MovieChat Forums > Zodiac (2007) Discussion > Can she even take the kids???

Can she even take the kids???

posted 8 years ago by The-Demon
4 replies | jump to latest

When Graysmith comes home and sees the note saying that his wife took the kids to her mom and not to call. Can she even do that? Is it legal?

Regardless, the Graysmith family makes no sense since we see him with 1 child and he tells him he'll he spending the night with Mom and Aaron and the kid looks upset. For someone who is watching the movie for the first time and doesn't understand the case or characters going in it implies Aaron is the step dad or the moms boyfriend and he has a new step brither he's not interested in seeing.

However, it's just the kid going to be spending the night with his mom and Aaron his little brother.

Graysmith even tells Avery that he's divorced and 2 kids. We see years later Graysmith and Melanie with his 2 boys and a baby girl.

So technically Melanie only has custody of the baby girl but zero authority on the 2 boys. It's almost like a child abduction.

[–] butaneggbert 8 years ago

As a divorce attorney explained to me: on paper, some things are illegal. In practice, everything's legal until a judge declares otherwise.

Had Graysmith challenged her action in court and had a judge agree with him, we could conclude she'd done something illegal. But without the relevant laws in front of us, and a legal decision that her actions met the bar set by those laws - no, we can't say what she did was illegal.

_______________

Nothing to see here, move along.

[–] The-Demon 8 years ago

Right, but technically, the 2 boys are Graysmith and his ex wife's kids. Not Melanie.

I can't imagine if my parents divorced and I stayed with my dad and step mom (with visitations to see my mom and her husband) that if my dad and step mom got separated then my step mom can take me to her moms and tell my dad not to call. She'd have zero authority over me.

[–] simonkevnorris 8 years ago

I think because Graysmith became so obsessed with the case that the home life for the children wasn't going to be healthy. I doubt that it was even going to be healthy for Graysmith.

I don't think there was a legal separation simply that Melanie took the children away to give Graysmith the time and room to spend on the investigation.

Also at one stage there was someone phoning the home wich meant for the children's safety it was probably best to get them out of that house.

[–] The-Demon 8 years ago

Good point about the phone call thing.

But she tells him not to call them and it felt a little confusing. I not know much about the relationship between a son and their step mom. But just watching it felt weird taking the step children to her moms without their fathers approval. Feels like an abduction.