Little girl missing a year without anyone knowing !!!!

qpdoll · #1 05-01-2002, 12:44 PM

Has anyone else seen this article? It was so amazing that I thought it should be shared.

Girl missing a year without anyone knowing
May 1, 2002 Posted: 8:55 AM EDT (1255 GMT)

MIAMI, Florida (AP) -- Child welfare officials in Florida acknowledge that a 5-year-old girl remained missing for more than a year before anyone noticed because of a bureaucratic blunder.

Rilya Wilson, who should have been monitored monthly by child welfare agents, was reported missing only last Thursday. Her grandmother, who was caring for the girl and two siblings, said someone who claimed to be a Department of Children and Families representative took the girl in late 2000 or early 2001, saying she needed to be evaluated.

The girl was never returned. The grandmother, whom police say is not a suspect, thought Rilya was still with DCF.

"We're hoping it's just a slip-up in the system and the kid is OK," said Miami-Dade police Detective Joey Giordano.

Meanwhile, Kansas City police were investigating if an unidentified girl found beheaded in Missouri last April is the missing child.

Palm prints of the missing girl were sent from Miami to determine if they match those of the girl known only as Precious Doe, whose decapitated body was found April 28, 2001, in east Kansas City. A searcher found her head three days later.

Besides palm prints, Kansas City police want to compare DNA between Precious Doe and one of Rilya's relatives.

After seeing pictures of Rilya, Kansas City police homicide Capt. Randy Hopkins said there were similarities between Precious Doe and the girl, The Miami Herald reported in its Wednesday editions.

"It looks very promising in that the physical characteristics -- facial features, body frame, age and the time she was missing -- are all very similar," he said.

Miami welfare officials never learned about the girl's disappearance because her caseworker falsified paperwork, claiming she had made visits to the grandmother's home when she hadn't.

The grandmother was shown a photo of the caseworker and said she was not the person who took Rilya.

Charles Auslander, head of the agency's Miami district, said it is unclear if whoever took the girl was a state employee or just someone claiming to be a caseworker.

"Our records basically reflect that the child was happy and healthy in the grandmother's placement and the progress notes ... end in January 2001," he said. It appears that the caseworker made no visits after that, he added.

TLAW · #2 05-01-2002, 03:08 PM

Okay, i know of the ineptitude of agencies that are supposed to "protect" us, but i just can't believe this. Please say it isn't true...

qpdoll · #3 05-01-2002, 04:02 PM

Unfortunately this is quite true. My question is how many other children are in the care of the grandmother? I ask this only because if the child was kidnapped then the grandmother is obviously not capable of taking care of the other children. Don't get me wrong I am in no way blaming her. But child care maybe overwhelming for her. How does something like this occur?

Professor · #4 05-01-2002, 04:55 PM

the grandmother was more than likely caring for the child because the parent(s) could or did not. the number of grandparent raising grandkids is on the rise. from what i gather, there must have been already been some child protection order or the grandmother would have questioned letting the child go with the person.

thesweetestone · #5 05-01-2002, 07:39 PM

This is so sad. I just saw this story on NBC nightly news.

ivygirl · #6 05-02-2002, 10:10 AM

Lord have mercy. I am just amazed that the system failed this little girl. The DPC is always checking on people with healthy families and failing the families that really need help. Now how in the world could this child be gone for this length of time and not be accounted for. I could have never turned over my child or grandchild and not known the person or what was going to occur. Then not followup on where she was or why had she not been returned.I feel so bad for the grandmother because she must be overwhelmed trying take care of her grandbabies I know this is not an easy job. My prayer goes out to her and every grandmother raising their grandbabies.

qpdoll · #7 05-02-2002, 10:16 AM

I agree completely Ivygirl. I can't fathom allowing someone to come into my home and relinquishing such a precious gift over to just anyone. According to the article below the grandmother states that she inquired about the child, but what were they telling her to pacify her inquiries?

Florida girl lost a year before reported missing
Kansas City police seek link to child slaying
May 2, 2002 Posted: 5:26 AM EDT (0926 GMT)

Five-year-old Rilya Wilson was last seen in January 2001 at her grandmother's home in Florida.

MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- Florida authorities Wednesday worked to track down a 5-year-old girl unaccounted for since January 2001, but reported missing only last week by the Florida agency that was supposed to be tracking her.

Meanwhile, police in Kansas City, Missouri, said palm prints believed to be from the missing girl, Rilya Wilson, don't match those of "Precious Doe" -- an unidentified child found decapitated in a Kansas City neighborhood last year. But the detective in charge of the case said investigators will seek DNA evidence to answer their questions definitively.

