Father on the run with son decides to turn himself in
VANCOUVER, Wash. – A Vancouver father on the run with his 2-month-old son turned himself in to police Saturday evening after telling KATU he and his wife just did not want their baby to end up in foster care.
According to police, the parents fled the Vancouver area with the baby, named Andrew, sometime after July 12 in violation of a Clark County, Wash., court order mandating that Child Protective Services take the child into protective custody.
The court order came after a CPS investigation into the “stability of the living environment” at the couple’s home and a Clark County Sheriff’s Office investigation into domestic violence issues between the parents, police said. They did not elaborate.
The mother, Shondra Christiansen, was arrested in Springfield, Ore., on Wednesday in connection with a methamphetamine possession charge but would not help authorities find her husband and son.
On Saturday, the father, 24-year-old Nicholas Christiansen, met with KATU to share his side of the story, saying the child protective services claims against them were unfounded but they did not want to lose Andrew and fled to Eugene.
“(My wife) and I had an agreement, if one of us gets picked up and the other still has the baby, the other stays on the run until we figure something else out,” he said.
After his wife’s arrest, he said he took his son back to his mother’s Vancouver, Wash., home and eventually child services officials were called.
On Saturday they met with his mother and checked out the child; he was not there for the visit.
Eventually, Nick Christiansen, believing child services officials would let his son stay with his mom, decided to turn himself in. But just before police arrived to take him into custody, his mother called and told him CPS took his son into protective custody anyway.
“Makes me feel like this was all for nothing,” the father said.
Nick Christiansen was being held in the Clark County Jail on suspicion of first-degree custodial interference and a warrant on an unrelated domestic violence assault charge.
