Madfloridian's Journal - Florida DCF mistake proved fatal for 15 year old girl.

Florida again.

I thought about Rilya Wilson when I read this. Remember her? She disappeared years ago in the child care system here and was never found. I found the latest article on her from 2005 in the NYT.

Woman Accused of Killing A Missing Child in Florida

A caretaker for Rilya Wilson, the foster child whose disappearance four years ago exposed serious flaws in Florida's child-welfare system, was indicted Wednesday on charges of murdering the girl, who was 4 years old when she vanished.

The caretaker, Geralyn Graham, was also charged with kidnapping and aggravated child abuse. Rilya's body has never been found.

The case of this 15 year old has been under investigation for 4 years. The girl was found dead in the motel room of a man who was 36 years old.

DCF 'mistake' proved fatal

A state report discovered lapses in the oversight of a 15-year-old North Miami Beach girl found slain in a motel room.

It was the fourth time in as many years that state child welfare workers had visited the home of Stephanie Dorismond.

The oldest of five children, Stephanie, 15, had told North Miami Beach police that her uncle had asked for sex and that a family friend had molested her. An investigator took less than a week to devise a safety plan:

''Mom told ensure the safety and wellbeing of the child at all times,'' he noted in his report. Case closed.

But even as Department of Children & Families investigator Williams R. Ajayi moved on to his next case, Stephanie, a slim girl with a glowing smile, was already in peril. On April 10, a day before DCF closed its case, a counseling group assigned to work with the family told Ajayi that the teen had run away from home.

..."Records show Ajayi did nothing. With no open investigation, no one searched for the troubled teenager.

Stephanie, who won a middle school prize for poetry writing and favored movies with superheroes, finally turned up May 30 in a Miami motel room she had shared with a 36-year-old man once accused of raping his wife.

I did an image search for Stephanie, but not a single one appeared. Four years of investigating, and not a single picture.

I did a google news search on florida, dcf. I sorted by date with duplicates deleted. I got many pages of hits.

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&i...

Crist has appointed Bob Butterworth, a Democrat, to lead the DCF. I hope he is able to fix something. The privatization of many of the functions has really damaged this department.