"These are not officially certified fingerprints," said Sgt. David Bernard, the detective supervising the Precious Doe investigation. "I want to see the DNA. That is the only way we will know one way or the other."

The Florida Department of Children and Families revealed Tuesday it had lost track of Rilya, who had been placed in the custody of her grandmother in 1999 after the parental rights of her mother and father were terminated. Department records indicate the required monthly meetings with the grandmother did not take place.

The case came to light last week when a caseworker contacted the grandmother to set up an appointment to check on the child. The grandmother told the caseworker that she had turned the child over to people she believed to be caseworkers in January 2001.

The grandmother, who police identified as Geralyn Graham, told authorities those people said they were taking the child for evaluation. They returned about a week later for the girl's clothing, saying the tests were taking longer than expected. The girl was not seen again.

"The department and I take full responsibility for what happened," said Charles Auslander, the district director in Miami.

Florida agency officials said Rilya's original caseworker resigned recently after being accused of falsifying documents in another case. Auslander said she was permitted to resign rather than be fired and said she had told investigators she knows nothing about what happened to Rilya.

The grandmother said she repeatedly called the state to check on the child, but the agency said it has no records to confirm the calls. Miami-Dade police said the grandmother is not under suspicion.

Sgt. Tony Sanders, a Kansas City police spokesman, said there are some "interesting coincidences" between the Florida case and that of Precious Doe -- including her age, race, size and that fact that no one reported a missing girl.

Carl Carlson, Kansas City Police fingerprint supervisor, points out some differences between the palm prints of Wilson and "Precious Doe" Wednesday.
The body of Precious Doe was found April 29, 2001, in a south-central Kansas City neighborhood. Her head was found nearby two days later.

"I wouldn't consider it any different than the hundreds of other leads we have received, but it's still a very good lead which we are following up on feverishly," Sanders said.

Rilya's mother had drug problems, authorities said, and was on her way back to Miami from Cleveland, Ohio. In an interview with CNN's Miami affiliate WFOR, a man who identified himself as Rilya's father said he had no idea what happened to the girl: The last time he saw her, he said, was about two years ago.

The child's grandmother hasn't recognized anyone from photographs matching the description of the person who came to pick up Rilya, Miami-Dade police Detective Ed Munn said.

Miami-Dade Police Department spokesman Lupo Jimenez said Kansas City authorities contacted Miami-Dade police after information was entered into a nationwide computer database of missing children.

Discogoddess · #8 05-02-2002, 11:52 AM

Unlike many of you, I'm not so willing to give the grandmother a free pass on this one. You mean to tell me that in an entire year, this woman never thought to escalate her phone call inquires into visits to the office, calls to Jesse Jackson an nem, calls to the local television station's "investigative reports" unit, calls to her pastor to check it out for her...nothing but phone calls to the same people that kept giving her the same response...for a year? On the day the child disappeared, she never thought to ask the person who took her why and where he/she was taking her? And for how long?

Were there no other relatives or family friends who inquired about the child's whereabouts and welfare in more than 365 days? No Cousin Ray Ray an nem who asked what in the heck was going on with the girl?

Either this woman is unbelievably stupid or uncaring, but I don't think it's only the "system's" fault that this little girl went unaccounted for and not spoken for by ANYONE in her family for a whole year!!!

TLAW · #9 05-02-2002, 11:54 AM

Very true, Disco... the actions of evryone involved leave me speechless!

Dexter · #10 05-02-2002, 12:00 PM

The Grandmother should've been down their throats on a regular. Where are the parents? Why was the case worker falsifying records? This whole thing stinks and I pray to GOD that the little girl will be found okay.

Professor · #11 05-02-2002, 12:12 PM

Grandparents and parents do not always have the skills to deal with child protective services. To work within and understand the system is very difficult for many. I see first hand how folk are not able to speak effectively in an effort to represent themselves. I will agree that the grandmother should have inquired about the child but I am sure there is more to this story than we know. I can almost assure you that the grandmother has very limited education, financial resources and other supports. As a caregiver most parents do what they think is right. The grandmother more than likely acted as best she could.

PrettyPetite · #12 05-02-2002, 10:43 PM

Well, according to local news reports, the grandmother constantly called DCF (Department of Children and Families) inquiring about the whereabouts of the child, and basically, they gave her the run-around.
The caseworker hadn't visited the grandmother in over a YEAR, and was falsifying reports claiming that she visited the home, and the child was fine. Her supervisor knew about her bogus reports, and basically turned the other cheek. Both resigned back in March.

