No DNA match for two little girls

MIAMI, May 10 (UPI) -- Testing showed no DNA match between missing 5-year-old Miami girl, Rilya Wilson, and a girl whose beheaded body was found in Kansas City, Mo., police said Friday.

"There was not a match. Precious Doe and Rilya Wilson are not related according to the DNA test," Kansas City Police Sgt. Tony Sanders said.

Rilya has been missing for almost 16 months and Precious Doe's body was found four months after Rilya's disappearance.

The test results returned both cases back to their staring point. Detectives continue to follow up leads in the slaying of Precious Doe but it is not known if Rilya is dead or alive.

Miami-Dade County Police Chief Carlos Alvarez said there are many questions to be answered.

"Everybody we've talked to doesn't seem to be telling the truth," he said.

Rilya Wilson's grandmother and caretaker, Geralyn Graham, said the girl was picked up at her home in January 2001 by a woman claiming to be a state social worker. She has not seen the little girl since.

Without being specific, Alvarez said there were some questions about lie detector tests taken last week by Graham and her sister, who helped with the care. Attorney Ed Shohat, who represents the women, said they had nothing to do with the disappearance.

"I am not representing to you that they have been ruled out or that I have been officially told in any way that they have been excluded from this investigation," he said. "They have fully cooperated with the police and at no time have I been told they failed a polygraph test in any way."

Gloria Wilson, Rilya's mother, said she does not think Graham is the girl's true grandmother because someone else besides Graham's son, Kenneth Epson, fathered the child. Manville Cash, who is in prison facing auto theft and cocaine charges, says he is the father.

Gloria Wilson lost custody of Rilya two years ago because of alleged drug addiction.

Graham said she called the Florida Department of Children and Family's caseworker Deborah Muskelly several times after the disappearance, but the department has no record of any such calls.

Muskelly and her supervisor, Willie Harris, both resigned in March after an audit showed they had falsified records in other cases.

Muskelly last saw Rilya in January 2001 before she disappeared, but Juvenile Court Judge Cindy Lederman said she continued to file reports saying Rilya was OK. Muskelly has denied filing those reports.

Meanwhile, Florida's Department of Children and Families, troubled for decades, has accepted responsibility for the disappearance and the 15-month gap between the apparent abduction and the discovery that she was gone.

Gov. Jeb Bush has appointed a blue-ribbon panel to investigate the case and the department with orders to come up with a report by June 3.

Bush, younger brother of President Bush, was in Miami Friday to meet with police and the committee.

"Miami-Dade's efforts are fully backed by the state. We are doing everything we can to determine the whereabouts of this child," Bush said.

He said efforts are under way to prevent such tragedies from happening again.

"It may be that at the end of the day when we do all of our work there we may come up with some recommendations that will need to be implemented," he said.

He said a program under which independent individuals oversee individual foster parents -- known as the ad litem program -- probably should be expanded.

"Possibly, it could be that judges need to have children in court more if they're in the state's custody," he said.

But he also said that they don't know for sure yet that it is a "systemic problem," and not an isolated case.