Police turn kidnap search to Montana
Published 9:00 pm Saturday, August 4, 2001
Associated Press
GRANTS PASS, Ore. — Four Oregon State Police detectives are in Montana seeking the family of an Oregon man arrested there Friday after he allegedly kidnapped his three young daughters at gunpoint from Oregon child welfare authorities.
Brian Christine, 28, of Grants Pass was stopped for speeding in the Big Timber area of south central Montana, police said. But there was no sign of Christine’s daughters — Bethany, 6; Lydia 4; and Miriam, 3 — his wife, Ruth, or an unidentified man who helped them abduct the girls.
"They are following leads there—and they do have leads—and we are following leads here," state police spokesman Lt. Kurt Barthel said Saturday afternoon.
He said due to the substandard condition the children were kept in by their parents, there is cause to worry about their safety.
Police were also looking for the couple’s 11-month-old daughter, Olivia, who was apparently taken from her grandmother’s house in Noblesville, Ind., July 28 by a family friend at Christine’s request.
Police in Big Timber said Christine was transferred to the Yellowstone County Jail in Billings.
Christine, his wife and another man allegedly followed a Services for Families and Children van Wednesday as child welfare workers returned the girls to a foster home following a supervised parental visit.
When state workers stopped to use the restroom, Christine allegedly put a gun to one caseworker’s head, then drove away in the state van with the girls. Police say Ruth Christine and another man were in two other getaway cars.
The kidnapping came as a Josephine County circuit judge was considering whether to permanently terminate the parental rights of the Christines and turn over their three daughters to Ruth Christine’s parents in England for adoption.
Last summer, the three older girls spent four days in a hospital recovering from malnutrition and dehydration before being put into foster care at a home kept secret from their parents.
Bethany also had a 3-inch skull fracture, which allegedly came from her father pushing her down the stairs of the refitted city bus the family lived in. He faces a charge of fourth-degree assault in that case.
The state took custody of the three girls a year and a day before the kidnapping, while the family was living in the bus parked next to the Josephine County Library. Olivia was born a few days later and placed in her grandmother’s care.
Christine was arrested on Oregon warrants for robbery, kidnapping, custodial interference and unauthorized use of a vehicle.
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