Follow-Up on Barahona the Monster: What the school and others knew

Barahona children's school reported allegations of abuse before adoption

More secrets revealed about the Barahona family

Follow-up to original story posted here.

More family secrets involving a Miami couple who are accused of abusing their children have been revealed.

Bruised, hungry and dirty. That's how a former principal remembers little Nubia and her brother Victor when they came to school. That wasn't the only complaint.

A child advocacy group fought to keep Jorge and Carmen Barahona from adopting the children. It's a history filled with abuse, pain and neglect.

Victor Barahona and his twin sister Nubia were born into a world of unspeakable heartache.

Alan Menster was an employee at Guardian Ad Litem ten years ago. He didn't work on the Barahona case, but says he knows how conflicts can arise between DCF and Guardian Ad Litem employees.


"Sometimes DCF people don't cooperate as much as we would like them too," says Menster.
According to the documents spanning a period of four years, a Guardian Ad Litem employee tried to keep the Barahonas from getting permanent custody of Victor and Nubia.

"Yes, Guardian Ad Litem did raise several red flags,"says David Wilkins, Secretary for the Florida Department of Children and Families.

Teachers and principals had suspected problems were taking place in the home back in February of 2006. One principal reported that Nubia came to school with a large bruise and scratches on her neck and back. The girl said she had fallen, and no one had hit her.

The principal also said Nubia appeared scared of her foster mother and had missed 17 days of school in a span of three months.

"It's very clear that there were warning signs,"says Menster.

Despite the visible marks, Jorge and Carmen Barahona maintained that the children were healthy, happy and well cared for. [So, of course we take their word for it despite physical evidence to the contrary!]

In 2008, desperate to speed up the adoption process and address the allegations of abuse, the couple wrote to former Governor Charlie Crist documenting their profound admiration for the children saying, "We are home raising our children with love, as any father and mother would do," and, "we stood-up for them to protect them."

The children were eventually adopted, removed from public school, and home schooled.

And then one was killed and the other permanently and critically disfigured!

What is not yet known or understood is WHY they pressed so hard for adoption of children they obviously were already abusing.  Nubia's twin brother Victor was autistic and there were two of them, this they must have been labeled "special needs." Did the increased subsidies for them bring in more cash than foster parenting? Or was it simply to stop anyone from checking up on them??


I am also very upset about the assumption that the children were "born into a world of unspeakable heartache."  This remains to be reported. But it is unimaginable that their original parents mistreated them WORSE than the monster who eventually murdered one and critically injured the other after YEARS of unimaginable starvation, confinement and beatings.


Anyone in Florida hear any reports on the original family???