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Where is Rilya Wilson?
State of Florida loses child, doesn't notice for 16 months

May 17, 2002
By H.P. Albarelli Jr.
WorldNetDaily.com

It's a bureaucratic nightmare beyond comprehension: How a state social services agency could lose a 4-year-old girl and for 16 months fail to notice or report the incident.

That's the case of Rilya Wilson, who was lost by the state of Florida and whose whereabouts, despite national media coverage of the incident, are still a mystery.

Rilya vanished sometime in January 2001. Given the strange circumstances, nobody is sure of the exact date. At the time, Rilya – whose name reportedly stands for "Remember, I love you always" – was living in the home of sisters Geralyn and Pamela Graham. Geralyn Graham has been reported to be Rilya's paternal grandmother. Florida's Department of Children and Families had placed Rilya in the Graham home as part of its foster care system.

Rilya was born on Sept. 29, 1996. Her mother, Gloria Wilson, was homeless and addicted to crack cocaine. Rilya's alleged father is said to be a habitual criminal. Rilya was Gloria's second child. Gloria's first child had already been taken away from her by the state of Florida.

Two years after Rilya was born, Gloria Wilson had another baby that the state also took from her. That baby was placed in the home of Geralyn Graham, who says she is the mother of Rilya's father.

In April 2000, Graham requested that Florida's Department of Children and Families, or DCF, also place Rilya in her Miami home. She said she wanted to legally adopt Rilya. At the time, Rilya was being raised in another Miami home by the daughter of a 78-year-old woman who had befriended and was attempting to help Gloria Wilson.

DCF complied with Graham's request, despite that issues had been raised about the true identity of Rilya's father. Florida officials, who declined to speak on the record, say that at least "two men claim to be Rilya's father" but that "no DNA tests have been conducted to resolve the confusion yet." Graham told the Miami Herald two weeks ago that her son "has 14 other children by several different women." Graham has also stated that she "never signed" any paperwork before or after Rilya was placed in her home.

According to a May 12 Associated Press story by Allen G. Breed, not long after Rilya was placed in the Graham home, Graham complained to several DCF employees that Rilya was "acting very weird."

Graham also called Rilya's social worker, Deborah Muskelly, to make the same complaint. A short while later, according to Graham, in early January 2001, a woman knocked on her door and, speaking with a foreign accent, explained that she had come to pick up Rilya for a "psychiatric examination."

It is not clear if the unnamed woman showed Graham any identification credentials or documents. However, Graham told the Miami Herald that the woman "knew all about Rilya and Muskelly." Strangely, the Miami Herald reported that Graham called Muskelly a month after Rilya was taken and asked when the girl was going to be returned to her home. Graham told the newspaper that Muskelly said, "Don't worry. … The child will come back to you."

Rilya has not been seen, or heard from, since the day the mysterious woman picked her up, and nobody claims to know where she is. The May 12 Associated Press article states, "Graham ... said she had continued receiving and cashing checks – more than $1,600 in all – for Rilya's care during her absence, saying DCF had told her to."

Eight months after Rilya's disappearance, in August 2001, with still no sign of or word from Rilya – and no reports to anyone that she was missing – Muskelly, according to the Miami Herald, was filing reports indicating that she had routinely visited the Graham home and that Rilya's "needs were being met."

Last month, after DCF officials became aware that something was terribly wrong with Rilya Wilson's case, they waited at least a week before notifying police and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, despite that their own regulations require them to do so within "three working days."

Internal DCF e-mails obtained by the Herald reveal a chilling picture of bureaucratic ineptitude. One administrator wrote, "This one scares me." Another message to Muskelly's supervisor read: "When are you going to notify law enforcement that the child is missing?" Another close assistant to DCF's top administrator wrote, "... just keep remembering, it can always be worse."

After DCF noticed that Rilya had vanished, officials also became aware that employee Muskelly had "falsified client visit records and case documents." DCF officials say there was "no way to know sooner."

According to the Herald, "district DCF chief Charles Auslander said last week that January 2001 was the last entry by Muskelly in Rilya's case file."

Auslander additionally said that Muskelly – who was allowed to resign from her DCF position on March 20 or "face termination for filing falsified documents" – reported several times to a circuit court judge overseeing Rilya's custody that the little girl was "safe and being well cared for" during the months that she was actually missing. Others within DCF maintain that Muskelly obtained "advance signatures on reports confirming visits" to Rilya – meaning that Muskelly likely had several or more blank forms signed in advance of home visits that never occurred.

According to DCF records and supervisory officials, Muskelly was less than an exemplary employee. Officials say that she was demoted at least twice during her 17-year career with the agency. DCF spokeswoman LeNedra Carroll said that Muskelly's supervisors had "numerous concerns" about her job performance.

Muskelly, according to the Miami-Dade state's attorney's office, is now the subject of a criminal investigation. A spokesman for that office said yesterday, "It is not inconceivable that others may be added to the list."

DCF caseworkers, who refused to be identified for this article out of fears of "being fired," said that supervisory problems within the agency are "endemic." Said one worker, "Managers here pretty much do what they want without any guidance from above. There's not much sense of mission or urgency on anything." Another worker said that DCF supervisors "dropped the ball on Rilya's case long before Muskelly messed it up."

A Naples Daily News article this week by Catherine Wilson said, "Some outsiders suggested a 'bunker mentality' exists among [DCF] rank-and-file workers."

As might be expected in a state where politics seem to line every cloud and ray of sunshine, Rilya's disappearance has become an issue in Florida's gubernatorial campaign.

Last week, gubernatorial candidate and former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno said at a campaign stop that the state "has to do more" to prevent children like Rilya from ever having to enter the state's system to begin with. Quipped one observer, referring to the 1993 Waco siege, "This from a woman who ordered tanks into a building full of innocent children?"

