Christopher was last seen at the Martin Luther King Jr. Towers playground located at 113th Street and Lenox Avenue in the Harlem area of New York City, New York on May 18, 1989. His mother had been with him in the park and decided to go to the store for food, but she did not have Christopher's stroller with her, so she left him in the care of of several relatives at the park.

When Christopher's mother returned half an hour later, he was gone. The relatives told Christopher's mother that they had seen him playing with a red ball. Christopher had not brought a red ball to the park and his mother could not find one in the vicinity. It had apparently vanished along with her son. A seven-year-old boy from Christopher's neighborhood told authorities he saw Christopher walking on west 111th Street later in the day. According to the witness, Christopher was accompanied by an unidentified African-American male with braided hair. Christopher has never been seen again.

Christopher's case shares striking similiaries with the disappearance of Shane Walker, who disappeared from the same playground in August 1989, three months after Christopher did. Both boys were African-American toddlers and lived in the same apartment building. Both disappeared on the same day of the week (Thursday) at roughly the same time (Shane at 5:00 p.m., Christopher at 7:00 p.m.) In addition, just before his disappearance, Christopher was playing the same two children who were with Shane when he was last seen. Police still aren't sure whether the cases are related, however.

Authorities investigated the possibility that the boys' cases were connected to a black market baby-ring operation and that the infant Andre Bryant, who was abducted from Brooklyn in March 1989, was possibly another victim. All of the children are African-American. The three cases remain unsolved and it is unclear what happened to any of the missing children.