The father of little Rilya is nowhere to be found, and the mother is a recovering drug addict living in the Northeast US, I believe.

Earlier this week, they took the other two kids out of the grandmother's care. (Rilya's brother and sister). The mother of these kids is fighting to get them back, and she plans to sue the state of Florida.

I don't place most of the blame on the grandmother, because it IS a challenge to deal with DCF, and I say that from personal experience. (I am a teacher, with some students in the 'system'.) But, I will say this: If I was the grandmother, and I hadn't heard of her whereabouts for a while, and a caseworker hadn't contacted me or anything, I would have called the television stations, called the local branch of the NAACP, anyone who could help. But I don't know, maybe she was overwhelmed. Time will tell what the real deal is with this story once it all unfolds.

BigChill06 · #13 05-03-2002, 11:03 AM

Now I don't know about y'alls Grandma, but My Grandma ......SHHHHH(Expletive). If anyone came to her door talking about taking her grandbaby for any reason, they would not just get away easily, she would ask them a million questions. And then try to return to get some clothes? Man please!! I can hear her now, "Some clothes?...Now wait a minute, let me get my purse, cause I'm goin with you! What in the world is y'all done did with my grandbaby?"

- If this woman was not this kind of grandma, then she should not be responsible for the kids.

Zetaphied · #14 05-04-2002, 12:45 PM

I live in South Florida and up until 2 years ago I worked for the Department of Children and Families, I happen to be familiar with the caseworker that had this case, or at least I have seen her around. She's been asked to resign as well as her supervisor. You know there are alot of people to blame in this incident. The mother for one, just because your child (4 of them actually) got taken away from you four years ago, why the heck haven't you been maintaining contact with them and visiting them at least? Now she comes back with her fake tears talking about she's suing the state. The grandmother for one should have been more proactive with the case of her grandchildren. She should have notified someone that her grandchildren aren't being probably supervised by their caseworker, this caseworker most likely wasn't doing her job from the jump. She (grams) should have been complaining that no one was coming to see about the children and even after someone "supposedly" came and took the girl away a year ago, I would think as her family you would want to still maintain visitation rights and contact with the child, so how the heck do you not know where she was taken to? Lastly, the problem with DCF, and thats in no way to make excuses for this caseworker, is the fact that they pile on a ridiculous amount of cases on you and expect you to effectively manage the lives of all these children and their families. You're not helping these families you end up just simply running around putting bandaids on their problems. Sometimes behind your back they do send PI's (Protective Investigators) to a foster home and remove a child who is on your caseload from that home without informing you. BUT that's why if you are doing your required monthly visits there, you'll find out about it regardless. You can get cases where one family consist of 10 children who have all been put into the system and split into several different foster homes because there's no way to keep them together, now imagine having over 100 kids on your case load including their parents, extended family members etc and having to go to court on their behalf, to their schools, to the doctor, and whatever other thing that is required of you since they are wards of the state, it's like you're their mother and father..you are responsible for every child on your caseloads life and if you have more than you can handle things tend to crumble rapidly. DCF is a mess and they have a high employee turn over, burn out rate, etc. They need to revamp that whole organization so things like this won't happen because it isn't the first time and it won't be the last. It could be possible that grandma gave the kid back to her mom a year ago, cause they do that..personally I think this little girl is dead and its a shame. This caseworker most likely not only was neglecting this one case but probably several of her other cases, so imagine how many children are out there that weren't being properly supervised by the state. She isn't the only caseworker that goes for months at a time without seeing her clients. I also don't understand how being that as caseworkers we had to go to court regularly to speak to the judge on behalf of our clients and give reports on the progress or lack thereof of the family, how the judge didn't realize what was happening...from what I hear this girl was forging visitation documents...

snuggles12 · #15 05-05-2002, 05:11 PM

"They need to revamp that whole organization so things like this won't happen because it isn't the first time and it won't be the last."

The entire organization does need to be revamped. I'm reading the book, "Finding Fisher" and it's the true story of a young Black male in the foster care system.

This young Black male named Fisher was placed in foster care, had numerous case workers, suffered mental and physical abuse from his foster mother and then after being forced out of the foster family's house, he went to a Boys Town type of facility. Then at age 18, he has to go because he is no longer in the foster care system.

It's very sad that a 5 year old can be literally lost and no one finds out that she is missing until months later.