Florida's governor, Jeb Bush, has come under heavy fire for what has become widely known as the "Rilya matter." People close to Bush say that he was "initially very angered about the case" but has since "been convinced that it is an aberration" in an agency that was "just beginning to get its act together." Bush composed a blue-ribbon investigatory committee almost immediately after he learned of Rilya's disappearance. The committee is charged with making recommendations on fixing persistent problems within DCF. Its report is due at the end of the month.

Last week, Bush said he "still has confidence in Kathleen Kearney," the secretary of the Department of Children and Families. Kearney, a political appointee who was formerly a juvenile court judge, has rejected sporadic calls for her resignation, saying that Rilya's social worker bears the blame in the case. Meanwhile, some DCF workers have privately complained that Kearney is "too far removed from the day-to-day realities of this agency" and that "she has no experience in managing a workplace and budget this large."

On Tuesday, Florida newspapers revealed that Rilya's assumed paternal grandmother, Geralyn Graham, has used "at least 33 aliases" and that "lawyers [in unrelated civil cases] have questioned whether she was a con artist or severely mentally impaired."

A May 15 report in the St. Petersburg Times stated, "Florida's child-welfare agency [DCF] has said it didn't know Rilya Wilson's caretaker used numerous aliases before [Rilya] was placed in her home. ... But Geralyn Graham's bogus names were contained in a court subpoena served on [DCF] as part of a personal-injury lawsuit involving Graham." The subpoena was served on DCF officials six months before Rilya was placed in Graham's home.

Last weekend, the mystery of Rilya Wilson's disappearance was featured on "America's Most Wanted" television show. Florida law-enforcement officials were hopeful that the show would "produce leads about this little girl's whereabouts" but now report that "nothing of any value was generated."

Meanwhile, Rilya Wilson is gone, and the days are ticking away.

[Admin]

MISSING GIRL, 5, WAS ON DCF'S CASE LIST

The Miami Herald
April 30, 2002
Author: TERE FIGUERAS AND ELAINE DE VALLE,

Where is Rilya Wilson?

The 5-year-old girl, who should have been monitored monthly by child welfare agents, has been missing for more than 15 months, say state officials and Miami-Dade Police.

Her grandmother, who was caring for the chubby-cheeked girl and two siblings, said she thought Rilya was in the custody of the Department of Children and Families, who had placed the child with her in late 1999 or early 2000.

The state thought Rilya was home in Southwest Miami-Dade County with Grandma.

``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 DCF district since August 1999. ``We have a child who we cannot confirm the whereabouts of that child. We're not sure at this point where the child is.''

On Monday, Miami-Dade Police went to the public to try to find the little girl.

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

DCF reported Rilya missing Thursday - after investigators dropped by her grandmother's home for an evaluation and did not find her there, Giordano said. The grandmother, who was not identified because the case involves custodial issues, said someone from the state picked the girl up for an evaluation in January 2001.

``We're not sure whether that person was an employee of the Department of Children and Families or someone representing themselves as such,'' Auslander said. ``But someone with knowledge of the case or the child went to the grandmother and removed the child, saying that the child was going to be taken to some sort of neurological, psychological or other evaluation.''

The department's records reflect no such visit or tests by DCF, he said. Auslander said the grandmother told DCF that a second person claiming to be a DCF employee came by the house within a week of Rilya's removal, asked for Rilya's clothing and said the girl would need more tests.

She reported a third such visitor coming within the next couple of weeks to inquire about all three children. The grandmother told DCF that the third worker didn't know Rilya had been removed, Auslander said. The state took custody of the girl as an infant because her mother was abusing cocaine, Auslander said. Rilya was first placed with another relative. Auslander said he believed Rilya was removed from that home after child welfare workers found it unkempt. Rilya was then given to her grandmother.

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

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

The caseworker was forced to resign last month. ``It appeared that she had doctored home visits, or documentation of home visits,'' in another case, Auslander said. Her supervisor also quit, in lieu of a demotion, Auslander said. When DCF began reviewing Rilya's case last week, it learned the caseworker also skipped required monthly visits to the grandmother's home, he said.

``If somebody wants to not do their job, you can have times when a significant amount of time could go by and the situation may not have a separate or independent monitor,'' Auslander said. Agency policy is to check on children monthly, he said.

The caseworker denied picking up Rilya, and the girl's grandmother said the caseworker wasn't the one who took the girl. Two huge binders with the photograph of every DCF employee were taken to the grandmother's house Monday, Auslander said. She was still reviewing the photos late Monday.

DCF has checked databases for the girl, including Medicaid billing records, and under several last names of different relatives, Auslander said.

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

Miami-Dade Police Det. Juan DelCastillo, a department spokesman, said the grandmother is not considered a suspect in the disappearance.

``There is no reason to believe that she was involved in any wrongdoing or any foul play on her part,'' DelCastillo said.

[Admin]

CHILD WELFARE AGENCY REPEATEDLY UNCOOPERATIVE, GRANDMOTHER SAYS

The Miami Herald
May 2, 2002
Author: CHARLES RABIN AND ELAINE DE VALLE,

The grandmother of Rilya Wilson, the 5-year-old Miami-Dade County girl missing for 15 months, says the state Department of Children & Families failed her again and again when she sought help for the child - both before her disappearance and after.

Geralyn Graham told The Herald in a telephone interview Wednesday that she drew the attention of agency workers to the girl's behavioral problems when Rilya was in her care. But she says they told her not to ``rock the boat.''

Then, after the child was taken away in January 2001 by someone she thought was a Children & Families worker, Graham says, she asked caseworker Deborah Muskelly several times when the girl would return to her home.

``On several occasions I spoke to Muskelly and asked, `When do you think she's coming back?' And then she'd go, `Coming back?' and then she said, `Oh, we're working on it,' '' Graham said. ``I believe Muskelly knew were Rilya was.''

Muskelly could not be reached for comment Wednesday, but she has told agency officials that she does not know where the child is.

Graham, who says she is completely disabled after having cancer surgery four times and suffering a knee injury, has spent the past couple of days poring over large binders with the photographs of Children & Families employees, looking for whoever took the child. So far, she hasn't recognized anyone.

