Mother Seeks Custody of Murdered Son's Sister

Christina's stepmother's brother says the girl is safe with him

The mother of a murdered Gary, Ind., boy, Christian Choate, is suing for custody of his sister.

Aimee Estrada's attorney filed an emergency motion May 13, so the estranged mother could regain custody of Christina Choate, the Times of Northwest Indiana reports.

Estrada's lawyer argued the children's father, Riley Choate, started intimidating his children's mother in 2005 after he won custody of their two kids.

Choate raised his kids with his wife, Kimberly Kubina-Choate.

According to court documents, Kubina-Choate's brother, Robert Hamby, told Estrada's husband over the phone that Christina accused her father of killing her brother. 

Authorities found a body buried in a shallow grave May 4 near the family's former home in a mobile park in the Black Oak section of Gary.

Choate and Kubina-Choate face murder charges for the 13-year-old boy's death. 

Kubina-Choate left Christina in Kentucky with her brother, who has hired a lawyer for the custody fight, the paper reports.

Christina believed her stepmother's family put a "price on her head," according to court documents.

Hamby countered, insisting people are threatening him not Christina.

"I might be Kim's brother by birth but by choice, right now I am not," Hamby told the paper. "I'm the one who turned her in (to police), and I want nothing to do with her. I just want what is best for Christina.'

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