After two years of silence, a scared Christina Choate called her stepsister to tell of how her brother died. Her stepsister, Alyssa Nieto, notified other adults.
Estrada's lawyer argued the children's father, Riley Choate, started intimidating his children's mother in 2005 after he won custody of their two kids.
Aimee Estrada's attorney filed an emergency motion May 13, so the estranged mother could regain custody of Christina Choate, the Times of Northwest Indiana reports.
Authorities found a body buried in a shallow grave May 4 near the family's former home in a mobile park in the Black Oak section of Gary.
Choate and Kubina-Choate face murder charges for the 13-year-old boy's death.
Christina believed her stepmother's family put a "price on her head," according to court documents.