REMOVED FROM MOM

Graham said Rilya is the child of her son Kenneth Epson and his former girlfriend Gloria Wilson. Graham, who says her son has 14 children by several different women, was the person who brought the state agency into Rilya's life, on April 17, 2000.

Graham was already caring for Rilya's little sister, who was removed from Wilson's care by the state because of the woman's chronic drug abuse, state officials said.

``I wanted the children to know each other. They have the same father,'' Graham said. ``I went down and took the baby for a visit to the Brownsville home [where Rilya was staying]. It was subhuman. When I found [Rilya], she was sitting in the middle of the floor, next to human feces, trying to eat a piece of bread. She knew swear words, not normal talking.''

Graham said she called the Department of Children & Families.

A man she knew as Mr. Harris went to the Brownsville home and removed the child that day. An agency supervisor named Willie Harris was involved in Rilya's case. He could not be reached for comment.

The agency put Rilya in Graham's care, although Graham says she never signed any paperwork. She hoped eventually to adopt Rilya.

MISTREATMENT FEARS

Graham says she told Harris and Muskelly her suspicions that Rilya had been mistreated.

Harris told her she could not prove anything, she said.

``Muskelly said to drop it. She said the department dropped the ball, so I left it alone.''

Rilya's behavior got ``progressively worse,'' Graham said. ``Rilya would bang her head against the wall. She tried to smother the baby.''

When Muskelly made her required monthly visit to the home in November 2000, the grandmother says she again asked for help for Rilya.

``At that point, I was really fearful of what would happen to the baby or to [Rilya]. Again, she said, `You better not rock the boat at this point,' because the adoption was due in April 2001 and this could delay it.''

By Christmas 2000, the little girl was ``acting very weird,'' Graham said.

``I told Muskelly we've got to do something even if it delays the adoption. She said, `Don't worry, I'll get someone to help you.'

``Then somebody came out January 21, 2001. I can't remember the name.

She said Muskelly called her about Rilya. She told me - she had toys with her - she told me Rilya needed in-depth psychological evaluations.

``I asked where. She said `I don't know, I have to talk to the office.' I had to talk to my sister on the phone and explain why they were taking her. They said, `We're taking her for evaluation.' She said to give them a couple of outfits and her favorite toys. She said it would be a few days.''

A week later, she said, another woman also claiming to be from Children & Families visited the home.

``Said she needed more clothes. I asked where she was, how we could see her. She said we have to go through Muskelly. She said we needed more tests on Rilya. I had no reason not to believe her,'' Graham said.

`DON'T WORRY'

``A few days later I called Muskelly. She got back to me a month later over the phone.

``She said, `Don't worry, you have a beautiful home. You are raising the child right. The child will come back to you.' So I took her word for it.''

Graham said she asked again and again about Rilya.

``I have tried all I know how. I have talked to Mr. Harris, Muskelly and their secretary so many times I feel I know them personally. They never told us where she was. The only thing we were told was that she was going to need her Medicaid.

``At first I used to ask all the time. I was told we have specialized places for children like that and that she won't forget about us. We may have been stupid but we're not criminal. I think they placed her somewhere and just didn't do the paperwork.

``The last time I spoke to Mr. Harris was March 2002.''

TWO RESIGNATIONS

The state agency said Harris resigned in March rather than being demoted after he was accused of not properly managing Muskelly's cases.

Muskelly resigned March 20 when faced with termination after an internal audit found she was not making the required monthly visits to some of the children - but not Rilya - assigned to her.

After 15 months, Graham has lost her patience.

``I'm getting a little frustrated. Instead of trying to find where the baby is it seems people are pointing fingers,'' the grandmother said. ``The child is somewhere.''

[Admin]

POLICE NOW SUSPECT 5-YEAR-OLD GIRL IS DEAD

The Miami Herald
May 3, 2002
Author: CAROL MARBIN MILLER, CHARLES RABIN, ELAINE DE VALLE AND GAIL EPSTEIN NIEVES

As the search for 5-year-old Rilya Wilson enters its second week with no sign of the child, Miami-Dade law officers say they suspect she was killed.

``We're treating it as a homicide because we believe it very well might be one,'' Miami-Dade Assistant State Attorney Tammy Forrest, chief prosecutor with the sexual battery/child abuse unit, said Thursday. ``We have several leads, but we need to investigate further.''

Miami-Dade police - who initially treated the girl's disappearance as a missing person case - said they made the decision based on Rilya's troubled history and the time that has passed since she was last seen. Rilya, who was under supervision of the state welfare agency, disappeared 15 months ago.

In another development Thursday, a court docket obtained by The Herald shows that caseworkers with the Florida Department of Children and Families filed status reports or participated in hearings at least five times during the 15 months following her disappearance from her grandmother's house.

The docket suggests that the status reports said the child was alive and with her grandmother, because there is no indication that caseworkers filed a request for a ``pickup'' order that is required when a child is missing.

Instead, the docket shows that the reports were on Rilya's custody and adoption status. The reports themselves were not available.

The last such report was filed April 23, two days before DCF reported to police that the child was missing and asked a Miami-Dade judge to help them locate the child with a pickup order.

Rilya disappeared from the house of Geralyn Graham, who identifies herself as the child's paternal grandmother. Graham says a woman who said she worked for Children and Families took the child, but the agency says it has no idea where Rilya is.

Graham says she repeatedly asked her caseworker, Deborah Muskelly, and Muskelly's supervisor about the child, but was given no information.

BOTH RESIGNED

Muskelly and supervisor Willie Harris both resigned in March in connection with an internal audit that found Muskelly had falsified records in cases other than Rilya's.

Neither Muskelly nor Harris could be reached.

Miami-Dade homicide detectives are interviewing members of Rilya's family circle in South Florida and her mother in Cleveland. A source familiar with the probe said they administered two lie-detector tests late Wednesday. The results were not available to The Herald.

Graham's son, Kenneth Epson, who says he is Rilya's father, called Miami-Dade police Thursday morning and was set to be interviewed by detectives Thursday night, said Cmdr. Linda O'Brien, a department spokeswoman.

