How does a beautiful little
girl who is living in Oregon with her mother, end up dying in Mealca,
Mexico? Adrianna first got to Mexico during the Summer of 2004 and all
seemed well, it was an illusion. A few blocks away from her home,
Adrianna would attend school in a Government funded preschool, one
story building with a play area outside for the children to have fun.
Adrianna played with her cousins and it seemed like she had been sent
to the right place when Child Welfare Officials removed her from her
home and sent her to live in Mexico. But first impressions can
sometimes be very deceiving and this time, they were.
Adrianna was born to Tausha Cram when she was only 17 years old, Tausha
wouldn't even touch her daughter, saying:
"Everything I touched I
made garbage"
Tausha had a rough start in life, she moved around quite often, had
been sexually abused, was addicted to Meth Amphetamines by the age of
the 13, dropped out of school and became pregnant at the age of 16.
Tausha and Romero Marin were married and it turned out he was a violent
man and their marriage lasted less than one year. It was before
she was to turn a year old that a complaint came in to a child abuse
hot line saying that Adrianna was not getting medication she needed for
Thyroid condition and that her mother was using drugs. Tausha denied it
was true, but Adrianna was removed from her home and placed in foster
care.
Adrianna was said to be an adorable little girl who at the age of 15
months could say words like hi, by and she would say ho ho ho for Santa
Clause. There were also some concerns about her development and
it was said that at the age of 17 months old, her language skills were
those of a much younger child and by the age of two years and seven
months old, she would experience days where she refused to play or to
eat anything and at times didn't want anyone to touch her even to the
extent that she didn't want her diaper changed. A Doctor suggested she
needed a better home situation.
Guidelines state that a permanent situation needs to be in place within
36 months, for children in foster care, even if it means that the child
doesn't go back to the parent. In the first year, Adrianna had been in
three different foster homes, having been removed from one home because
the foster parent was abusing drugs. During this time, Tausha was in
and out of drug treatment and having supervised visitation with
Adrianna, though at times, she didn't even show up. In
January of 2004, Tausha was in jail when she was given notice that the
state intended to take away her parental rights to Adrianna.
Romero Marin was living in Washington at the time and was shown to not
be a fit parent because he had charges pending and he was in the
country illegally as well as having lied to Police about who he was. At
the age of four years old, Social Workers in Mexico were recommending
that Adrianna be placed with Romero's sister, Elizabeth Romero Marin,
Adrianna's 24 year old Aunt who was married and had two children who
were close in age to Adrianna. Elizabeth and her husband, Hector de
Jesus Luna owned their own home with three bedrooms, it was clean and
said to have an indoor toilet. A plan was put into place and James
Perillo, an Oregon Case Worker took Adrianna to Mexico with the plan
that she would eventually be adopted by the family, though Oregon would
be legally in charge and responsible for her welfare until the adoption
became final.
James knew that there was no policy in place for handling international
adoptions, but he appeared to be doing the best he could with the
circumstances he was given. Adrianna's Pediatrician made her medical
needs clear to the Doctors in Mexico who said they could handle and
take care of her case. James called Elizabeth and talked to her about
the situation, making sure they knew what they needed to know and were
prepared to accept the responsibilities of this child:
"I wanted to hear that
they were dedicated"
Adrianna was taken away by the state of Oregon and sent to Mexico to
live with family she had never even met. Within a few short months,
teachers began to notice that Adrianna was showing up not dressed
properly for the weather, she was cold and often times she was hungry.
Albina Cruz Guiterrez had a conversation with Romero and for a time,
Adrianna was dressed properly and things seemed to improve, but it
didn't last.
Soon, teachers began to notice bruises and would ask Adrianna what had
happened:
"Who hit you,
Adriannita? Who hit you? I won't tell anybody"
Judith
Caizero Aguilar - Teacher
Adrianna would only tell people that she fell, that was a lie. For ten
months Adrianna continued to be abused at the hands of those that the
state of Oregon saw fit to care for her. Monitoring the situation
consisted of phone calls that were mostly made to the family taking
care of her with a few calls to the Welfare Workers in Mexico. Little
did the state of Oregon know, but the Welfare Workers in Mexico were
ignoring repeated complaints about the abuse Adrianna was suffering and
they were not even doing the required checks on this little Angel.
