Dinorah Perry: Crusader for the Real Forgotten – 2010 from Paul Lawrence & Mo Fitzgibbon on Vimeo.

Witnesses described the girl as being between 7 and 8 years old, white with dark hair. She was last seen wearing a blue skirt and a pink or purple shirt. No other details were released Wednesday morning and police did not have a positive identification of the girl.

According to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement Web site, the Missing Endangered Persons Information Clearinghouse is labeling this incident as “endangered” and the child is thought to be in danger.

The alert also said the child might be in the company of two Hispanic males, approximately 20 to 30 years old with dark hair, both wearing blue or black T-shirts. They are thought to have been involved in the abduction and might be traveling in a white, possibly newer model panel van with t-style brushed aluminum rims.

Two 8- to 9-year-old boys walking to their bus stop at Southeast Pinero Road reported seeing a “suspicious van” driving south on Midtown Road about 7:25 a.m. when the van changed directions and went north. The van passed them and the occupants are thought to have taken the girl, according to police.

“They witnessed the van allegedly abduct this child,” said Officer Tom Nichols, police spokesman. “From what they are saying … the girl was kicking and screaming. They just grabbed her and took off.”

Police are checking the public schools to make sure all the children are in school and there’s nobody missing. The boys don’t know who the girl is, nor do police. All children at the bus stop have been accounted for.

Nichols said white vans are being stopped in hopes of finding the girl and police are checking all sex offenders and/or predators in the area.

“We don’t have a name or description other than that provided by the boys,” Nichols said.

No one else reported the apparent abduction, but a flurry of law enforcement officers and vehicles descended on the area. A helicopter hovered over the area, at one point broadcasting information about the abduction and asking anyone with information to call 911.

Several law enforcement K-9 teams from throughout the state that were training in Martin County arrived at the scene to assist.

Anyone who may have information related to the case can call the Port St. Lucie Police Department at (772) 871-5000, their local law enforcement agency or 911.

This story will be updated when further information is released.

Detectives met with the victim who said Margarito Andres, 22, sexually assaulted her more than 40 times since she was approximately 10 years old.

The victim also told police that Andres threatened to kill her if she told anyone about the abuse.

Andres is believed to have left the area. If you know where he is, call Boynton Beach police.Copyright 2009 by WPBF.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed

Walter Lugo and Monica Alastra were arrested Monday on child neglect charges.

Deputies were called to a report of an infant left unattended in a vehicle outside the Joanne’s Fabrics in Jensen Beach.

When deputies arrived, they found a 7-month-old girl inside a parked Toyota minivan with the doors unlocked and the windows rolled up.

Witnesses said the child had been left in the vehicle for about 30 minutes.

Deputies said the parents were inside the store shopping with their other 3-year-old child at the time.

According to the arrest affidavit, Lugo and Alastra told deputies they used poor judgment and didn’t know what they were thinking when they left the girl alone in the vehicle.

Deputies said the child was OK, although her clothing was damp from perspiration.Copyright 2009 by WPBF.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistribu

JUAN A. LOZANO, Associated Press Writer Juan A. Lozano, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 33 mins ago
GALVESTON, Texas – A Southeast Texas man was convicted Friday of capital murder in the 2007 beating death of his 2-year-old stepdaughter whose battered body was found in a container floating in Galveston Bay.

Jurors deliberated for 4 1/2 hours before finding Royce Clyde Zeigler II guilty in the death of the child known as “Baby Grace.” He will receive an automatic life sentence because prosecutors did not seek the death penalty. Jurors also could have convicted Zeigler of a lesser charge of manslaughter.

Zeigler and his wife, Kimberly Trenor, the toddler’s mother, were accused of killing her during a discipline session that spun out of control. Trenor was convicted of capital murder in February and also received an automatic life sentence.

Investigators called the child “Baby Grace” until relatives in Ohio identified her as Riley Ann Sawyers.

Prosecutors said Zeigler and Trenor killed the toddler at their home in Spring, a suburb north of Houston, during a July 2007 discipline session intended to teach her proper manners. Authorities said Zeigler was upset the 2-year-old didn’t consistently use “please” and “thank you.”

Prosecutors said Trenor and Zeigler beat Riley with belts, dunked her head in a cold bath water and threw her onto a tile floor, fracturing her skull. An autopsy determined the child died of two skull fractures.

After Riley’s death, the couple stuffed her body in a plastic box and hid it for months in a storage shed at their home. Then they drove about 75 miles southeast to Galveston Bay, where they dumped the container and body in October 2007, according to authorities.

Riley’s remains were discovered by a fisherman on a small island in the bay.

During the trial, Ziegler’s attorneys told jurors their client was in another room when Riley died and there was no evidence he killed her.

But prosecutors said Zeigler lied repeatedly to investigators, giving them conflicting statements on the girl’s death. Prosecutors showed the Galveston County jury video of Zeigler admitting dumping the child’s body in the bay.

Riley’s identity was a mystery for weeks until her paternal grandmother in Ohio saw an artist’s sketch of the girl and told authorities in Texas she thought it was her granddaughter.