Detectives have interviewed Graham extensively. They also have talked to her sister Pamela Graham and neighbors at the home where the little girl lived before she disappeared, O'Brien said.

And Miami-Dade homicide detectives flew to Cleveland on Thursday to get a DNA sample from Rilya's mother, to compare it with one from an unidentified child's body in Kansas City, Mo., known as Precious Doe.

Kansas City police said Wednesday that palm prints believed to be Rilya's and sent to them by Miami-Dade police did not match those of Precious Doe.

In a related development, Rilya's mother, Gloria Wilson, told reporters in Cleveland that she remembered her daughter had a ``heart-shaped'' birthmark on her left shoulder. Kansas City police have long publicized Precious Doe's ``crescent-shaped'' birthmark in an effort to identify her.

Capt. Randy Hopkins, commander of the homicide unit in Kansas City, said Wilson's comments lent further credence to the theory that Precious Doe is Rilya.

Graham, however, disputes the claim by Wilson, whose parental rights were terminated about two years ago.

Reached by telephone Thursday afternoon, Wilson told The Herald, ``I can't talk to anybody anymore today. I'm too tired. It's too much.''

Attorney Ed Shohat, who is representing Graham, said his first priority is to find the missing girl and his second is to get her 3-year-old sister Rodericka back into Graham's care. DCF removed Rodericka from Graham's home late Wednesday. A woman at Graham's house late Thursday said a boy who had been in Graham's care, whom she described as a grandson, also was removed from the home.

``I don't know what reason they could have to remove a child from the care of a woman who has successfully raised 11 children without even a hint of any impropriety,'' Shohat said.

Angelique James, Graham's daughter, said, ``This has been has been devastating to our family. We were trying to do the right thing and they turned it all on us and are trying to make it our fault.''

Wilson, described by DCF as a chronic drug addict, has said that Graham is not Rilya's grandmother. Graham said she believes she is the grandmother.

``Gloria claims several people are the father - but they have never panned out,'' Graham said.

NO DNA TESTS

Asked if she was certain of Epson's paternity, Graham said, ``We don't know. We never took DNA tests.''

Children & Families has checked its records to see if Rilya was placed with another foster family or in a treatment program for abused children, but has not located her.

The court docket obtained by The Herald shows that a DCF caseworker filed a report to Circuit Judge Cindy Lederman, in preparation for a hearing, two months after Rilya was last seen.

The court record also shows that on Aug. 21, 2001, Lederman asked the department to explain to her why officials should not be held in contempt of court. The record does not say why Lederman was demanding answers.

In September 2001, Lederman conducted a judicial review on Rilya's behalf. The docket shows Rilya was ``to remain [in] the custody '' of DCF - though DCF hadn't seen the child in months. Another hearing was held Feb. 4, 2002. ``Remain in custody'' of DCF, the entry states.

On April 23, DCF filed what is called a ``judicial review social study'' on Rilya's behalf. That filing took place after Muskelly's resignation.

Two days later, the docket shows, Lederman signed an order for Rilya to be immediately taken into custody.

A blank judicial ``review social study report'' shows that a DCF caseworker is required to provide detailed information on the child whose case is being heard, the child's siblings and caretakers, and all relatives and ``significant others.''

The report asks caseworkers to describe statements from caretakers, all services given to the child, the child's case history, and public assistance payments to the child's caretaker.

LaNedra Carroll, a spokeswoman for DCF in Tallahassee, said Thursday that administrators are still ``evaluating every bit'' of information in the case, and are unable to discuss what happened in detail.

Administrators are certain, however, that DCF officials requested an order to find the child on April 25. ``When it became evident that the child was not with the grandmother, and not with the department, District Administrator Charles Auslander notified the court,'' Carroll said.

Neither Carroll nor a Miami agency spokesman would discuss the court record with The Herald, saying the docket was not in their possession.

Rilya's case overshadowed the first meeting of a new Florida House committee investigating the agency.

Kathleen Kearney, the agency's head, told the committee that state officials are checking on all the children assigned to caseworkers who were supposed to keep tabs on Rilya.

``Children don't fall through the cracks. They fall through fingers [of agency officials],'' Kearney said.

[Admin]

DCF'S FAILURES BETTER ANSWERS NEEDED IN DISAPPEARANCE

The Miami Herald
May 3, 2002
Author: Herald Staff

Florida's Secretary of the Department of Children and Families is in the proverbial hot seat. Kathleen Kearney says she accepts ``full responsibility'' for mistakes that may have contributed to the disappearance a 5-year-old child under the agency's care.

Ms. Kearney is right. Ultimately, she is responsible for what DCF does or doesn't do. Rilya Wilson's mystifying and frightening disappearance while under the supervision of the agency is one of the most serious lapses to have occurred on Ms. Kearney's watch. As more becomes known about what happened, DCF's mistakes are becoming glaringly, shamefully obvious.

Gov. Jeb Bush has questioned Ms. Kearney sharply and is clearly upset. But the governor says he has faith in the secretary. Nevertheless, if better answers aren't forthcoming, and soon, the governor should consider replacing her.

SAFETY-NET MISSING

DCF officials say that their ``Golden Rule'' mandate at the agency is to have a safety net that protects the lives of children under its care. In this case, application of that rule is miserably absent.

The safety net failed at every critical juncture, beginning with the legal responsibility of the caseworker and her supervisor to check on the child each month and again at the six-month court review of the girl's case, when the parents' rights were terminated and when the child was supposed to be enrolled in kindergarten.

Not one of these check-ups was performed. So despite the state-mandated interventions on DCF's part, Rilya remained missing inexplicably for 15 months without - apparently - the agency's knowledge. Geralyn Graham, the woman in whose care the agency placed Rilya and her younger sister, says that she believed that DCF had taken custody. She said that she was rebuffed whenever she asked questions after the child was taken away by someone whom she believed worked for DCF. The agency, which at first said it had no record of Ms. Graham's inquiries, has since affirmed that she did make contact.

