I have a friend (seriously!) whose daughter had a child. As the result of some legal problems and health issues, the baby is being raised by the maternal grandparents.
The mom was married and divorced inside a month. Just after her divorce she found out she was pregnant. After the divorce, she had no further contact with the dad, who never knew she was pregnant, and probably still doesn’t know he has a child.
The question: Can legal custody be awarded if one of the parents is alive, but whereabouts unknown? If so, isn’t it possible for the dad–should he someday find out about the child–to be awarded custody since he never terminated parental rights.
I know that YMMV, but it seems that there have been some cases in which this sort of thing happened, and I don’t know that my friends did this with the benefit of any legal advice.