told her daughter to call him daddy, that he made decisions about the child without consulting her, that he tried to control her contact with her own daughter.

The case settled out of court so there was no final ruling, but the accusations were documented in the filings. Jeffrey was excited about this. It showed a pattern. Keith had done this before. He targeted single mothers, moved in quickly, took over the father role, and tried to push out the biological parent.

He was doing the exact same thing with Becca and Lily. The pattern was documented proof that this wasn’t just about Keith loving Becca and wanting to help raise her child. This was Keith’s established behavior. He found vulnerable women with children and inserted himself into their families. Then he worked to eliminate the other parent’s role.

Jeffrey said this was exactly what we needed to demonstrate to the judge. Keith wasn’t a stable father figure; he was someone who exploited family situations for his own purposes. We filed a motion to introduce Keith’s prior custody dispute as evidence of his pattern of behavior. Becca’s lawyer would probably object, but Jeffrey was confident the judge would allow it as relevant to assessing Keith’s fitness and motivations.