Much of the mystery concerns Rilya's caseworker, Deborah Muskelly, who apparently didn't make monthly visits or perform any of the other required checks on the girl. She and her supervisor were allowed to resign after it was learned that she had falsified records in other cases. Miami-Dade County State Attorney Katherine Fernández Rundle says she's investigating Ms. Muskelly and others for possible criminal violations. If probable cause is found to pursue criminal charges, they should be filed and prosecuted vigorously.

CONFUSING DEVELOPMENTS

In one recent development, the girl's mother - who has given up her parental rights - told The New York Times that Ms. Graham is not the girl's grandmother but her godmother. This claim - true or not - only adds to the confusion surrounding what the police are now treating as a possible homicide. In another twist, the DCF hastily removed Rilya's younger sister from Ms. Graham's home Wednesday night without offering any explanation. The child's abrupt removal was handled in a manner that can only be described as insensitive and frightening for her.

Whatever answers ultimately emerge about Rilya's family and her fate, the true culprit here is the DCF and its inability to follow its own rules to protect children. DCF was plagued by administrative missteps even before Ms. Kearney arrived and, in the past, children have died while in DCF care.

Gov. Bush says that government will never create the perfect environment for children. Perhaps that is so. But the state has the obligation to do its utmost to keep its vulnerable children out of harm's way. In Rilya Wilson's case, the DCF has acted quite the opposite. Its inexcusable lack of supervision may have put the child at grave risk.

[Admin]

AGENCY WAITED 6 DAYS TO TELL POLICE OF RILYA E-MAILS SHOW SEARCH FOR GIRL, WORKERS' FEARS

The Miami Herald
May 5, 2002
Author: CAROL MARBIN MILLER,

Child welfare administrators knew at least as early as April 19 that a 5-year-old child entrusted to their care was missing, and had been gone from her grandmother's house for 15 months, according to internal e-mails obtained by The Herald.

For close to a week before notifying police, they used an internal agency procedure for locating parents to find Rilya Wilson.

The day before officials from the Department of Children & Families told police and a judge they had somehow lost Rilya, Miami's highest administrator wrote in an ``urgent'' e-mail to Tallahassee: ``This one scares me.''

Then, on April 25, a high-ranking administrator in Tallahassee wrote Miami district chief Charles Auslander: ``When are you going to notify law enforcement that the child is missing?''

DCF Secretary Kathleen Kearney was not told of the ``serious matter regarding a missing child'' until the same day, e-mails show. An administrator wrote the next day: ``The Secretary may become involved after 3:30 p.m.''

Rilya disappeared in January 2001 from the home of Geralyn Graham, who says she's the child's grandmother. Graham says a woman who claimed to be a DCF worker took Rilya; the agency doesn't know where she is.

The DCF's failure to alert either police or the judge overseeing Rilya's case that she was missing for six days is symptomatic of a broader problem that has persisted within the agency for years.

The department's own rules require it to notify both the Missing Children Information Clearing House of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children within three working days. That was not done in Rilya's case, the e-mails show. And a 2000 DCF study in Broward County shows the requirement was routinely ignored.

The e-mails, which take on an increasingly pressing tone as officials fail to find the child, show an agency concerned with how it will appear in newspapers and on television. The only e-mails provided to The Herald from Kearney's desk are two dispatches from Auslander - one on April 28 seeking ``guidance'' on managing the media onslaught that was expected to follow the police decision to announce Rilya was missing, and the other the following day describing the press inquiries.

LaNedra Carroll, the DCF's chief spokeswoman who left Tallahassee Friday for Miami, said Saturday that workers waited six days to call police because they believed they could locate Rilya themselves - within their own foster care system.

`LOOKED FOR CHILD'

``They systematically looked for the child as soon as they learned she was not where she was supposed to be,'' Carroll said. ``From what we are seeing, people are trying to locate the child. There are many reasons a child could be out of place, that do not necessarily lead to tragic circumstances, as in this case.

``It's not as if there was any indication they needed to make a 911 call right away,'' she said. ``They have to try to take the time to figure out what happened to the child.''

Rilya is among 374 children statewide technically in state care whose whereabouts were unknown as of February - 82 of them in Miami-Dade County and 69 in Broward County. Most are believed to be either runaways or children taken by their biological parents.

Though the department is required to report missing children to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the center's website records only 143 Florida children, not all of them in state care.

As early as August 2000, a DCF runaway specialist in Broward, Ruben Betancourt, wrote a memo saying that workers failed in 73 percent of the 129 runaway cases he studied to follow proper procedure for reporting a missing child. ``This reporting is not being done,'' Betancourt wrote, and underlined, in his memo.

Rilya is first mentioned in DCF e-mail traffic on April 19, in a dispatch from a Miami-Dade child adoptions caseworker, Monica Porrata. Lawyers for the department deleted certain information from the e-mails before giving them to The Herald.

The e-mails show that a foster care or adoptions counselor named Dora Betancourt ``attempted to locate'' Rilya, and was ``informed that the child does not appear in the system.''

Porrata said she was told to ``send Rilya's case [file] back so that they could attempt to locate the child, but I am concerned about this situation. Therefore we went ahead and made some more contacts.''

Graham said she asked for information about the girl, in writing, in January, but was bounced from one DCF employee to another. She remembers talking to Porrata because the adoptions counselor ``was so helpful,'' Graham said. ``She told me she didn't have the case yet.

Around Feb. 1, Graham said, she got a call from Porrata, who said that the case had been transferred to another department and that the girl would be brought back to her shortly. In April, she got a call from a DCF caseworker, who she believes is Dora Betancourt, who told her she was coming to her home later that day. ``She was just as confused as I was, calling around trying to find her,'' Graham said.

An April 22 e-mail from Ada Gonzalez, the department's adoptions program operations administrator in Miami, offered suggestions: try day-care centers if the girl isn't in school, or maybe Rilya is in a psychiatric facility, as Graham had suggested.

