For many years, Paul Staehle and Karine Martins’ marriage has been toxic.

It was bad before they married. It has only grown worse in recent years.

On Friday, images circulated claiming that their eldest son, Pierre, was missing — and might be with Paul.

Fans were horrified. Was this real or a cruel forgery? Where are Pierre and Ethan? Did Paul kidnap his son?

At this point, 90 Day Fiance fans can picture just about any outcome for Paul and Karine.

Yes, even worst-case scenarios.

We’re talking about two deeply troubled people who have accused each other of abuse multiple times.

Friday’s report claimed that 3-year-old Pierre Staehle was missing.

The report, which Missing People In America spread far and wide, suggested that he might be in Paul’s company.

In other words, someone had accused Paul of kidnapping his own son — possibly of doing so in early June.

This chilling report was disturbingly easy to believe.

Paul has a long history of poor decision making and odd behavior.

While this would be a new one for him, well, it’s hard to rule out anything when it comes to Paul and Karine.

Naturally, we all had questions, especially since Paul was hardly on the lam.

He had been making normal (well, for Paul) social media posts.

It was up to 90 Day Fiance blogger John Yates (who were are glad to see is doing better) to get to the bottom of this.

John Yates went live late Friday night, as the friends who were visiting me discovered (I thanked them for their patience).

He revealed that he had called Paul — John is well known for his interactions, both positive and negative, with the cast.

Though John admitted that he had imagined Paul awkwardly running around with Pierre, that is not what is happening.

First and foremost, Paul was not missing, and from the report, it doesn’t sound like Pierre is, either.

(Of course, this is filtered through John and the source is Paul, but it is the best information that we have at the moment)

Paul was at the courthouse when he spoke to John. He was there with his mother, Mary.

According to Paul, he received full custody of both children months ago, in December of 2021.

This arrangement followed alarming videos that appeared to show Karine physically abusing Paul.

At that time, a court had decided that the kids were safest with Paul.

That changed, Paul told John, when Karine recently claimed that Paul was trying to kill her.

(We do not know much about this allegation, and would truly like to hear more from Karine’s side)

Karine has not spoken about this … and spent Friday evening binging Stranger Things, apparently.

John said that Paul told him that both of his kids, Pierre and Ethan, were “up for adoption” at that time.

We truly mean no disrespect to John, but he must have meant “receiving emergency placements in foster care.”

When there are questions about the immediate safety of a child and neither parent is deemed fit, courts take this extraordinary measure.

According to John’s report on Instagram Live, the court decided that Paul’s family was also unfit.

Perhaps they evaluated Mary and others.

It is also possible that the court wanted to cut off Paul’s access, and knew that relatives would not work for that.

So, according to John Yates, according to Paul Staehle, Pierre and Ethan are not with either parent.

He and his mother were trying to convince the court to let the boys stay with a relative.

This is an understandable fear. Some emergency foster care placements are truly wonderful. Others are nightmares.

Either way, it can be traumatic for the children. It’s hard on the rest of the family, too.

Paul alluded to this in the wee hours of Saturday morning, posting to his Instagram Story after John’s Instagram Live.

We hope that family court can get to the bottom of this and do whatever is in the best interests of the children, no matter what.