Grandchildren go missing in Peru
Custody given to mom of man charged with murdering B.C. couple’s daughter
A B.C. couple will fly to Peru next week to search for their two grandchildren after learning they may be with their father, who has been charged with the murder of their mother.
Al and Kathy Kasatkin have been to Peru several times since their daughter, Kimberlee Kasatkin, went missing in November 2016. The 41-yearold mother of two was born and raised in B.C. but moved to Peru about four years ago with her common-law partner, Christopher Franz Bettocchi. The couple met while he was studying at a college on Vancouver Island.
The Kasatkins became suspicious when Kimberlee abruptly stopped making daily phone calls to her sister in B.C. Bettocchi told them she had abandoned her young family, including her two kids, who were three and six.
The couple reported their daughter’s disappearance to local police and set off for South America, where they spent six weeks chasing leads and asking police and prosecutors to take the case seriously. Their efforts paid off in February 2017 when Bettocchi was arrested and charged with femicide, the murder of a woman.
With Bettocchi behind bars, his mother was given custody of the children. The Kasatkins hired a civil lawyer and filed for custody, hoping to take the kids to Canada. They last saw them about four months ago.
“Physically they seemed to be doing fine, but we don’t know how they’re doing emotionally,” Al Kasatkin said Thursday. “They’re very cocooned. They’ve lost their English.”
Since then, the grandparents’ calls haven’t been returned. In June, after months of court delays, Bettocchi was released from jail to await trial. At the same time, a Peruvian TV station ran a leaked home video that showed Kimberlee, bruised and bloody, accusing her partner of assault.
Earlier, the Peruvian newspaper El Comercio reported that shortly after Kimberlee went missing, police searched the family’s home and found signs the bathroom door had been forced. This led them to review security-camera footage from a parking garage, where they saw a man believed to be Bettocchi take a large bag from an elevator to a black vehicle. At one point, he rested the bag against a column.
A police report obtained by the news agency America Noticias said experts found blood on the wall, as well as on a mattress and sheets in the family’s home. Bettocchi claimed the bag was filled with camping gear.
But the Kasatkins said they have no doubt that their daughter was murdered. Her body hasn’t been found.
A few weeks ago, the couple received a note telling them that Bettocchi may have left Peru for Germany.
“No one can tell us where the children are,” said Al Kasatkin. “So we’re going to track them down ourselves if we can. We’ve learned that the only way to get answers is to go there.”
The Kasatkins believe Bettocchi will still stand trial — even if he’s fled to a country with no extradition treaty — but they’re not certain how hard police are looking for him or if he’ll ever receive jail time. Their main concern is finding their grandchildren.
“We need to know that they’re OK,” said Al Kasatkin.
The family has set up a GoFundMe page to help with expenses at www.gofundme.com/daughter-missing-in-peru