Child missing more than a year in Florida; may be lost in family and children system

MIAMI -- State and local officials are looking for a 5-year-old girl who was supposed to be in state custody but who no one noticed until last week had been missing for more than a year.

The girl, Rilya Wilson, chubby and bright-eyed, was supposed to be under monthly supervision by the Florida Department of Children and Families.

Somehow, the agency and her grandmother lost track of the girl for 15 months. They realized she was missing only when a caseworker tried to check on the girl last week and did not find her at the grandmother's house.

The agency and the grandmother apparently each thought the other had custody of Rilya, so no one went looking for the girl, who was 4 when she disappeared.

"Apparently the department went to do a follow-up with the grandmother, and the grandmother basically told them: 'Well, I don't have her. You guys took her from me a year ago,"' said Detective Lupo Jimenez of the Miami-Dade Police Department. "That's when we were notified. They have no idea where this child is. I've never seen this before."

The police and state investigators released the girl's picture and information about her disappearance on Monday in hopes of generating tips through the local news media, but a day later they said they had not a single lead in the case.

Late Tuesday night, however, the Miami-Dade police e-mailed a copy of Rilya's fingerprints to the police in Kansas City, Mo., to compare with those of a young girl who was found dead there last year.

The Florida agency charged with Rilya's care said that both of her parents had been stripped of parental rights and had not been involved in her care since she was an infant. Their whereabouts are unknown, the agency and the police said.

The girl was last seen in January 2001, when someone the grandmother thought was a representative of the Department of Children and Families appeared at her Miami home and took the child, saying that Rilya needed to undergo psychological and neurological testing, the agency and the police said.

A few days later, a second woman went to the grandmother's house, to retrieve some of the girl's clothes and to say that Rilya would remain in state custody for testing. Weeks later, a third person, this time a man, appeared at the home to inquire about two of Rilya's siblings, who remain in the grandmother's care.

Department of Children and Families officials say that they have no record of any of those visits and that the girl's caseworker had not approved her removal from the grandmother's home.

Charles Auslander, district administrator for the Department of Children and Families in Miami, said, "One of the requirements is that a counselor have a face-to-face visit with the child at least once per month, and I did not know that that was not going on." He added, "I would have hoped that we would have discovered this much sooner, but we didn't."

Jack Levine, president of the Center for Florida's Children, a child advocacy group in Tallahassee, said the agency's handling of the case was deplorable.

"I'm shocked by the apparent insufficiency of being able to track the whereabouts of a child who was assumed to be under the watchful eye of our child protection system," Levine said. "Those eyes that should have been watching were closed."

The police said Rilya's grandmother had told the police that she called the state agency for several months and stopped by its district office in Miami to inquire about the girl. Jimenez said he was unsure what agency employees had told the grandmother, but the agency said it had no record of inquiries.

Jimenez said the police did have evidence that the grandmother tried to contact the agency but declined to say if they had phone records, reports or other information to verify the grandmother's account.

The Miami-Dade police and the Department of Children and Families say they do not consider the grandmother a suspect.

"She's just as confused as we are," Jimenez said. "I know she has made several attempts to follow up on the case."

The Department of Children and Families said it had no reason to doubt the grandmother's account of the inquiries and acknowledged that the agency's own records on the girl were inaccurate. An internal investigation has determined that the counselor assigned to the case had been filing false reports of monthly visits with the girl that never took place, Auslander said.

"In this circumstance we had a counselor who apparently was not doing her job at all and we also had a supervisor who was supposed to review each case file of each counselor in his unit a minimum of every three months, and that did not take place either," Auslander said. "We have data systems and quality assurance audits, but they cannot cover every case," he said.

He added that he considered himself ultimately responsible for the girl's disappearance.

The counselor, Deborah Muskelly, and her supervisor, Willie Harris, both resigned under pressure last month for what the agency said was mishandling of another case. Muskelly did not return calls left at her home and on her cell phone. Harris could not be reached.

Auslander said the grandmother was reviewing several thousand photographs of past and present agency employees to try to determine if anyone representing the state may have taken the girl.

Rilya was taken into state custody as an infant because her mother was addicted to drugs and the agency could not find her father, Auslander said. The girl was initially placed in the temporary care of an unrelated guardian but was placed with the grandmother in late 1999 or early 2000, he said.

The police say they are unsure whether the girl was simply taken by a stranger and handed over to her mother or another relative or whether she was the victim of foul play.

Prints of missing Miami girl to be compared with Precious Doe's

By CHRISTINE VENDEL
The Kansas City Star

Kansas City homicide detectives may know today whether a missing 5-year-old Miami girl is Precious Doe.

Miami-Dade police planned to send palm prints of the missing girl, Rilya Wilson, to Kansas City police by overnight mail.

Kansas City police will compare the prints with ones from Precious Doe, whose decapitated body was found April 28, 2001, near 59th Street and Kensington Avenue. Her identity and that of her killer remain a mystery.

"This Miami lead appears to be promising, and we're going to pursue it, but we're holding back our excitement," said Homicide Capt. Randy Hopkins. "It's still very preliminary."

Hopkins said he thought a photo of Rilya matched the description of Precious Doe fairly well.

Rilya's height, weight and other features match those of Precious Doe, but police do not know whether the missing girl bore a birthmark similar to that of Precious Doe -- a crescent-shaped mark on the left shoulder.

Neither Miami-Dade police nor Florida's Department of Children and Families could say Tuesday whether Rilya has such a birthmark.

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

Miami-Dade police called Kansas City police Monday night about Rilya.

She was reported missing Thursday but has been missing for more than 15 months. The Florida girl had been living with her grandmother, who said someone from the Department of Children and Families came by in January 2001 and took Rilya for an evaluation. Rilya was 4 at the time.

The department, however, has no record of any employee taking Rilya from the home. The authorities said whoever took Rilya must have had information about her situation.

The caseworker assigned to Rilya denied taking her. The caseworker's notes and documentation about Rilya ended in January 2001. The caseworker apparently did not make any visits after that.

"This is one of the most troubling situations that I've seen at the department since I've been district administrator," said Charles Auslander, head of the department's district. "We have a child who we cannot confirm the whereabouts of that child. We're not sure at this point where the child is."

The grandmother said she had made repeated calls and visits to the agency to check on Rilya and inquire about adopting her, including calls to the caseworker, police said. But the agency has no record of the woman's calls or visits, Auslander said.

The caseworker was forced to resign March 20 when faced with termination.

"It appeared that she had doctored home visits, or documentation of home visits," in another case, Auslander said.

The girl's mother is thought to be in Cleveland, he said, but the agency hasn't found her. It is also trying to find Rilya's father.

News of the possible identification of Precious Doe spurred a few dozen residents to gather Tuesday night in Hibbs Park, near the wooded area where the body was found.

Holding flickering candles, they prayed for a resolution. Many were optimistic that Precious Doe might be the Miami girl.

"This may be the break this community's been looking for," City Councilman Al Brooks told the crowd.

Community leaders, including members of the Precious Doe Committee, said they are talking about creating a permanent memorial.

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