Custody of A.V.A. v. Ratchaneewan

SPECIAL TERM OPINION

TOUSSAINT, Chief Judge.

Melinda Athakhanh (mother) and Souvorachak Kayachith (father), and their child lived in the home of father’s parents since the child was born in April 2000. In March 2003, while driving to Georgia to visit mother’s family, mother and father were killed in a car accident. The child survived and continued to live with her paternal grandparents. The current dis pute involves competing petitions for custody of the child filed by the child’s paternal grandparents and mother’s cousins, whose prior contact with the child at the time they petitioned for…