KIRO 7 Finds Father Who Vanished Without A Clue

After hundreds of people organized search parties and posted fliers, they still couldn't find Nicholas Francisco, because they were looking for the wrong guy.

But KIRO 7 Eyewitness News reporter Monique Ming Laven did.

They wanted to find a devoted father of two with a third on the way, a husband of seven years and a recently promoted art director of a respected ad agency.

SLIDESHOW: Man Vanishes, Abandons Family, Starts New Life

But almost two years after his disappearance, Ming Laven realized KIRO 7 had to look for someone entirely different: A man whose driver's license says "Alex Martin."

And they found him in Los Angeles.

He was living with a roommate, doing freelance design work out of this duplex.

His cover blown, he reluctantly sat down with us for a few minutes.

Ming Laven: What were you trying to get away from?

Francisco: Everything.

Ming Laven: Such as?

Francisco: Literally everything. I needed to leave and that's what I wanted to do.

Ming Laven: Was it hard to leave your kids?

Francisco: Yeah. Everyone else, not so much.

His ex-wife Christine had been waiting for two years to hear what happened.

"To hear it and hear it from his mouth, that's hard. It's reality," said Christine.

In the meantime, she gave birth to their third child -- alone.

And she's tried to explain to 4-year-old Noah and 6-year-old Zea why dad isn't around anymore.

"He chose just as much as I did that he wanted to have those three beautiful kids, and he does have a responsibility to them," said Christine.

"You know, it's sad that I can't be a part of that, but I don't want to be around for the rest of that. There's a whole (expletive) ecosystem around that I don't even care for," said Francisco.

Francisco has been ordered to pay $906 a month in child support.

In Oct, 31, 2009, DSHS was able to grab some money from a bank account Francisco opened in California. But then he closed it, and became Alex Martin.

Meanwhile, Christine lost their home to foreclosure. She's also on the hook for his student loans.

"He thinks he can dump this on everybody, that it's everybody else's responsibility, and yet he doesn't care about anybody. He doesn't care about what he left behind and who he left behind," said Christine.

And the state says its hands are tied. For reasons of confidentiality, they cannot talk about this case in particular, but they told KIRO it shows a weakness in the system -- when a deadbeat parent flees Washington, they're at the mercy of that other jurisdiction.

"The reality is that there are 360,000 support cases in Washington. You can only imagine how many there are in California, and you can only ask for so much assistance from other states. And sometimes, ours do not take the priority that their cases may. And that's the reality: That you're going to take care of your own work first," said Adolfo Capestany of the Washington Division of Child Support.

In the meantime, Francisco is delinquent on $16,321 in child support.

Christine and her family are barely scraping by with $600 a month on public assistance.

"He's putting the job on the state. He's putting the job on the taxpayers. Taxpayers are doing his job," said Christine.

There is still a tiny glimmer of Zea's father in Francisco.

Ming Laven: But you care about her.

Francisco: It's sad, that's what I'll tell you.

But the man who is now Alex Martin has decided he owes Zea and her brothers nothing.

Ming Laven: What are you supposed to be to her now?

Francisco: Disappeared. Gone off the face of this earth. Dead.

Christine divorced Francisco in absentia and has since remarried.

See full interview with Francisco on Thursday.

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