How Sad! (Christophe Day Case)

[jasonbigley]

I cannot believe a case like this could happen. That ex wife of his must have been some b*tch! How could she take away his son like that and never make contact? The saddest part was when he found out his son died of leukemia in France. He never got to make peace with him. It is too bad that his ex wife did not catch the leukemia instead because she would have deserved it. I think the ex wife is a sad pathetic person and a joke of a human being.

[charmedsignora]

It always upsets me how these people divorce and then one parent will do absolutely anything to prevent the child or children from seeing the other parent. They think they are getting back at their ex-spouse, but they're really just hurting the children!

[shanejm]

I just saw this case for the first time today and I just have to say how very sad it makes me. What a horrible woman to take Christophe away from his father for so many years and how tragic that once the father found out what happened to his son that he had died of Leukemia. I just don't know how the father could deal with all of it. I doubt she did...but I hope she got some jail time!

[alfiechat]

This case has always struck a chord with me. I empathized with Bill Day so much when this story came out. I have been unable to find any information on what actions may have been taken against Betty when Bill finally found her. Can anyone help?

[Apostapler]

Originally Posted by alfiechat

This case has always struck a chord with me. I empathized with Bill Day so much when this story came out. I have been unable to find any information on what actions may have been taken against Betty when Bill finally found her. Can anyone help?

No actions were able to be taken against her, because she had never been served with the original custody papers. No legal recourse available.

[DarkDante]

This is one of those cases that really suffers from a lack of information. We are told that Bill and his wife went through a divorce but much like The Maples case, Bill's wife is presented as having no real motive for wanting to keep Christophe away from his father.

This obviously doesn't make much sense as it takes a heck of a lot of anger or some type of motivation to change your child's identity and constantly move them from place to place to prevent them from having contact with their father. So I don't know what Betty Day's motivation was but I certainly wish we had a clearer picture of this case in that regard.

Also Bill's methods of finding his son to me seemed very bizarre. I mean I have no doubt he was well intentioned but if he had an idea that his son was going to be visiting his ex mother in law's home on a certain date, why didn't he inform the authorities of that fact and have them attempt to bring his son into protective custody?

Also the stuff with the soccer coach was equally bizarre. It was never explained as to why this coach wouldn't help Bill locate his son. From the way it was presented in the segment it seemed as if she may have had information regarding Christophe. If so why wasn't she questioned by the authorities?

Which brings me back to my basic question of where were the authorities in all of this? It just seems to me as if this segment takes on the tone of one man's vigilante quest to find his son (digging through garbage bins, contacting his ex-wife through third parties etc.) instead of being a proper investigation of a child abduction by a non-custodial parent. The whole segment just has a very bizarre tone to it.

Edit: I just re-watched the segment again. I'm really starting to wonder whether or not Betty Day had sole custody of her son with Bill just getting visitation rights? If so I wonder if this would've caused any legal complications regarding her flight with Christophe. It's mentioned at some point that Bill was granted custody of their son Christophe but this was after Betty and Christophe had fled. In fact, according to the update Bill never did serve his wife with his custody papers which resulted in her basically being able to walk away from this whole ordeal scott free. Basically I'm really wondering what the original custody arrangement was? Did Betty indeed have sole custody of Christophe? If so why wasn't a joint custody arrangement explored during the divorce proceedings? Again just seems like they left a lot of information out of this segment.

[NemechekFan87]

Well the thing is, is that Bill had visitation rights from the very beginning that Betty would not accomodate to. This led to her fleeing the area, and going all over the world, literally, to keep away from Bill. Even though she was never given any prison term when she was found because the custody papers, that stated Bill now had full custody of Christophe, weren't presented to her... she should still have gotten some sort of sentence, because if you remember in one part of the segment, Robert Stack says "The Judge ruled if she didn't accomodate to the visitation rights (which she didn't) she'd be facing some prison time." Why was this never done, and why was justice never served to Bill, and most of all Christophe for not being able to ever 'really' meet his dad.

[bugnpinky]

Originally Posted by DarkDante

This is one of those cases that really suffers from a lack of information. We are told that Bill and his wife went through a divorce but much like The Maples case, Bill's wife is presented as having no real motive for wanting to keep Christophe away from his father.

This obviously doesn't make much sense as it takes a heck of a lot of anger or some type of motivation to change your child's identity and constantly move them from place to place to prevent them from having contact with their father. So I don't know what Betty Day's motivation was but I certainly wish we had a clearer picture of this case in that regard.

Also Bill's methods of finding his son to me seemed very bizarre. I mean I have no doubt he was well intentioned but if he had an idea that his son was going to be visiting his ex mother in law's home on a certain date, why didn't he inform the authorities of that fact and have them attempt to bring his son into protective custody?

Also the stuff with the soccer coach was equally bizarre. It was never explained as to why this coach wouldn't help Bill locate his son. From the way it was presented in the segment it seemed as if she may have had information regarding Christophe. If so why wasn't she questioned by the authorities?