Miami administrator Auslander learned of Rilya's disappearance the evening of April 23. ``I am praying,'' he wrote in an April 24 e-mail, that someone related to the family ``took the child and that the grandmother is covering up. This one scares me.''

In a reply, Larry Pintacuda, an administrator in Tallahassee, wrote: ``When are you going to notify law enforcement that the child is missing?''

HECTIC DAY

April 25 was a hectic day for the agency. At 10 a.m., workers sought - and obtained - an order from Circuit Judge Cindy Lederman that Rilya be taken into custody by any official who finds her. While they obtained the ``pickup order'' authorizing anyone to pick up a missing child, administrators also notified police.

Dale East, a policy advisor in Tallahassee, wrote to Auslander that day suggesting that an operating procedure the department had employed to find Rilya, designed to guide officials searching for parents, may be inadequate for the task. He recommended, among other things, searching private schools, day-care centers, and mental-health care databases.

The operating procedure the department had been using - at least according to East - actually refers to ``diligent searches'' for parents or prospective parents whose ``identity or location are unknown.'' The operating procedure has nothing to do with locating missing children, DCF records show.

Just before 1 p.m. that day, April 25, Auslander told Kearney's assistant he had ``a serious matter regarding a missing child under protective supervision'' At 2 p.m. the administrative assistant, Susan Moss, said Kearney had been briefed on Rilya's case. ``I am confident we will find her and soon,'' Moss wrote.

``Charles, just keep remembering, it can always be worse,'' she wrote.

The next day, at 3:06 p.m., an administrator in Auslander's office wrote: ``The Secretary may become involved after 3:30 p.m.''

On April 28, Auslander told Kearney he wanted ``guidance'' on how to handle the media calls that were sure to follow the Miami-Dade Police Department's release of a missing-person flier on the girl. Can the department's public relations director help? he asked.

The next day, Auslander reported the details of his interviews with The Herald and Channel 39. The newspaper story, he said, would likely run either on The Herald's front page or the front of its local section. It would include ``a full discussion of the shortcomings of the counselor and supervisor, including their breaches of trust.''

[Admin]

RILYA CAREGIVERS PLEAD NOT GUILTY TO CHILD ABUSE

Miami Herald
September 10, 2004
Author: Herald Staff and Wire Reports

Caregivers for missing foster child Rilya Wilson pleaded not guilty Thursday in Miami-Dade Circuit Court to child-abuse charges covering the months leading up to the girl's unsolved disappearance more than three years ago.

The pleas were submitted in writing so that Geralyn Graham and Pamela Graham did not have to be present for the perfunctory arraignment. Circuit Judge Daryl Trawick set a Dec. 13 trial date for the women.

Prosecutor Sally Weintraub asked the judge to order the court clerk to change Geralyn Graham's name on the court file to Jane Doe because the convicted con woman has used 42 aliases.

Geralyn Graham, 58, faces a possible life sentence if convicted of kidnapping and three counts of aggravated child abuse. She is already serving a three-year sentence imposed last year for fraud.

Her roommate, Pamela Graham, 39, could face up to 10 years on child-abuse charges.

Police are afraid Rilya is dead after a long, international hunt for her turned up nothing. Geralyn Graham is accused of punishing the girl by locking her in a dog cage, tying her to her bed and confining her in a laundry room.

Rilya was 4 when the women said she was taken by a state welfare worker in January or February 2001. Police and the state agency deny that.

[Admin]

NEW FACTS RELEASED IN RILYA WILSON CASE

Miami Herald
September 25, 2004
Author: LISA ARTHUR,

When Geralyn Graham borrowed a dog cage from a friend in late 2000, she reportedly told the woman she needed it to lock up Rilya Wilson, the foster child who disappeared while in Graham's

custody, according to police reports released Friday.

``Deatra Coakley asked Geralyn Graham what she wanted the dog cage for and Geralyn stated she was going to put Rilya in the dog cage in order to prevent her from hurting herself and the baby Rodericka Wilson,'' reads a police narrative that was among 500 pages of court documents and police reports released Friday by prosecutors.

Coakley also told police she once saw Rilya locked in a pitch-black laundry room at the Graham home for punishment. She said she went into the room to free the child and described the little girl as ``distraught.''

Graham is facing charges filed last month of aggravated child abuse for restraining Rilya in the cage and in the laundry room and tying her to a bed. She's also charged with kidnapping for depriving roommate Pamela Graham and the Department of Children & Families custody of Rilya. She could face life in prison if convicted of all charges.

The documents released Friday don't provide any new information about where Rilya Wilson might be. The girl was last seen in January 2001; police learned of her disappearance 18 months later.

Geralyn Graham has denied abusing Rilya. Her lawyer, Brian Tannebaum, dismissed the latest revelations as old information.

``If this information has been known to the state, why are they just bringing charges now?'' he said.

Sources have said Pamela Graham, who has been charged with child neglect, is now cooperating with investigators and has corroborated 2-year-old statements by Coakley and another witness, identified in court papers as L. Smith, that Rilya was abused.

The Grahams have maintained that a worker from the DCF picked Rilya up one day, took her away for tests and never returned her. The girl would be 6 now.

[Admin]

RILYA'S EX-CARETAKER CHARGED WITH MURDER

Miami Herald
March 17, 2005
Author: SCOTT HIAASEN, CAROL MARBIN MILLER AND DAVID OVALLE,


A Miami-Dade grand jury on Wednesday indicted a former caregiver in the murder of Rilya Wilson,

The indictment of Geralyn Graham, 59, a girlfriend of Rilya's foster mother, says Rilya died from ``smothering and/or suffocating and/or beating'' sometime in December 2000 - some 16 months before state welfare officials first realized she was missing. At the time, Rilya was 4 years old.

Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernández Rundle said the nearly 3-year-old mystery of Rilya's disappearance ended with the aid of a jailhouse informant.

Graham made self-incriminating statements while jailed on child abuse and kidnapping charges, and the details the inmate provided matched information ``only someone with knowledge of the crime possessed,'' Fernández Rundle said.

