AIDS Victim’s Son Disappears With Mother

The son of a homosexual man who won legal custody of the boy before dying of AIDS last week has disappeared, apparently rejoining his mother, a fundamentalist Christian who lost the custody dispute, police said today.

The 16-year-old son of Frank Batey met his mother, Betty Lou, at the door of his late father’s Palm Springs residence Wednesday night and agreed to go with her for an hour to talk and get a hamburger.

Batey and her son, Brian, never returned, said Craig Corbett, the elder Batey’s longtime companion.

After Frank Batey died Friday of complications brought on by AIDS, Corbett said the youth wished to remain in Palm Springs with him.

Corbett has said he is willing to go to court to obtain custody of the youth, who has said he wants to remain in Palm Springs to finish his schooling.

A telephone call to Betty Lou Batey’s household in San Diego went unanswered this morning.

Child-Stealing Charge

In 1982, Betty Lou Batey took Brian from his father’s household and disappeared for 19 months until the pair were located in Denver. After that cross-country flight, she was charged with child stealing, but a San Diego judge dismissed that charge in May, ending the official custody dispute. The boy had since returned to live with his father.

In the custody dispute, the mother contended that her son was being brought up in an inappropriate environment. Frank Batey, who was 42 when he died, steadfastly maintained that he was a fit father.

On Wednesday night, Betty Lou Batey appeared at the home that had been occupied by the elder Batey, the son and Corbett. She was accompanied by a police officer and two teen-age friends of the boy, Corbett said.

The boy left with his mother, wearing only a T-shirt and shorts, saying he would return in an hour.

Corbett said Brian had told his mother repeatedly to leave him alone so he could complete funeral plans for his father.