Episode 149: The Zaharias Abduction - Stolen Childhood
About this episode
The episode discusses the abduction of Susan Zaharias and the ongoing search by her husband Louis for their missing children.
On November 20, 1987, in Mission Viejo, California, Susan Zaharias abducted her two toddlers—three-and-a-half-year-old Christopher and fifteen-month-old Lisa—after a violent argument with her husband Louis, assaulting his mother and fleeing with almost nothing for the children. Battling severe alcohol, cocaine, and crystal methamphetamine addiction that had drained the family’s savings, Susan had met Louis in 1977, married him in 1981 despite her family’s fierce disapproval, and used relatives to race through Lake Elsinore, California, then Oklahoma, Detroit, Michigan, and several weeks in Greensburg, Pennsylvania before vanishing from Detroit in January 1988. For nearly 39 years Louis has never stopped searching: he sold almost everything he owned to fund lawyers and investigators, kept Christopher’s favorite blanket and Lisa’s dolls, got matching forearm tattoos of the children, and appeared on Unsolved Mysteries and other shows while moving across states to rebuild his life. Active felony warrants remain for Susan with a $250,000 bond; investigators believe all three are alive with ongoing family contact, and current age-progressed photos show Christopher in his early forties…
More episodes of The Dark Oak
- Episode 150: The Miyazawa Massacre - Perfect Family, Perfect Crime
- Episode 148: Unearthed from the Dark Oak: Where is Paola Miranda Rosa?
- Episode 147: Missing: Yolanda Bindics
- Episode 146: Kanika Powell - Killer in the Hallway
- Episode 145: Amanda Antoni - The Basement Mystery
- Episode 144: The Ice Miracle - Jean Hilliard
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