Fernández Rundle would not say whether her office had any new information indicating where the child's body might be.

``No, we don't have a crime scene. No, we don't have a body. But we feel we have enough evidence,'' Fernández Rundle said.

Graham's lawyer, Brian Tannebaum, said the indictment is based on dubious evidence, and said prosecutors still can't answer most basic question about the case.

``You've got one of the most significant missing child cases in the world and you're going to rely on a jailhouse snitch?'' Tannebaum said. ``The bottom line is: Where is this child?''

DENIED CHARGES

Graham has denied charges that she abused Rilya, the child of a crack addict with behavior problems. In August, she told a Herald reporter that she believed Rilya was still alive.

Prosecutors have been investigating Rilya's disappearance from the West Kendall home of Graham and her lover, Pamela Graham, since April 2002, when the Department of Children & Families first discovered the child was missing.

The two women - who are unrelated - said at the time that Rilya was taken from their home by a DCF worker for medical testing and never returned - a story that prosecutors say Geralyn made up and Pamela repeated.

Pamela Graham, who had legal custody of Rilya, told prosecutors last year that she came home from work one day in December 2000 and found Rilya missing. Geralyn wouldn't tell her what happened, but insisted the girl was all right, Pamela said.

REPEATED STORY

Pamela said she repeated the story about the DCF worker taking Rilya because she feared she would be jailed for losing her. She told investigators that Geralyn tied Rilya to a bed, locked her in a laundry room and stuffed her in a dog cage - allegations that led to Geralyn's arrest on child abuse and kidnapping charges.

Pamela Graham pleaded guilty to child neglect and must serve 364 days in jail and five years' probation in a plea agreement with prosecutors. Fernández Rundle called her a ``key ingredient' in the murder case, though Pamela's lawyer, Martin Beguiristain, said his client did not give detectives evidence that Rilya was killed.

``News to me,'' Beguiristain said of the indictment.

While Rilya's disappearance sparked an international search - a $100,000 reward is still outstanding - DCF's failure to notice her absence became a national scandal. DCF's secretary, Kathleen Kearney, resigned in a cascade of embarrassing reports about the agency's lax supervision of foster kids, and several other DCF employees were fired.

RESIGNED

Rilya's caseworker, Deborah Muskelly, also resigned and was criminally charged with official misconduct and grand theft for falsifying timesheets in an unrelated case. She pleaded guilty and was sentenced to five years' probation.

Muskelly's last ``progress note'' in Rilya's file was dated January 2001 - after prosecutors say Rilya died.

LED TO REFORMS

Lucy Hadi, DCF's recently appointed secretary, said in a prepared statement Wednesday that Rilya's disappearance set in motion several reforms, including the requirement that all caseworkers visit every child in state care at least once a month to ensure their safety.

``This has been an extremely tragic case,'' Hadi said.

``Yet, out of this tragedy has come an environment whereby the children of Florida are much safer today.''

`HAUNTING' NEWS

Throughout South Florida Wednesday, child welfare officials and children's advocates expressed profound sadness - but also a sense of finished business - at the news that authorities had concluded Rilya was dead.

Charles Auslander, the Department of Children & Families' highest-ranking official in Miami when Rilya disappeared, called the indictment ``haunting'' because ``it ends whatever hope we all had that she is still alive.''

Auslander, a lawyer now in private law practice in Miami, was one of several DCF officials - including then-Secretary Kearney - who lost their jobs in the wake of Rilya's disappearance.

``I suppose I'm like any other human being,'' he said. ``A part of me says I may finally find out what happened - and maybe even why.''

TIME TO MOVE ON

Chelly Schembera, who followed Auslander as interim district administrator, said knowing the end to the Rilya Wilson mystery may enable DCF, an agency with a national reputation for dysfunction, to move on.

``There was an ongoing and long-term grief, and a certain kind of paralysis associated with'' the case, she said.

``I don't think just DCF needs to know,'' she said.

``This case really fixed attention on the plight of foster children throughout the entire country. Knowing what happened here and punishing whoever is responsible is important not just for DCF but for everyone.''

[Admin]

MISSING GIRL'S 9TH BIRTHDAY: SHINING LIGHT FOR FOSTER KIDS

Miami Herald, The (FL)
September 30, 2005
Author: CAROL MARBIN MILLER

The state of Florida says Rilya Wilson is dead. But to some in Miami's African-American community, Rilya lives on - at least as an enduring symbol of the failures of Florida's child-welfare system.

On Thursday, on what would be Rilya's 9th birthday, community leaders from Rilya's old neighborhood threw her a birthday party at the Joseph Caleb Center in Liberty City, complete with pink balloons and a sheet cake with white icing and pink frosted trim.

Twelve youngsters from a Head Start program Rilya had attended as a toddler fidgeted in their chairs, yawned, sucked their thumbs and pulled at their balloon strings for about an hour while grown-ups talked about the importance of adopting abused and neglected children from foster care.

Then, the children sang Happy Birthday to Rilya - and blew out her nine candles.

``These little babies never knew, and never met, Rilya,'' said state Sen. Frederica S. Wilson, a Miami Democrat who has championed Rilya's cause, and the cause of foster children, for several years.

``They probably don't know whose picture they are holding,'' she added, referring to the cardboard posters that bore Rilya's image.

``But we still hold a beacon of light,'' Wilson added. ``We will shine the light of Rilya Wilson as long as we can.''

In March, Rilya's former caregiver, Geralyn Graham, was charged by a Miami-Dade grand jury with killing the pigtailed, chubby-cheeked youngster. Police say Graham smothered the little girl with a pillow in 2000.

Rilya had been missing for more than a year when state child-welfare administrators acknowledged she had disappeared from foster care. Her case became a profound embarrassment for the Department of Children & Families, which pledged to find the state's missing kids, and improve the lives of foster children.

DCF reported that 561 children from state care remained unaccounted for as of Thursday, most of them runaways.