Adrianna was at first described as a bubbly little girl, happy and
healthy with a love of hats. By the time Winter came, that had all
changed, she was withdrawn and very unhappy. When warm weather came
around again, Adrianna showed up more often with bruises, hair pulled
out and burns on her hands. Judith tried to make her feel better:
"I told her, the Angels
protect you. In the night, the Angels will come and take you on a
beautiful
trip.
Don't have fear Adrianna. The Angels will protect you"
Teachers at her school began to document the abuse they would see, even
taking pictures.
Five months after she was
brought to Mexico, in December of 2004, Joel Romero Palacious, paid a
visit to
Desarrollo Integral de la Familiar, the Mexican child welfare agency to
let them know that Adrianna was being abused in a home that was
violent.
This information was share with the the state of Oregon by the
Mexican Consulate. James Perillo made some phone calls to Mexico and
spoke with the Psychologist and the Social Worker as well as Elizabeth.
Department guide- lines state that he was
supposed to make notes about their conversations, he never did. James
also never talked to the teachers at Adrianna's school and he was under
the assumption that
Mexican Social Workers would handle things:
"What could I do? I had
not choice"
James said he was getting
written updates about her care and that the monthly reports stopped
coming in December, he was monitoring the situation by phone and at
times he he spoken to Adrianna. His notes about those calls included
telling her that he was going to visit Mexico and her asking if he
would visit her and he told her he was going to another part of Mexico,
she said okay and he noted that she seemed to be doing fine. I am torn
about this, maybe he could have done more after abuse complaints were
filed. James could have spoken to the teachers, he could have called
the Police to do a check on her, he could have made arrangements to
visit her. I understand that he had limits, but I believe he could have
done more.
Communications from the
Mexican Welfare Workers were confusing and made no mention of what
family members, teachers and even neighbors had said about the child,
that she was being beaten daily. In May, the Principal as well as many
teachers had begun actively and desperately trying to get help for this
precious little girl. Pictures were taken of her body with bruises and
marks all over as well as wounds in various stages of healing. The
pictures were taken to the Mexican Welfare Agency and the school
employees were begging for someone to help this child. Not one word of
their complaints was ever given to the workers in Oregon who were still
legally responsible for Adrianna's well being.
On my 19, Albina Cruz
Gutierrez, the Principal of the school wrote a letter to the head of
the
Welfare office, his letter asked for urgent help since Adrianna was
showing up to school with new bruises on a daily basis. A response was
sent saying that a Social Worker had visited the school on May 23rd and
found the children to be in "perfect health", though Adrianna had been
absent from school that day and no one had assessed her situation.
Albina made a trip to the local office and again urgently asked for a
visit and she was told not to worry, that there would be an
investigation. Sadly, that investigation never even started.
Albina sent two teachers to
Xalapa, the states Capital, to speak with Child Welfare Officials
asking for help:
"We told them that if
they didn't do their jobs, we were going to the Prosecutors and going
to
press
charges"
Teachers were sent to the
home
as well to check on her after she missed several days in a row:
"She dole m Adrianna
didn't behave. I told her I didn't want her to hurt Adrianna and said
she
should
treat her like her other children"
When Adrianna returned to
school, once again, she had new bruises, cuts and burns which were
photographed and documented by the teachers. Here is some of that
documentation:
May 19:
Teacher: What happened to your
hands and your ear?
Adrianna: Elizabeth Romero Marin, Adrianna's aunt, "put my hands on the
stovetop and had to put toothpaste on it." She pulled my ear because
she said "you dirtied your house dress" and "I had to bleed you for
that." Teacher: What about your head? Adrianna: "I climbed on top of
the hammock and had to hit my head." Teacher asks about eating at home.
Adrianna: "I like to eat
tortilla."
Romero Marin "says eat good
and with your mouth closed
because if your (uncle) sees you he will see how you eat like a little
pig."
"She says that I don't have to
eat, but I wanted to eat,
but she says you will eat, but you will not throw up."
June 2:
Romero Marin approached a
teacher and commented that she
feels tense and pressured, feeling a distancing from Adrianna, noticing
that it is becoming very difficult even to comb her hair because of the
lack of affection she feels. She said her daughter noticed it and asked
why she didn't like Adrianna anymore. She also mentioned that she
stopped sending Adrianna to the psychologist.
June 6:
Adrianna showed up with a big
bruise on her mouth,
specifically on the corner of her mouth and inside, too. When asked,
she said she "bit her lip."
