How Could You? Hall of Shame-Ana Loera (Charisma Marquez) case-Child Death UPDATED
This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.
From Phoenix, Arizona, adoptive parent Rafael Lorea, 56 was arrested for “arson, child abuse and abandonment or concealment of a body.” His spouse, Maribel Lorea, 50, ” faces charges of child abuse and abandonment or concealment of a body.”
” According to court documents, the bones found inside a burned west Phoenix house last week were those of a young girl. Her remains reportedly had been hidden in the attic for more than two years.”
“The couple’s three children had previously been taken from that home by the Department of Child Safety amid allegations of child abuse. “Investigators learned that Rafael and Maribel Loera were responsible for the fire and abuse of the young victims,” said Sgt. Maggie Cox of the Phoenix Police Department.
Cox says this all started when officers responded to the home near 59th Avenue and Camelback Road on Jan. 20 for a welfare check. An 11-year-old girl had called police saying she was home alone. She said “she had been alone for two days and was hungry.” Apparently, her parents and siblings were all out of town.
The direct complaint paperwork shows that police officers found the inside of the home filthy, “with what appeared to be human feces throughout the residence on the floors.” Officers also say they found evidence of child abuse, and the child who called police was taken into DCS custody.
“After removal of the first child, DCS learned of additional children that were not present in the home on Jan. 20, and our investigation continued,” the agency said in a statement. DCS later responded to the same house to remove two other children, a 9-year-old boy and a 4 year-old girl, due to the ongoing child abuse investigation that started with the call on Jan. 20. When DCS came to pick up those two other kids,the DCS caseworker said Maribel Lorea refused to come out of the house to speak to her, and instead, Rafael handed over the two children in the front yard.
As the two children were being removed from the home, police began interviewing the 11-year-old girl who made the initial call on Jan. 20. According to the direct complaint paperwork, the girl said Maribel Loera was “physically abusive wherein she was struck on multiple occasions with knotted extension cords,” and that “Maribel had a bad temper and would strike her with miscellaneous objects while physically slamming her head into walls.” Police say she displayed visible injuries consistent with what the girl told them.
According to police paperwork, the 11-year-old girl also told detectives she had an “older sister who disappeared approximately two years prior.” She said she was told by Maribel that “her sister was adopted and sent to Colombia.” She said she was also told by Rafael that her “sister was adopted and sent to Mexico.”
Cox said one hour after the two kids were removed from the home, the Phoenix Fire Department got a call about smoke at the residence.
When firefighters arrived, police say Rafael was standing in the driveway and told them that he and his wife started a fire in the fireplace and it got out of hand. He also told fire crews that “the fire was taken care of and put out.” However, firefighters could still see “active smoke coming from the attic vents” so they asked to go inside. Inside, they found Maribel holding a garden hose. But the fire was not in the fireplace; it was in the corner of the living room on the floor.
Rafael Loera reportedly told police that he had siphoned gas from his car, put the gas in an antifreeze container and then poured it inside of the residence. According to police paperwork, he set the liquid on fire “because he did not want to live anymore.”
Firefighters who entered the home made a grim discovery. As fire crews moved through the house, they started pulling some of the drywall from the ceiling to create ventilation. As they were inspecting insulation pulled from the ceiling, “they immediately stopped and observed what they perceived to be human bones which came from the ceiling, resting on top of attic insulation.” Fire crews immediately called police. The Medical Examiner confirmed “the bones appeared to be that of a human, juvenile subject.”
According to the direct complaint, Rafael told police that his wife, Maribel, did abuse the kids and that he witnessed her hitting them with an electrical cord and a broom handle. He said he never reported the abuse,”fearing Maribel would hurt him.” He told police “he was trying to protect the 11-year-old from his wife but could not afford to stay home with her,” and that he “continued to work his two jobs (at Amazon and Sierra Linda High School) and leave her alone for the majority of the day.”
