My son has joint custody of his daughter (3yrs old) and the mother is now in California and my son has his daughter in Indiana, the mother has been gone for almost 2 weeks and she is uncertain when she will return. She had only spoken to her daughter once since being gone. When will this become an abandonment case? In the state of Indiana how long doesn't she have to be gone with out contact?

Here's the info on abandonment in Indiana - "By Sangeet Duchane: Child abandonment is a serious offense in Indiana.
child image by Renata Osinska from Fotolia.com Indiana has several different laws that relate to child abandonment, including statutes about abandoning babies, statues defining abandonment of a child of any age as neglect, and provisions for criminal penalties. Indiana law also allows the courts to terminate parental rights if a parent abandons a child.

Abandoned Babies
Indiana Code section 31-9-2-0.4 defines an abandoned child as a child who appears to be less than 45 days old and is knowingly left with an emergency healthcare provider without an intention by the parent or guardian to return. Indiana Code section 31-9-2-0.5 defines an abandoned infant as one who is less than 12 months old and is intentionally left by a parent, guardian or custodian in a dangerous place or in a medical facility that has not agreed to take care of the child.

Abandonment as Neglect
Abandonment is also part of the definition of child neglect found in Indiana Code section 35-46-1-4. Under the statute anyone who has the responsibility to care for a dependent child commits the crime of neglect if that person intentionally abandons the child. The basic crime of neglect is a Class D felony in Indiana, but it can be a more serious crime if the child is injured or harmed as a result of the abandonment.

Termination of Parental Rights
In certain circumstances courts have the power to terminate parental rights under Indiana Code Section 31-34-21-5.6. If a parent has been convicted of child neglect, which includes abandonment, as a Class B felony, or if the child was an abandoned infant under the statutory definition in Indiana Code section 31-9-2-0.5, parental rights can be terminated. Conviction for child neglect as a Class B felony means that some harm came to the child as the result of the parent's abandonment. If parental rights are terminated, the parent becomes a legal stranger to the child with no rights of contact. The child can be adopted as the legal child of a stepparent or other adoptive parent."

Abandonment is literally leaving the child at a bus stop, without supervision, food, clothing.

Your situation is not abandonment. He needs to go to Court, get sole custody and child support. If he doesn't she has as much right to the child as he has and she could pick up the child tomorrow and refuse to return him/her.

He has a court order that she can NOT leave the state without his concent. We were told that if she is gone for 3 weeks with no contact he can't get her for abandonment and receive sole custody is this correct?

It's always helpful when all of the important information is posted right up front. Would have saved me a lot of research.

If he has a Court Order that she cannot leave the State without his consent and it does NOT mean ONLY that she cannot take the baby and leave the State without his consent then, yes, she's in violation of a Court Order and could lose custody IF that's the "if you do this that will happen" part of the Order.

I've personally never seen an Order that a person cannot leave a State WITHOUT the child... but perhaps it's happened before. I have no idea how any Court which is not involved in a criminal case can restrict a person's ability to travel freely.

Who told you he could file for abandonment and get sole custody? I am not seeing that in the law. If that's what the Court said... I would believe the Court.

I do appoligize for not stating the court order, let me give you a bit more info... she is 21 with 3 children by 3 different fathers, she was trying to leave without letting the fathers know about the move to Cali. My son got an emergency hearing to stop her... thus the court order not leaving without his concent. She has taken off and left her daughter with my son for days(weeks) on end (Feb 2011 she only had her 4 days of the 28 days). He took her to court to get rights to his daughter (he signed a parental affidavide but that didn't give him rights, needed a court order) now has joint custody with NO support due to the fact he has her all the time (Thursday thu Tuesday... when she takes her). She left Oct. 26th 2011 going to Cali because the new boyfriend is being deported (didnt give us a date when she would return). So this brings me to my question of how long does she have to be abdsent before he can get her on abandonment charges and get sole custody of his daughter, he was told by one of the other fathers that 3 weeks of no call no contact and he can file it.

If he has the child now and she has left the state then he can go back to court to have the custody changed. Has there been any contact or does he know if she moved on a permanent basis ?

Califdadof3 wrote: If he has the child now and she has left the state then he can go back to court to have the custody changed. Has there been any contact or does he know if she moved on a permanent basis ?
She had filed a temp relocation with the other dads my son got NO NOTIFICATION how ever the last time she spoke to the child was on Halloween... her Facebook states she doesn't know when she is coming back because she is house/dog sitting until the boyfriend returns from deployement.

No need to apologize - when you don't have legal questions every day it's difficult to know what is important.

Your son should go to the Courthouse IMMEDIATELY, report that she's gone, get sole custody. I would get her out of the picture immediately for fear she plans on coming back and next time takes the child with her.

Of course your son could get the child back from her... but that would take time and money.