MIAMI, March 3 (UPI) -- A Florida agency may be partly to blame for a 10-year-old girl's death and her brother's toxic chemical dousing by their adoptive father, a state official said.
The Florida Department of Children & Families could have responded more urgently to hotline calls indicating the Miami twins showed signs of abuse, FDCF Secretary David Wilkins said.
One caller expressed alarm Nubia Barahona was missing and her brother, Victor Barahona, had a split lip that needed stitches but was treated with a Band-Aid, a transcript of the Feb. 12 call indicated.
The hot-line counselor, identified as Brian, continually challenged the caller about why he thought Nubia was missing and why he was sure the children had been abused, The Miami Herald said the audio and a transcript indicated.
The counselor eventually said the agency would look into the matter, "but it won't be today." He said the agency would "go ahead and get someone in the next 24 hours or so," the transcript indicated.
Two days earlier, a children's therapist called the hot line to say the twins had been bound hand and foot and made to spend most of the day in the family bathtub, the transcript indicated.
Nubia's decomposed body was found in the flatbed of her father's pest-control truck Feb. 14. Her body had been soaked in chemicals and stuffed in a trash bag, police said.
She may have died weeks earlier and been buried in a septic tank behind the Barahonas' house, authorities said.
Victor was found convulsing in the truck that day after being doused with chemicals. His father, Jorge Barahona, was passed out nearby.
Jorge Barahona, jailed without bond, pleaded not guilty to first-degree attempted murder of his son. His wife, Carmen, was not charged. Charges were pending in Nubia's death.