Police then asked Loera about one remaining adopted child, a would-be 13-year-old girl, who had not been seen or heard from since 2017 (when the girl was 10 years old). At first, the police paperwork says “Rafael lied to detectives, saying she moved to Mexico and did not want contact.” But he later changed his story, and admitted “the child was deceased.” In court documents, Rafael identified the remains as those of Ana Loera, also known as Charisma Marquez. The medical examiner will determine the official identity and cause of death of the child.
According to the direct complaint, Rafael said that “in July of 2017, while Ana was on summer break, she became ill.” Police say he waited several days to seek medical treatment before attempting to take her to Phoenix Children’s Hospital, and that she died en route to the hospital. He told police that “the child had been throwing up in the days leading up to her death and had what he described as convulsions before passing away.”
The police report continues: “Fearing the other children would be taken away, Rafael returned home with [Ana’s body]. Neither he nor Maribel contacted authorities to report her death. The child was wrapped in a sheet and placed in the attic. The body of the deceased child continued to lay there while the family lived in the residence for another two years. Today, feeling hopeless, Rafael removed the bones from the attic and placed them in the backyard. He then set the house on fire.”
According to police, Rafael “acknowledged his wife was abusing [Ana] during the time of her death, she was the primary caregiver while he was at work, and a forensic autopsy of the bones would ‘probably’ show injures.” Court records say he admitted never contacting the police to help Ana prior to her death, and that the couple adopted a female infant in the months following the child’s approximate time of death.
INJURIES OF THE SURVIVING CHILDREN:
The police report states that the 11-year-old girl taken by DCS from the house has “numerous abrasions, scars, healed burn scars, injuries to her back, buttocks, abdomen and chin. The 9-year-old boy had injuries covering his whole body in different stages of healing and scabbing. He also had cuts and abrasions on his face, and “loop marks on his legs, injuries too numerous to count.” It is unclear whether the 4-year-old girl had any visible injuries.
STATEMENT FROM DEPARTMENT OF CHILD SERVICES
The Arizona Department of Child Safety released a statement about the children who were removed from the home. “The Arizona Department of Child Safety (DCS) is currently providing services to three children who have been safely removed and are in department custody. DCS can confirm that we removed the first child from a home near 59th Avenue and Camelback Road on Jan. 20 after Phoenix Police Department discovered her alone on a welfare check. After removal of the first child, DCS learned of additional children that were not present in the home on January 20th, and our investigation continued. DCS received court-authorization to remove the additional children and upon finding two children present in the home, removed them yesterday, January 28th. DCS is continuing to jointly investigate this case in cooperation with the Phoenix Police Department. DCS will provide additional information if it becomes releasable under state law.”
Following the release of this direct complaint on Feb. 3, we reached out to DCS again, asking about why no one had checked on Ana (the deceased child) for more than two years. They said, “The department was not visiting this family as there were no foster children living in the home at the time of the incident, nor were there any open investigations prior to January 20, 2020.”
The couple made their first court appearances last Wednesday afternoon.”
Court docs: Little girl’s skeletal remains hidden in attic of Phoenix home for 2 years
[Arizona Family 2/3/2020]
“The couple made their first court appearance on Wednesday, where they were ordered to be held on bond, according to CBS 5. If released, they’ll be outfitted with electronic ankle monitoring and they won’t be allowed any contact with minors.”
[NY Daily News 02/04/2020 by Lauren Theisen]
A search of the Arizona public court case file finds that they both pled not guilty. The comprehensive pretrial conference is on April 30, 2020.
REFORM Puzzle Piece
Update: A search of the Arizona public court case file finds that they will go to trial on 4/27/21.
Update 2:”For more than two years, Ana Loera’s whereabouts were apparently unknown to anyone outside her household.
But after a fire that her adoptive father confessed to setting at the family home in January 2020, a shocking discovery emerged: The child had died in 2017 at age 10. For more than two years, her remains had been concealed in the family’s attic.
When police investigating the fire discovered the child’s bones, Rafael Loera told them he and his wife Maribel did not disclose the death to officials for fear that the Department of Child Safety would remove their three other children.