June 8:
Today Adrianna was checked
more thoroughly, and new
bruises and scrapes were discovered (more recent than the ones we
already knew about). On her stomach on her right side, there's a
bruise. She says that "it just appeared." When asked how, she answered,
"just because" and "the mosquitoes bit me."
She also has a couple of
scrapes on her chest that seem
deep. When asked what happened, she says that she cut herself with a
knife when Romero Marin stepped out for a minute. Later, she
volunteers, "the mosquitoes bit me and (Romero Marin) had to punish
me." I asked, because the mosquitoes bit you, she punished you? She
said, "yes."
I also asked her about eating
breakfast before school
and she answered, "Yesterday she didn't feed me." I asked her, how
about today? "No, today neither."
June 9:
Today I checked her out again
and there's the same scars
from the day before, but today she says Romero Marin "hit me with her
shoe." I asked her what part of the shoe and she said "the heel." She
also said Romero Marin hits her with her belt, with her hand, with a
flip-flop and with a yellow belt. She says Hector de Jesus Luna, her
uncle, hits her with a dirty undershirt.
When asked about a bruise on
her right cheek, Adrianna
says Romero Marin hit her for accepting the soup that a neighbor lady
offered her.
The school's music teachers, Jazmin Benitez spent a lot of time
searching for someone to help Adrianna. Jazmin went to a Mexican Human
Rights group and was told she needed to go through Child Welfare
Authorities. Jazmin drove half an hour away to Cordoba where she went
to the States Attorney General's office. Jazmin was told to get all of
the evidence together as well as a copy of Adrianna's birth certificate
and the staff at the school was called together by the Principal so
they could all help this child:
There was a discussion about kidnapping this child to keep her safe
since
all of their efforts to help her had failed up to that point:
On Friday, Adrianna was questioned once again by the teachers and no
answers were given to them. Monday, Adrianna didn't go to school and
Hector told the Principal that she was sick and was going to the doctor
that day. When Albina called the Doctor two hours later, she learned
that Adrianna was dead.
In Oregon, e-mails were being sent and their records showed meetings
took place at the Oregon Department Of Human Services, case workers
there were shocked about the death of Adrianna and their hearts were
broken, that was all surrounded by what was called "bureaucratic
scrambling":
Questions came up about if Tausha could legally be told about the death
of her daughter since she had no rights to her daughter after
neglecting her:
Jerry made the decision that he would be the one to tell Tausha. When
told about her death, Tausha asked if it would be possible to bring her
daughter home and was told no. Adrianna was buried in a cemetery in
Omealca which was surrounded by Sugar Cane fields. There was a plaque
on her grave on which her name was misspelled.
James started saying he had seen no red flags which would have caused
him concern in the case causing him to bring Adrianna home from Mexico,
though he said he learned a painful lesson"
Other people dealt with her death on a less personal level and
consulted with the Mexican Consulate on what they should say to
reporters, rather than saying "A child was abused to death", it was
suggested that they say,
. Why wouldn't the Oregon DHS just
tell the truth, it was
Adrianna's autopsy found multiple contusions and hematomas all in
various states of healing as well as signs of forced violence and
defensive wounds. The cause of her death was listed as: A deep
contusion of the abdomen with a brain hemorrhage from injuries that
were three days old.
Elizabeth Romero Marin and Hector de Jesus Luna were arrested and
charged with aggravated murder and they were both convicted of their
crimes. A trial was held in secret to decide the punishments of these
two people and a Judge decided that Elizabeth would get 45 years in
prison while Hector would serve only two years for the exact same
conviction:
Each November at the
Preschool she attended in Mexico, Adrianna's
picture is hung up for the Day Of The Dead celebration. Judith Aguilar
had thought about naming her third child after Adrianna and decided
that there was only one Adrianna, so she didn't do it. Social Workers
in Mexico tried to forget Adrianna and when they thought her spirit was
haunting the office with cries for help. A Priest was brought in to do
an exorcism and they claim they have not been haunted since. It seems
the records of her case have disappeared with officials claiming that
the previous administrators took them when they left two years prior.
Three years after her death, Tausha went to Mexico to ask her daughter
for forgiveness, she also wanted to find answers to questions about her
daughters death as well as ask for permission to bring her daughters
body home. The body of Adrianna was dug up and cremated, Tausha brought
her ashes home in a stone urn with a silver Angel on the front. Tausha
keeps the urn in her room and says she talks to her other children
about their sister, all the time.
1-800-422-4453