Bring Luca Home

I started this gofundme to help my best friend, Chris Kelliher, and his son. They need financial help to stay in Fresno, CA until they can legally gain custody of his grandson and bring him safely home to Alaska. They need money for food, lodging, and car rental while in Fresno.

Here is my friend's story:

This is the email I’m sending out to everyone I can think of…. News outlets, government figures… Elon Musk if it makes a difference…

My name is Christopher James Talaak Kelliher. I am an inupiaq and koyukon athabaskan from Alaska.

This is the story of how my grandson has been abducted in California, with the help of his other grandparents, one who is an officer of the Clovis Police Department here in California.

A little back story. Nearly four years ago, when my son was 16, he began an online romantic relationship with a 15 year old girl, who is now 18, from Clovis. It got to the point where this girl and her mother, were both telling him to move to California, to begin a “beautiful” life with this girl, where he could live with them and everything would be wonderful.

Now, being the concerned parent I am, when I found out he was trying to sneak down to California on Valentine’s Day of 2021, while he was still 17, I put a halt to it and told him he couldn’t. The girl then proceeded to call him a “pussy” and a “faggot” if he didn’t disobey me, and that she didn’t want anything to do with him if he didn’t. He then promised her he would go down on his 18th birthday if it meant they could be together. We didn’t talk for nearly five months. During that time, he moved to California on his 18th birthday.

What followed was an insane year of this girl and her mother, HIDING him in their house, from the girls father, the police officer. And as what happens with kids being unsupervised and left alone, sex and a pregnancy soon occurred.

Now, what followed has been a cycle of emotional and sometimes physical abuse, which thankfully my son documented by way of this girls text messaging.

He left and came home to get away from it five weeks after Luca’s birth. He went to work, and frequently sent this girl money, way more than is required by California law.

Eventually, he moved back down to not only be a more constant part of his sons life, because his baby momma kept blocking him and keeping him from talking to his son, claiming he was a deadbeat and absentee father because he wasn’t there “raising” their son.

Quick side note, from the day this baby was born, she has repeatedly refused to allow my son to enroll their child not only with his native corporations by withholding his social security number from my son, but from IHS so he’d be able to receive medical care from the local IHS clinic in Clovis. She even recently, before he moved back down to California, berated my son for not getting their son health insurance for him because she had turned 18 and had aged out of her father’s insurance coverage. Despite my sons repeated pleas for his information to get him covered, she denigrated my son for looking too white, and thusly Luca couldn’t possibly be native, and that he was a “real human being” instead and needed real insurance.

Once he was back in California, he was not allowed to use his phone in the house, nor was his family allowed to interact with Luca in anyway, otherwise she would kick him out, saying he’d be banned from seeing his son.

The last several months has seen my son being emotional and physically abused, paying this family over six thousand dollars for God knows what, while being called a deadbeat and absentee father, while being the main caretaker for his son.

Everything came to a head Sunday night, the 19th of this month. After picking up Luca’s mother from a club at 12:30 in the morning, she began arguing with him. He had his phone in his hand and she accused him of recording her (I wish that he had)

The argument continued into the house, where she proceeded to physically attack him, trying to take his phone away. He did the right thing and kept himself facedown and didn’t defend himself until she gave up and went to her mother and demanded she take his phone and kick him out.

My son surrendered his phone and walked to the nearest place he could find that was open, and upon seeing his injuries, the blessed people there convinced him to call the police. Which he did.

The girl was arrested, and later posted bail on a $25,000 bond. My son was photographed, examined and then interviewed and the police recommended and helped him get into a domestic abuse center in Fresno.

My son is a proud, and amazing father to his son. He felt shame, that this had happened, trying his best to be in his sons life, and refusing several suggestions that he should just hop on a plane and come back to Alaska and let the court figure it out. “I can’t take Luca away from his mother.” Was all he would say to those suggestions.

He reached out to me, he needed his Poppa. My sister got me a ticket to Fresno, as I had just returned from a trip from the east coast to visit family, and wasn’t in the best situation to deal with this emergency, financially.

I arrived here and began maxing my credit cards for a rental vehicle, and eventually an Airbnb to stay at, because sleeping in a jeep isn’t good for anyone’s back, especially one that is literally just about to be released from medical care from a car accident in September of last year.

My son was interviewed by Fresno PD detectives, not only for the assault, but also because the girl had filed rape charges against my son the morning after she was arrested. After reviewing her text messages demanding sex from him several times since his arrival here in November of 2023, the detectives deemed that it was a last ditch effort to try and get my son in trouble, to lesson her pending domestic violence with children charge. “Slinging mud and hoping some sticks” I think was the phrase used. They didn’t arrest him on the charges and left with his statement.

The following day, the 22nd, my son attended a free legal advice meeting at the shelter, in which he was able to file a restraining order against Luca’s mother, as well as ask for custody of Luca until the restraining order hearing could take place.

We received the judges answer today, the 23rd. All motions granted, with a minor addendum stating she could receive two, two hour visitations with Luca a week, under supervision, in which the company to be used was provided In the paperwork. My son had no problem with that. The two things he really wanted to be granted were granted.

1) custody of Luca

2) mandatory 52 week anger management counseling for the mother.

In California, anyone over the age of 18 can deliver a court order. I volunteered.

I filmed all the interactions, from talking with the other grandfather, to him saying I was going to have to call the police department to get them to comply, to my recording the grandmother and mother back out of their garage 20 minutes after delivering the court order to an officer of the law, and speed away, and my saying I really hope that wasn’t your wife leaving with my grandson, to his reply of “well, Luca isn’t even here”… even though when I served the paperwork, he’s on video stating not only did he think Luca wouldn’t “be able to come out tonight” but you can hear Luca crying in the background.

We had called Fresno PD already, as his refusal to execute his sworn duty as an officer of the law made it now a domestic disturbance, but when they sped away, we reported it as a kidnapping.

After a couple of hours, and plenty of statements later, Fresno PD deemed that since the other grandfather says his daughter didn’t know about the court order () and had just left with his wife coincidentally, there was nothing they could do.

So right now, my grandson is missing, God knows where, and my son is being denied his RIGHTS to his son, and his son’s well being.

My writing this, as a concerned grandfather, whose son’s child is being kept from him illegally, is to shine a light on an all too common problem in this country. As Luca’s mother literally said, he’s not NATIVE, he’s a REAL HUMAN BEING.

Missing, abducted or not, indigenous children are a STAIN on this country’s history. Especially California AND Alaska. Throw in a parent who is prone to violent and irrational outbursts, and you can see the concern.

Now, I understand that the Fresno PD’s hands are tied, but my hope is that somewhere, someone, will step up, and help end this injustice, get Luca back to his father, and get this young girl the help she needs. I applaud and thank the officers who responded this evening. Professional, and very thorough. The other grandfather, makes real, good cops, have a difficult job. And it saddens me that a sworn officer of the law would behave in this matter. Daughter or not, he’s sworn to follow the law. He cannot claim ignorance, as he has, because he’s on video. Saying I’d have to call the police to get them to comply. And then they ran.

Disgraceful, and disheartening.

Yours in Fresno,

Christopher