Which brings me back to my basic question of where were the authorities in all of this? It just seems to me as if this segment takes on the tone of one man's vigilante quest to find his son (digging through garbage bins, contacting his ex-wife through third parties etc.) instead of being a proper investigation of a child abduction by a non-custodial parent. The whole segment just has a very bizarre tone to it.

Edit: I just re-watched the segment again. I'm really starting to wonder whether or not Betty Day had sole custody of her son with Bill just getting visitation rights? If so I wonder if this would've caused any legal complications regarding her flight with Christophe. It's mentioned at some point that Bill was granted custody of their son Christophe but this was after Betty and Christophe had fled. In fact, according to the update Bill never did serve his wife with his custody papers which resulted in her basically being able to walk away from this whole ordeal scott free. Basically I'm really wondering what the original custody arrangement was? Did Betty indeed have sole custody of Christophe? If so why wasn't a joint custody arrangement explored during the divorce proceedings? Again just seems like they left a lot of information out of this segment.

I can't answer everything....they probably had to pare out details in order to make sure there was enough time for other cases to be featured the same night. However i can say that amicable divorce and custody proceedings can only happen with both parties are amicable. She, obviously, was not. I can't say for certain, but she seems like the type of person who made every step and ordeal, drawn out, long, and painful. It's possible he did what he did in order to keep peace, to show an element of trust, etc etc. Likely the more he tried, the more she pushed back or the more she retreated. Either way I doubt she was very amicable during the ordeal.

People don't have to have a motive that makes sense. Women are emotional creatures and if they are already a bit unbalanced, it won't take much for them for them to find some sort of reason. Power, control, revenge, wanting to hurt someone are all reasons they do the things they do. Men who do this same thing will do it for the same reasons but the first three come more into play. In most cases it isn't about the child's well-being, though that excuse is frequent. Allegations of sexual abuse are often brought in because it is difficult to prove.

[zack007attack]

Betty should face prison time for not only kidnapping, but possibly manslaughter too. If she never fled to France, maybe Bill could have helped Christophe with his illness and he'd still be alive, or he might never have contracted leukemia at all.

[alfiechat]

I would agree wholeheartedly with the jail time for her. Does anyone know how Bill Day is doing now? This case was always one of my favorites to watch, and I was so heartbroken when I saw the update.

[LindsayDay]

I think I may be able to help. My name is Lindsay Day i am 19 years old and I am the daughter of Bill Day and Christophe is my step brother. This is really sad on both my dad and I but he has moved on and has a really great life right now. if anyone has any questions I would be happy to answer them. and I appriciate that you all care it means a lot.

[LindsayDay]

hi im Lindsay Day and Bill day is my dad. He is currently doing really well. he is a contract Firefighter in iraq right now, and though he misses his son he has moved on

[crystaldawn]

Originally Posted by LindsayDay

hi im Lindsay Day and Bill day is my dad. He is currently doing really well. he is a contract Firefighter in iraq right now, and though he misses his son he has moved on

Thanks so much for posting Lindsay! I'm sure the other posters like myself are thrilled to learn that your father has went on to have a happy life. I'm especially glad to see he went on to have more children. His is one of the cases on here that angers us the most having seen the update.

I appreciate your willingness to answer our questions. Just curious, have you ever watched the UM segment? Also I'm guessing I probably know the answer to this but does he ever have any contact with his ex Betty? Did she ever express any remorse keeping Christophe away from him and not even letting your dad know he had leukemia? Thanks again!

[unsolved243]

I was watching the Christophe Day segment of the forbidden site and looked in the comments and saw that just about a week ago, Lindsay wrote that there is a chance that Christophe may still be alive! The days received a phone call from Betty's mother who told them about how she thinks Betty lied to Bill claiming that Christophe was dead in order to stop searching for him. Lindsay also said that next summer, she and Bill are going to France to see if Christophe is where Betty claims he was.

Lindsay, I hope you and your dad find Christophe!

[dynoguy88]

Originally Posted by unsolved243

I was watching the Christophe Day segment of the forbidden site and looked in the comments and saw that just about a week ago, Lindsay wrote that there is a chance that Christophe may still be alive! The days received a phone call from Betty's mother who told them about how she thinks Betty lied to Bill claiming that Christophe was dead in order to stop searching for him. Lindsay also said that next summer, she and Bill are going to France to see if Christophe is where Betty claims he was.

Lindsay, I hope you and your dad find Christophe!

That sounds just awful if true. Not the part about Christophe being alive but if Betty made the whole thing up about him dying in the first place. It's kind of hard to believe. Why would Betty's mother all of the sudden get a conscience and call the Day family out of the blue to tell them she thinks Betty might be lying? According to the segment, the mother was the only way Bill could communicate with Betty after she went into hiding. She had years and years and years, countless opportunities to tell Bill where Betty and Christophe were hiding and she never said a word. Why the sudden change of heart? If this is a cruel joke then I say lock up Betty AND her mother.