Trenor and Zeigler met playing an online video game and married in June 2007 after Trenor moved with her daughter from Mentor, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland, to live with Zeigler in his home in Spring.

This case was reopened this week when the Sheriff’s Office went to the home of Wilson’s Grandmother and searched for evidence by digging in the yard. Someone somewhere knows what happened to this little girl. The baby sitter blames the boyfriend and he blames her.
The question is which one is lying. Keith Allen the boyfriend who was a trucker in 1999 now lives in Kentucky. This child needs to be found so her father can have some closure. If you know anything- please leave a comment on this site and I will see that it gets to the proper authorities. Help us bring this child home.

“Pilar’s father, Marco Rodriguez, was her custodial parent in 1999. He permitted Pilar’s babysitter, Melissa Cooper, to take the child on vacation for two weeks on January 30, 1999. Cooper took Pilar to the Trail Apartments in Punta Gorda, Florida, located approximately 135 miles from the Rodriguez home in Hollywood, Florida. Cooper’s former boyfriend, a truck driver named Keith Allen Wilson, accompanied them.
Marco called the authorities when Cooper and Pilar did not return by February 22, 1999. Cooper and Allen did not have the child, and they initially claimed that Marco had picked her up. Allen also said he had seen evidence that Marco had physically abused Pilar. Police investigated Marco thoroughly but found no evidence that he was involved in his daughter’s disappearance or that he abused her, though he does have a criminal record for battery and driving under the influence. Pilar has never been seen again.

Wilson later changed his story and claimed Cooper, an insulin-dependent diabetic, collapsed in a store and was hospitalized, and when she arrived back at the hotel room she shared with Pilar and Wilson, the child was missing. Cooper denied that any of this had actually happened.

Cooper was located at a her aunt’s home in Wisconsin shortly after Marco filed a report with law enforcement. Cooper claimed that she fled from the vacation home she shared with Pilar and Wilson after her boyfriend became physically abusive towards her and the child. Cooper said that Wilson beat Pilar severely and knocked her head into a wall. She turned blue and had convulsions. He refused to get medical attention for her and she died. He then put her body in a black trash bag and disposed of the child’s remains in an unknown location. Wilson denied Cooper’s allegations and said that she herself was responsible for Pilar’s death. Cooper took a polygraph exam shortly afterwards and passed, according to one source.

Authorities believe that Pilar was the victim of foul play. Officials drained Preacher’s Lake, a popular swimming place in Charlotte County, Florida which is inhabited by alligators, in November 1999 after receiving a tip from fishermen. They found some unspecified biological matter which they believe is a trace of Pilar’s remains. After the discovery, they announced that they were investigating her case as a homicide. Police also found several child-size t-shirts in the lake, including one with a picture of the cartoon character Winnie the Pooh printed on it. Marco says Pilar had such a shirt with her when she left with Cooper. Nothing else of evidentiary value was found in the lake, however. The Peace River in Charlotte County was searched in February 2001, but no evidence was located.

Marco filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Wilson, even though Pilar’s body has never been recovered and no arrests have been made in her case. The suit was dismissed after Marco’s attorney withdrew from the case because of a conflict of interest. Pilar’s mother lives in Ohio; her father was raising her by himself.

Wilson remains the prime suspect in Pilar’s presumed murder; he maintains his innocence. Florida authorities warned law enforcement officials in Kentucky that Marco may have been planning revenge against Wilson after Pilar’s disappearance. Wilson is a resident of Kentucky. Pilar’s case remains unsolved and authorities continue to search for her remains.”

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/…uez_pilar.html

Investigators found 7-month-old Shannon Dedrick in a box tucked under a bed surrounded by items intended to hide the child at Susan Elizabeth Baker’s home near Chipley, a rural Panhandle town, Washington County Sheriff Bobby Haddock said in an interview early Thursday. The baby was placed in protective custody.

“Statistically speaking this should not have ever happened, that we found this child alive, especially after so many days. Time was against us,” Haddock said.

Shannon was taken to a hospital but appeared healthy, Haddock said.

“It was a very emotional for us, because once we got her to hospital, we called our wives and every one of us was crying. Grown men crying. It’s just such a relief” that the child was found, he said. “We’ve had missing children cases in the past, but nothing like this.”

Haddock said deputies were working to charge Baker, her husband James Arthur Baker and the child’s mother, Chrystina Lynn Mercer. He wouldn’t provide details about the possible charges but said more information would be released later Thursday. Authorities don’t believe the child’s father, James Russell Dedrick Jr., was involved but the case is still under investigation, Haddock said. He said Susan Baker and the father are related.

Haddock confirmed that Baker was the Susan Elizabeth Baker cited in court records as being convicted of assault in South Carolina in 1987, and questioned but not indicted in 2000 for a 3-year-old child’s disappearance, also in 1987. He confirmed that Baker wrote an e-mail to Florida Gov. Charlie Crist’s office in August, pleading for the governor to help Shannon Dedrick.

