'I want them to know I'm coming to help': Phoenix father's custody case challenges 'pseudo-theory'

Adam Venetis came home on a Saturday morning nearly three years ago to find his wife at the door of their house in Phoenix with her bags packed. 

Leah Venetis had woken up their three children, told them she loved them very much, but that she was moving out, according to her account in court records. One day earlier, she had filed for divorce after 17 years of marriage. 

The court found both parents "fit" and ordered them to split custody of their children equally. 

But when Leah would return to the house for visits, the children did not want to see her. They locked themselves in their rooms and refused to come out. When Adam tried taking the kids — then ages 14, 12 and 6 — to her new place for visits, they refused to get out of the car.