Outside the Caleb Center, rain poured down as civic leaders arrived for the unusual birthday party. Inside, many of the guests wore pink - including Wilson, whose signature hat matched her pink suit.

For three years, Wilson and others have used Rilya's birthday - and her tragic disappearance - as an opportunity to remind leaders that African-American youngsters are vastly over-represented in the ranks of children removed from their parents because of abuse or neglect.

In an auditorium decorated with posters beseeching people to become child advocates, Wilson turned her microphone over, first, to Arie Saylor, director of One Church, One Child, a group that encourages traditional black churches to embrace the cause of abused and neglected children.

``It is not the children's fault that they are in foster care,'' Saylor said. ``No child should grow up in foster care.''

Sounding at times more like a preacher, Saylor said: ``We welcome you to get involved, to do something about permanency and not let children languish in foster care.''

Joni Goodman, the long-standing director of the Guardian ad Litem Program of Miami-Dade, also worked the room Thursday in an effort to recruit new volunteer guardians. The GAL program provides lay guardians to advocate on behalf of Miami-Dade children in the foster-care system.

Rilya, who would have been 5 when her disappearance became known, never had a volunteer guardian represent her in court - a fact that Goodman, Wilson and others often point out in efforts to recruit volunteers.

``No one does more for kids than volunteers,'' Goodman told the group. ``I do believe that, had Rilya Wilson had a guardian ad litem, we would have known far sooner that she was not in that home, and we would have begun looking for her very quickly - not the 18 months it took.''

``We do need you,'' she said. ``Up till now, the state has made a pretty terrible parent.''

[Admin]

State builds circumstantial case in Rilya Wilson disappearance

By Curt Anderson
AP Legal Affairs Writer
Bradenton herald
10/05/2007

MIAMI --It's now been more than six years since foster child Rilya Wilson went missing, a disappearance that led to scandal and shake up at Florida's child welfare agency and murder charges against the little girl's former caretaker.

Yet Rilya's body has never been found and there's little physical evidence against the woman accused of killing her, 61-year-old Geralyn Graham.

Prosecutors have been assembling a largely circumstantial case detailing allegations of Rilya's abuse and mistreatment by Graham. But there is no firm evidence that a slaying occurred and no witness who can definitively identify Graham as the girl's killer, according to case records reviewed by The Associated Press.

Police dug up Graham's back yard looking for clues. They treated rooms in her house with a substance that reveals hidden traces of blood. They searched the house from top to bottom more than once.

"I found absolutely nothing," Miami-Dade County homicide detective Sara Times said in a court deposition.

And despite the murder charges, Rilya is still listed officially as missing by the state Department of Children & Families. If she lived, she would have turned 11 on Sept. 29.

"I have not seen one scintilla of physical evidence indicating that my client committed a homicide," said Graham attorney Michael Matters, who added that he expects prosecutors to seek the death penalty. She remains held on $250,000 bond after completing a sentence on an unrelated motor vehicle fraud conviction.

Rilya - whose name stands for Remember I Love You Always - was living as a foster child with Graham and her companion, Pamela Graham, when she disappeared in late 2000 at the age of 4. It wasn't until April 2002 that state officials discovered she was not at the Graham residence, which ultimately led to the resignation of the DCF's chief and to passage of a new law requiring improved supervision of foster children and tracking of efforts to find missing kids.

Pamela Graham, who is cooperating in the murder investigation, said Geralyn Graham told her one day in December 2000 that Rilya was "gone. You cannot see her anymore." Geralyn Graham added she was concocting a story that DCF workers had taken the child, but Pamela Graham insisted that she doesn't know what happened to Rilya.

"You think I know more than I know, but I do not know where Rilya is," she told police, according to court documents.

An acquaintance of the Grahams', Laquica Tuff, said Geralyn told her back in early 2001 that the girl was on a lengthy trip with friends to New York and Walt Disney World.

"She (Geralyn) said she'd be gone for a while because they were doing these series of trips," Tuff told investigators.

Pamela Graham verified allegations of abuse by Geralyn Graham, including tying Rilya to a bed and locking her in a small laundry room for lengthy periods as punishment for misbehavior. Other friends and acquaintances reported similar incidents as well as unusually numerous bruises, scratches and other injuries suffered by the girl.

One friend, Detra Coakley, said she gave Geralyn Graham a dog cage with the understanding that Rilya would be kept inside it.

"She said she didn't want her (Rilya) to do harm to herself. She was going to lock her up in the cage," Coakley said, adding that she's not sure if it ever happened.

Fellow inmates at the Miami-Dade County jail have told investigators that Geralyn Graham confessed to smothering Rilya and somehow disposing of her body. One of those informants, career criminal Robin Lunceford, has now refused to testify or cooperate since she was sentenced to life in prison on a robbery charge.

Brian Tannebaum, Geralyn Graham's previous attorney, said in court papers that Lunceford called him in September 2005 and said she "doesn't care if they offer her $1 million ... can't remember a damn thing."

Geralyn Graham has a long history of fraud and other crimes. Police discovered when she was arrested that she has used 47 aliases and was carrying 10 drivers licenses from Florida and Indiana.

But Geralyn Graham insists she is no killer.

"I realize that I am charged with the most heinous of crimes," she wrote in a May letter to the judge presiding over her case. "I also know it's all hearsay and I've never hurt a soul in my life. I've been guilty until proven innocent and that's not the American way."

Miami-Dade prosecutors said they are ready to take the case to trial even without more physical evidence or the discovery of Rilya's body.

"We would not proceed in this case unless we thought we could prove it beyond a reasonable doubt," said Ed Griffith, spokesman for Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle. "We have more than enough to go forward."

Matters said he is still poring over some three-dozen boxes of evidence and has many witness depositions to take, including officials at DCF. He said investigators kept both Grahams under constant surveillance and even regularly dug through their household garbage looking for clues.

"There's no issue about whether it will go to trial. I would really hope for the opportunity to try this case sometime towards the end of next year," Matters said. "You don't want to speed through something and get a bad result."