“And my response is, ‘We saved the child, Ms. Baker,” Haddock said.

Court documents released Wednesday showed that child welfare workers in Florida began looking into allegations Shannon was being abused less than two weeks after she was born.

Her parents reported her missing around 11 a.m. Saturday. They told authorities that they had not seen her since about 3 a.m.

About 100 law enforcement agents and others scoured the woods around the couple’s home, Haddock said. Investigators contacted the Bakers again on Wednesday and they allowed them into their home, Haddock said.

“They gave us consent to search the home and found the baby in a box under a bed, with stuff pushed around the box to hide the baby,” he said.

Court records released Wednesday said investigators frequently went to the infant’s home from August to late September and reported that both parents used marijuana and kept a messy home.

But investigators reported that Shannon seemed to be cared for and repeatedly cited that the risk to the baby was “intermediate.” In September, an investigator said a physician determined that the child was healthy and expressed “no concerns regarding the baby.”

Court records show that Elizabeth Baker was charged in South Carolina with assault and battery with intent to kill and assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature in 1987. After being convicted, she was sentence to 10 years in prison. The sentence was suspended to 80 days.

She was extradited to South Carolina from Chipley in 2000, and charged in the disappearance of 3-year-old Paul Leonard Baker, who has been missing since March 1987. Baker wasn’t indicted by a grand jury in the case. The child was never found, according to the Beaufort County, S.C., sheriff’s office. Police reports don’t indicate the child’s possible relation.

A sheriff’s investigator from Beaufort County was sent to Florida to assist in the missing child case, sheriff’s spokeswoman Robin McIntosh said Wednesday.

__

Gartner reported from Chicago. Associated Press Writer Katrina A. Goggins in Columbia, S.C., contributed to this report.

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Wednesday, November 04, 2009

Hipolito J. Fraguela, authorities allege, said his 3-month-old daughter got hurt when a 16-month-old brother threw a can of ravioli at her head.

Then he said she fractured her skull when he dropped her, broke her leg when he stepped on her, and broke her ribs as he gave her CPR.

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Then authorities founded a loaded rifle in his home.

Then he admitted he was part of the Crips gang.

Then he went to jail.

Palm Beach County Sheriff’s deputies arrested Fraguela, 24, of The Acreage, early Friday .

He is charged with two counts each of child abuse with great bodily harm, unsafe storage of a firearm, and possession of a weapon by a felon.

He’s being held in the Palm Beach County Jail in lieu of $82,000 bail.

According to a sheriff’s report, Fraguela and his girlfriend took their little girl Thursday night to St. Mary’s Medical Center, and later to the Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital in Hollywood.

Fraguela told investigators that about two weeks earlier, the couple’s 16-month-old son had thrown a can that had struck the baby.

Then, he said, on Oct. 25, the baby’s eyes appeared abnormal and kept crossing, and her arms moved involuntarily.

When the couple took the baby on Thursday to her regular doctor for shots, he examined her and told the parents to take her to the hospital.

There, Hipolito said, doctors told him the child had a skull fracture.

After Hipolito and his girlfriend gave permission for a search of their home, deputies found a loaded .22-caliber rifle on the living room floor.

Hipolito told detectives he had been giving the baby a bath on Oct. 21 and dropped her over his shoulder, and the back of her head struck the floor.

Asked how she got a broken leg, he said that, as he went to pick her up, he stepped on it.

Asked how she got broken ribs, he at first could not say, then said he recalled an incident in which she was choking and he performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

On Saturday, a supplement says, doctors at the DiMaggio hospital told detectives they’d found additional injuries; the portion detailing them is whited out.

Hipolito also admitted to being an active member of the Crips, a violent nationwide street gang founded in southern California in the 1970s.

Detectives familiar with the case did not immediately return calls on Wednesday.

According to the sheriff’s report, the Department of Children and Families has told detectives a judge on Friday ordered Hipolito have no contact with his girlfriend or their 16-month-old.

The girlfriend also told detectives she planned to file for a restraining order on Monday, Nov. 2, and court records indicate that took place.

In February 2008, records show, Hipolito pleaded guilty to firing a weapon from a vehicle, a second-degree felony. His sentence was suspended.

Staff writer Michael LaForgia and staff researcher Michelle Quigley contributed to this story

If she was asleep in her parents room how did they not know someone was in threir house?

A massive search and rescue operation involving several counties in Florida is underway for a missing baby girl. The parents of 7-month-old Shannon Lea Dedrick, of Chipley, FL, reported her missing at 11:23 a.m. on Saturday.

The police say the parents have indicated that the baby was in the same room as the parents, and could have been abducted between the hours of 3 a.m. and 11 a.m.

At least two neighbors are reporting that they saw a grey van near the missing girl’s residence the evening before she went missing. They said it’s the same van they have seen there numerous times over the past couple of months.

Washington County Sheriff Bobby Haddock did say investigators are looking at a “person of suspicion,” but would not elaborate on who that person may be. Whether or not the person is related to the grey van seen at the residence has yet to be determined.