25 Years Later, Family Still Searching For Missing Children

Twenty-five years after the disappearance of two young children -- Christopher and Lisa Zaharias -- their family has not given up hope of finding them alive.

The brother and sister, ages 3 and 1, respectively, when they disappeared in November 1987, are believed to have been abducted by their mother, Susan Gammill Zaharias, who may have come to Lake Elsinore with the children. According to the California Missing Person Directory, a felony warrant for the mother’s arrest was issued on Feb. 17, 1988, but nearly a quarter century later, their whereabouts are unknown.

Susan would now be 52 years old, Christopher 28, and Lisa 26.

Websites abound with pleas to help find the children. According to the “America’s Most Wanted” site, Susan Zaharias has been spotted around the country since the children disappeared from Santa Ana. In addition to Lake Elsinore, Susan has allegedly been seen in Orange County, Northern California, Oklahoma, and Michigan, according to the AMW site.

A Facebook site has also been set up to help raise awareness of the family’s plight.

“If you or someone you know was living in Lake Elsinore, CA, Dana Point, CA, Wetumka, OK, Ada, OK, or Detroit, MI, 1987-1988, please send them our flyer and ask if they look familiar or if they have heard about this case before,” a posting on the Facebook site, Help Find the Zaharias Children, reads (see attached flyer).

“We know that immediately after disappearing in Nov 1987 that Susan took the children to a relatives home in Lake Elsinore, she then went to Wetumka, Oklahoma and we know that after Wetumka that she and the children went to relatives in Detroit, MI and were there from at least Dec 1987-Jan 1988. After this point they completely vanish and their social security numbers have not been used,” another Facebook posting reads.

According to the Facebook site, the father of the two missing children, Louis, is desperate to find his kids.

“Some of you may think we are being too harsh on Susan Gammill Zaharias and the choices she made in 1987 but in what other way can we view her and her behavior? The only conclusion we have come to, is to present you with the plain bare facts, which have been well documented for anyone to scrutinize. She selfishly disappeared with her children whilst addicted to drugs, having committed crimes for which she is still wanted and in so doing deprived Christopher, Lisa Mae and Louis of any kind of relationship for 25 years,” the Facebook site reads. “Susan must live with her conscience and the consequences of her actions but do the children have to live the rest of their lives being deprived of their true identity and the knowledge that they are so very loved by a father who has not stopped searching for them for 25 years?”

Anyone with information on this case is encouraged to contact the Orange County District Attorney’s Office at 714-541-7531 or The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at 800-843-5678.