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JAMES OSBORNE / Staff

Charlenni Ferreira's mother , Rosalinda Almeida Dominguez, spends part of each day sitting with relatives undera mango tree in her mother's garden in Las Galeras, Dominican Republic. At right is her father, Antonio Almeida.

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READER FEEDBACK

Charlenni's tragic journey

By James Osborne, Troy Graham, and Mark Fazlollah

Inquirer Staff Writers

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - Seven-year-old Charlenni Ferreira was like many of the children in Buen Consejo, a worn hillside barrio of boxy concrete homes by the city's edge.

Money was tight for her mother - a maid raising a son and daughter alone - but the family, while poor, was not destitute. The three shared a two-bedroom apartment, watched satellite TV, and had plenty of food on the table.

Support came, in part, from Charlenni's father. Domingo Ferreira had moved from San Juan to Philadelphia and was sending them a portion of his earnings as a limousine driver.

Charlenni spoke lovingly of him, though he had left when she was a toddler.

She also talked wistfully of someday living in the United States. Most of the kids in Buen Consejo did.

"The dream of going to America is so strong," said Neyda Fuster, the social worker at Charlenni's elementary school. "They all want to go."

Charlenni got her wish after visiting her father in the summer of 2006. He called her mother, Rosalinda Almeida Dominguez, and asked to keep his daughter, then 7, in Philadelphia.

"She loved her father so much," Rosalinda recalled last week. "So I let her go."

The dream would be the death of Charlenni.

Within a few months, a nurse at her new school in the Feltonville section made the first of two complaints to the city's Department of Human Services that the child bore the marks of abuse.

In three years, at age 10, Charlenni was dead in what Philadelphia police called one of the worst cases of child abuse they had seen.

On Oct. 23, Domingo and his live-in girlfriend, Margarita Garabito, were charged with murder. Two days later, he hanged himself in his jail cell.

He once told caseworkers that he had taken in his child because her mother could not care for her. Charlenni herself, in explaining signs of abuse to a doctor in 2007, cast blame on her mother.

In numerous interviews last week in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, however, relatives, friends, and teachers said Charlenni had been happy on the island, and safe.

"She was a normal kid. She was always out playing," said Brenda Ires Rivera, who lived down the street in Buen Consejo.

"The only problem was in that house in Philadelphia. . . . When she left, we never thought anything like this would happen."

Village burial

Charlenni Ferreira was buried last Sunday, two days after her 11th birthday, in her mother's hometown of Las Galeras, a seaside village in the Dominican Republic.

In the cemetery at the threshold to the jungle, cracked pieces of stone littered the ground. The names of the deceased, painted by hand, were faded from years in the Caribbean sun.

Early last week, fresh cement and a single bouquet marked Charlenni's resting place. But her name had yet to be added to the family tomb.

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Comments

Posted 09:15 AM, 11/08/2009

Magistra

The father may not have personally abused her, but he did nothing to protect her. Those stepsons must be part of this murder. Terrible that no one could rescue this poor child.

Posted 12:26 PM, 11/08/2009

Down in the Basement

magistra...blame a dead man...who got the death penalty without ever being put on trial...now that is justice isn't it... I understand that the father worked day and night...he was a chauffeur... I say...if he was innocent...his family...should sue the lawyer who defamed him... I say...the father is innocent...it was someone else who harmed the girl... I don't know why the girl was not protected...since she was in school everyday...and her injuries were no secret...there is a lot of blame to go around...

Posted 12:26 PM, 11/08/2009

Down in the Basement

Posted 12:59 PM, 11/08/2009

Magistra

DITB - I agree that the father was executed in jail. You don't think he did that to himself all by himself. I am not blaming him as the direct killer but he was her father and he put her into that home with someone who was a monster. He exposed her to two teenaged boys who were not her true brothers and could have used her as a punching bag and who knows what else. How many of these children so far have we seen murdered by girlfriends, boyfriends, and other spouses? Nobody wanted this child. You cannot blame the school because it was the teachers and nurses who alerted the authorities about her injuries. They followed the right procedures. A school nurse cannot conduct a full body exam. That is up to the doctor, who in this case was guilty of malpractice. Yes, there is a lot of blame to go around. I just wish people were smarter about the people they entrust with the care for their kids. And there is still the mystery of her head wound that was so well hidden. Did the dad know about that at all? Was there no communication between him and his child for goodness sake? Too bad he was silenced.

Posted 01:08 PM, 11/08/2009

Down in the Basement

Well, you say...you worked for the district...but the spin I am hearing troubles me...the girl is dead...and the district had the girl in their arms...almost as much as the parents...step-parent... The district...you know the district...is not Ford Motor Company...and run like the "city"...City Hall...wasteful and corrupt... I blame the principals and administrators for being feckless and stupid and not alerting the authorities loudly enough...I don't accept the spin... It reminds me of the Dutch...or Poles..."we saved a lot of our Jews in World War II..." Oh, yeah? Not quite...the girl is still dead...

Posted 03:14 PM, 11/08/2009

berniefranco

I speak....in thoughts...cannot....make complete....sentences....

Posted 04:15 PM, 11/08/2009

KevinRx

Is down in the basement William Shatner, Priceline negotiator?

Posted 07:51 PM, 11/08/2009

CountryRose

Well...you know...berniefranco...the feckless...the Dutch...the spin...the Poles...Ford Motor Company...

Posted 11:09 PM, 11/08/2009

berniefranco

Are you seriously trying to say that this guy is innocent? Even if someone else did this, do you know the extent of the abuse this poor girl endured? There is no way an adult who is not mentally handicapped could have missed someone doing this. So whether he dealt the final blow or watched it go on, he failed her.

Posted 12:32 AM, 11/09/2009

Bob1

Reaal nice logic, Down. It's not the father's fault. It's everyone else's. What honorable parent among us would not defend their child to the death against animals as evil as this? Who would trust the "city" and "administrators"? Yes, they and the doctor were also at fault, but if he did the job God asks all of us to do, we wouldn't be talking about this. He was guilty, pronounced his own sentence and carried out his execution.

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