Christopher Abeyta

Man comes forward, says he’s missing child who vanished from his crib 32 years ago

A man says he is the baby who disappeared from his family’s Colorado home over 30 years ago.

KKTV 11 reports that the man, whose identity is unknown at this time, claims that he is Christopher Abeyta. Christopher disappeared from his crib in his family’s Colorado Springs home in the middle of the night in 1982 without a trace. His sister has been desperately trying to find him for years and although she hopes the man is indeed her brother, she has her skepticism.

“Your brain is telling you not to but your heart is saying this might be it,” Linnea Abeyta said. “There is a person who drove here to Colorado to go to the CBI to get a DNA test.”

The incident will mark the 4th time someone has been tested for DNA to determine if they are truly Christopher. So far, none of the others have matched.

Linnea Abeyta said she hasn’t met the man yet but she did see photos of him as a toddler, which look similar to the infant photos of her brother.

“The toddler was, yeah could be. It’s hard to admit that you don’t know but they are [sic] some likings there, but if I was to see him without any knowledge of who he was I don’t know if I would say that that’s Christopher.”

As CrimeOnline previously reported, NCMEC released a photo and video of Christopher, depicting what he may look like today. For the past 30 years, the Colorado Springs Police Department have interviewed numerous people in connection with Christopher’s disappearance, but so far none of the leads have panned out.

Christopher is the youngest of seven children and his mother, Bernice Abeyta, never gave up hope of finding him. She passed away from cancer last year. His sister Denise has picked up where her mother left off and continues to search for Christopher.

At one point, the family was convinced that an acquaintance of the family was the person who took Christopher, but in 2015,  a jury ordered Denise, 15 years older than Christopher, to pay $150,000 to her for defamation. The woman indicated that she had been questioned by the police numerous times over the years but was never arrested or charged in connection with Christopher’s disappearance. The police continue to consider her a person of interest.

According to the Facebook group, “Find Christopher,” however, the woman who the family questioned didn’t get interviewed by police until 28 years later. The group posted a screenshot, detailing how the woman acted strange prior to Christopher’s disappearance, and kept talking about how she wanted a baby of her own.

The Denver Channel identified the person of interest as Emma Bradshaw, a woman who allegedly had an affair with Christopher’s father. The family indicated that Bradshaw began stalking them shortly after the affair, but Bradshaw filed a defamation lawsuit against Denise after she reportedly shared private information on Facebook.

“If you know Emma Bradshaw, maiden name Manzanares and have spoken to her or her family in the past 26 years about Christopher please call the CSPD Detective at 719-482-7179. If you are friends with her family members, ask them to put pressure on Emma,” a 2012 Facebook post read.

The Denver Post reports that in 2014, Bradshaw indicated that the family’s accusations got her fired from her job after Denise sent a letter to Bradshaw’s former boss, Robert Spicer, on February 13, 2013. The letter stated that Bradshaw had been arrested previously after she allegedly had an affair with another man and reportedly started stalking and harassing him afterward. When the man “wanted to break things off with her, she threatened his children,” the letter stated.

The DNA test results from the man claiming to be Christopher are expected to be available at some point next month.

[Feature Photo: Christopher Abeyta/NCMEC]