LACK OF CHILD SUPPORT FRUSTRATES MANY

Carol Christopher's divorce papers call for her ex-husband to pay $707.44 a month in child support, and she claims he hasn't paid up.

That frustrates Christopher who questions why Missouri's Child Support Enforcement agency can't do more to find Douglas Wade Christopher.

She says he owes her more than $64,000 in child support.

It's been nearly eight years since Carol Christopher's marriage ended in divorce after she was married in Las Vegas Aug. 29, 1981. The couple lived in California.

The marriage soon became a nightmare, she said, claiming her ex-husband had a cocaine habit.

"He had a real bad drug problem," she said. "I sold the house and left."

In March 1990 Christopher and her two children moved to Cape Girardeau, and she filed for divorce. The decree became final on Dec. 13, 1991. She remarried last Dec. 31.

Her son, Matthew, was 4-years-old and her daughter, Erin, was 7 at the time of the divorce.

Her ex-husband was ordered to make payments to the Cape Girardeau County circuit clerk's office, which as trustee, was expected to send a monthly check to her.

Christopher said she received only one check in 1992 from the circuit clerk's office and none since, and that check was for slightly less than the court-ordered monthly payment.

"I was barely making ends meet trying to support my kids," Christopher said. "I have struggled to raise my kids for the last eight years. I had to get food stamps for a while."

The 41-year-old mother has made repeated visits to the Child Support Enforcement office in Cape Girardeau. Each time, she has come away frustrated that the agency can't track down her ex-husband.

She hasn't heard from her ex-husband. Even her father-in-law said he hasn't seen him in years.

Child Support Enforcement staff say they and California authorities haven't been able to locate him.

Christopher was told that her ex-husband had a California driver's license as of July 30, 1994, but wasn't living at the address listed on the license.

At one point, the Orange County, Calif., district attorney's office notified Missouri Child Support Enforcement officials in writing that the whereabouts of Christopher's ex-husband remained a mystery.

Christopher said she doesn't understand why an arrest warrant hasn't been issued.

"I have tried to be patient with them, but my patience is running out," she said.

It's a crime in Missouri if child-support payments haven't been made for at least six months or the money owed exceeds $5,000.

Christopher said her ex-husband was a computer specialist who could be self-employed.

California authorities haven't turned up an employer, and Social Security Administration records show he had no reported income in 1997.

Christopher said she doesn't know if he is alive or dead.

"It is like he dropped off the face of the earth," she said.

That doesn't surprise Brian Kinkade, who directs Missouri's Division of Child Support Enforcement.

Even with access to various national databases, deadbeat parents can be difficult to find.

"If the guy is working for cash, if he is trying to work around the system, it makes it very difficult to track him down," said Kinkade, and trying to track down parents in other states only adds to the difficulty.

Turning the case over to a local prosecutor is the last resort, he said.

Even if the person can be found, Kinkade's agency is more interested in getting the child-support money than in putting the deadbeat parent behind bars.

"It doesn't do any good to throw them in jail," said Kinkade. Putting a person on probation in exchange for child-support payments is a better option.

He understands Christopher's frustrations. "This sounds like a very difficult case," he said.