"We'll be much more aggressive," he said.

An erratic life

Along with cerebral palsy and severe mental retardation, Danieal faced an erratic home life, bouncing between states and parents. Her mother and her father, Daniel, separated when she was an infant.

For the first three years of her life, Danieal lived with her mother. According to Daniel Kelly, now 35, he then took custody of Danieal and their son after a panicked relative called to say the children were living in terrible conditions. Later, he said, he found out that the children had not been to a doctor in years, and that their teeth were rotting.

The father moved with his two children to Pittsburgh and later to Phoenix.

According to medical records obtained by The Inquirer, Danieal was in good health in Arizona.

She and her brother attended an award-winning elementary school, Madison Rose Lane, in Phoenix. In Arizona, the records say, she attended special classes and got speech and physical therapy.

"She counts from 1 to 10. She sings her ABC song," one doctor wrote in 1998."She is also able to sing the national anthem, the Pledge of Allegiance. She can sign some of the nursery rhymes, including'Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star' and'Old MacDonald Had a Farm.' "

Another doctor wrote: "She voices no complaints."

The family had its share of problems in Arizona.

There, Daniel Kelly has "a history of domestic violence," a DHS document says.

Charged in 2000 with violating a protective order, he was convicted of a misdemeanor and required to attend a domestic-violence counseling program, court documents show.

Prosecutors in Arizona say Kelly didn't complete the program. In 2004, a warrant was issued for his arrest. He is still wanted.

Arizona authorities also substantiated a report that he had physically abused his son, DHS said.

In interviews, Kelly described himself as a "disciplinarian," but not abusive. Arizona child-welfare officials investigated him after he hit his son on the hand with a doubled-up belt, he said.

"It was nothing," he said."I spanked him on his hand in public."

Kelly said his children had missed their brothers and sisters, and he left Arizona in about 2004 to come East and move back in with Andrea.

The family reunion didn't last long. By then, Andrea Kelly had nine children by five men. Eight of those kids were living with her and nine other relatives in a jammed house in Southwest Philadelphia.

"I had a lot of children," Andrea Kelly, now 37, said in an interview."But I also took care of my children, whether their father was involved or not."

Daniel Kelly, who works in a Center City cell phone store, said he had tried to remain a factor in his kids' lives, but had been frozen out as his relationship with his wife fell apart.