THE bizarre kidnap drama involving MICHAEL JACKSON’s elderly mother was triggered by the bitter family feud over the King of Pop’s $500 million fortune, sources say. And daughter PARIS is more than furious – she’s LIVID!
Several of the late superstar’s siblings are strapped for cash, and his teenage daughter Paris blamed them for abducting her 82-year-old grandmother in a greedy bid to snatch a share of his wealth, add the sources.
Paris’ ugly suspicions exploded in headlines when she publicly announced that she hadn’t spoken to her grandmother in a week, and a relative contacted police to say Katherine was officially missing.
“Paris truly believed Katherine had been kidnapped by a family member,” said a source.
“She thinks her Aunt Rebbie and Uncle Randy conned Katherine into leaving Los Angeles, and she grew frantic when she didn’t talk to Katherine for over a week.
“Ultimately, she had one of her cousins file a missing persons report.”
Katherine is the legal guardian of Michael’s three children – Paris, 14, and sons Prince, 15, and Blanket, 10. Some family members believe Michael’s siblings Rebbie, Janet and Randy tried to spirit the aging matriarch away in a sinister plot to wrestle Michael’s estate and children from her.
“We are convinced that Katherine’s disappearance was absolutely premeditated and done out of malice,” said the family source. “If you know Katherine, you know how devoted she is to her grandchildren. She would never go anywhere without telling them. For her not to be in contact with them at all tells you something is not right.”
The kidnap drama followed reports of a sharply worded letter written by the late superstar’s siblings, Randy, Jermaine, Janet, Tito and Rebbie. In it, they claimed the executors of Michael’s will faked the document shortly before he died of a drug overdose on June 25, 2009.
They also claimed the executors were putting impossible pressure on Katherine, and she’d suffered a mini-stroke as a result.
The Jackson siblings wrote the letter even though there have already been three failed challenges to the will – which left most of Michael’s fortune in a trust for his mother and three children – and the statute of limitations to contest it has expired, say sources.
Just one day later after the letter was leaked to media outlets, Paris disputed claims that her grandmother was ailing.
“I am going to clarify right now that what has been said about my grandmother is a rumor and…she is completely fine,” Paris wrote on her Twitter page.
She went on to blast her uncle Randy in another message, writing: “I don’t appreciate you telling everyone things that aren’t true…”
Paris later apologized for her outburst, and Randy issued a statement denying there’s a battle over his late brother’s estate.
On July 20, Jermaine Jackson sought to quell speculation about Katherine by posting a message on Twitter that his mother was resting on the orders of a doctor in Arizona.
“This is our mother and her health is paramount. We are not inventing or plotting anything,” he added. “We are following doctor’s advice. Period.”
But on July 21, Katherine’s nephew Trent filed a missing person’s report with the Los Angeles Police Department, and the following day Paris wrote in a Twitter message that her grandmother was missing, she hadn’t spoken with her in a week and she wanted “her home now.”
Detectives with the LAPD later said that they’d been in contact with Katherine, who was reportedly at a spa in Arizona with her daughter Rebbie.
But the family feud over Michael’s will continues to rage, sources say.
“Michael’s family members are siding against one another, and Paris is glad the feud is out in the open,” said the insider.
“She may be just 14, but she’s wise beyond her years and strong-minded. She truly is her father’s daughter.”