There could be another reason why the Loeras remained silent: Money.
Ana, whose birth name was Charisma Marquez, had been adopted by the family along with two siblings. The family also had another adopted child.
Ana and the other children most likely made their parents eligible for a monthly subsidy to care for their needs. In Arizona, the average subsidy last year was $691 per month per child, according to state budget reports.
DCS says confidentiality laws bar the agency from commenting on whether the Loeras received subsidies for the children they adopted, so it’s unknown whether they collected a subsidy for Ana, and whether they kept collecting during the two years after they concealed the girl’s body.
But it’s likely they did: State and federal policies provide funding for almost any child who is adopted from foster care, particularly if the child has special needs. Because of the trauma foster children endure, almost all have needs that meet the state requirements, regardless of family income.
Last year, the state spent $278.3 million on adoption subsidies to support nearly 32,000 children, budget records show.
There is little apparent accountability for that money.
DCS sends out an annual letter to check whether the subsidy is meeting the child’s needs, but the agency does not do in-person visits to see the child. Once a child has been adopted from foster care, the government does not intervene in the family’s affairs as parents have a constitutional right to raise their children as they see fit, barring abuse or neglect.
In a statement, DCS said there is some follow-up on the annual letters. If parents note that the child needs additional help, particularly with behavioral-health issues, the agency can step in.
If a review letter does not get returned or comes back as undeliverable, DCS will try to locate the child through internet searches or through AHCCCS, the state’s Medicaid program. Children adopted from the foster system are automatically eligible for AHCCCS services.
However, DCS can’t cut off payment simply because of an unresponsive review letter. That would violate federal policies, agency spokesman Darren DaRonco said in an emailed statement. Federal dollars provide much of each state’s adoption support. It takes court action to stop payments.
Absent a report of abuse or neglect, which would require an investigator to see a child, DCS does not have the legal authority to intervene in a family’s affairs, DaRonco wrote.
There should be a way to respect parental privacy rights while keeping oversight of the taxpayer dollars that provide the subsidy, said Darcy Olsen, an adoptive parent and the co-founder of Generation Justice, a nonprofit that, among other things, works to improve child-welfare practices.
Verification of eligibility for a government subsidy doesn’t cross any privacy lines, she said.
“We all have an interest in making sure those resources are spent where the voters and legislators want them to be,” she said.
The bigger question, also raised by the Loera case, is how to know if a child has disappeared out of a family.
A paper audit, such as the review letter, wouldn’t catch instances where parents lie or don’t respond. Schools aren’t required to track students once they leave. Tax returns aren’t routinely audited to see if a family has the number of children it claims.
“It may be one of those things that lends itself best to a community solution, where we keep an eye on each other, to see if something has gone wrong,” Olsen said.”
Ana Loera Found Dead after 2 years. Did parents get a state subsidy?
[Arizona Central 3/19/21 by Mary Jo Pitzl]
Update 3:”A Maricopa County grand jury has indicted a Phoenix-area couple on first-degree murder charges for the death of their adopted daughter.
County prosecutors said 57-year-old Rafael Loera and 51-year-old Maribel Loera also were indicted on abandonment or concealment of a dead body and child abuse.
n addition, Rafael Loera was charged with arson of an occupied structure.
It was unclear Monday if the couple has lawyers yet for their cases.
The couple has been in custody on child abuse and other charges for more than a year.
Authorities said the remains of 13-year-old Ana Loera were found in a house fire in January 2020.
They said the teen was last seen alive in 2006 and when asked about it, Rafael Loera said she had moved to Mexico.
Prosecutors said he later admitted the girl had gotten sick in July 2017 and she didn’t get medical attention for several days before her death.
The couple allegedly kept the girl’s body in the attic, then later placed it in the backyard before setting their home on fire.
The Office of the Medical Examiner ruled the teen’s death a homicide.”
Phoenix-area couple indicted in death of adopted daughter
[San Francisco Gate 4/5/21 by AP]
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