Kin seek custody of fugitive's children
By Robert Medley
Published: December 19, 2001
ENID -- Grandparents of two children who disappeared with their mother after their father was slain in Oklahoma City are struggling for their custody.
Rose Evers of Enid, the mother of Brenda Andrew, is at tempting to obtain custody of her fugitive daughter's children. She objected Tuesday in a Garfield County courtroom to guardian ship of the missing children going to Rob Andrew's parents. The children, Tricity, 10, and Parker, 7, have been missing since failing to show up with their mother at their father's funeral Nov. 26.
Rob Andrew was killed by two shotgun blasts Nov. 20 in the garage of his Oklahoma City home. He had moved out of the house at 6112 Shaftsbury Drive about a month before Brenda Andrew filed for divorce Oct. 3.
Brenda Andrew told police two masked men shot her in the arm and shot her husband to death when he showed up to take the children to Enid for Thanksgiving. The children were home at the time but were not harmed.
On Tuesday, Evers asked a Garfield County judge to move the case to Oklahoma County. But Associate District Judge Richard Perry ruled the custody case will stay in Garfield County.
Before his death, Rob Andrew had told Oklahoma City police he thought his wife and her alleged lover, James Pavatt, 48, were plotting to kill him to collect an $800,000 life insurance policy. Brenda Andrew's attorney, Greg McCracken, has said her mother and family do not think she was involved in her husband's slaying and that Brenda Andrew and her children may have been abducted.
Pavatt, a Prudential Life Co. salesman who sold the policy to Rob Andrew after meeting him at North Pointe Baptist Church, refused to talk to police without an attorney before he disappeared in the days after the shooting. Pavatt and Brenda Andrew were charged with first-degree murder in Oklahoma County District Court.
Rob Andrew's parents, E.R. and Lou Ellen Andrew, filed a motion in Garfield County for emergency guardianship of the children after their son's killing, said their attorney, Craig Box. The motion froze Brenda Andrew's bank accounts and as sets, he said.
The children have not been found. The FBI has issued international warrants for the arrest of Brenda Andrew and Pavatt. Tips the couple fled Oklahoma City the night of Nov. 25 and may have gone to Mexico, where the Andrew family had vacationed, are being investigated.
Rose Evers on Tuesday asked the Garfield County judge to reopen her daughter's assets and bank accounts, Box said. She also made an objection to the prior motion for guardianship of the two children filed by Rob Andrew's parents, Box said.
No date for another hearing was set. , Box said. Perry refused to reopen Brenda Andrew's bank account or assets, Box said. The case of Rob Andrew's death and the missing children has gained nationwide attention, appearing on the television show "America's Most Wanted.''
"We're still following up on leads generated by `America's Most Wanted,' but so far they have produced no positive results,'' FBI Special Agent Gary Johnson said.
The vehicle Brenda Andrew drove, a 2001 Chrysler maroon minivan with Oklahoma license plate number FNR-777, and a car driven by Pavatt, a red 1992 Chevrolet Baretta with Oklahoma license plate YTD-613, are missing. Johnson said one possibility is the fugitives drove to Mexico, where the Andrew family had vacationed in the past.
"It's a possibility that they drove to Mexico or Canada or sold the cars and flew to the Caribbean islands. We're having to look at all possibilities. We're still very much asking for the public's help because right now we've not found them,'' Johnson said.
Anyone with information should call the FBI at 290-7770.
