The father of 10-year-old Charlenni Ferreira committed suicide in his jail cell early yesterday, just three days after he and his wife were charged with murdering the little girl, whom police said suffered years of torture and abuse in the family's Feltonville home.
Domingo "Anibal" Ferreira, 53, was found dead in his cell at the Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility about 3:10 a.m. by a correctional officer on routine patrol, Philadelphia Prison System spokesman Bob Eskind said.
"He hung himself with a piece of torn sheeting from the top bunk and was found on the bottom bunk," Eskind said.
Ferreira, admitted to the prison Friday evening, had been placed alone in his cell in the intake-housing unit because of the high-profile nature of his case.
He had been evaluated by the prison's mental-health services and was found not to be suicidal.
He and his wife, Margarita Garabito, 42, who was Charlenni's stepmother, were charged Thursday with murder, conspiracy, endangering the welfare of a child and related offenses.
Garabito, in custody at the Riverside Correctional Facility, has been informed of her husband's death and is under observation.
A police source said yesterday that the father and stepmother had shown no remorse when they were interviewed Wednesday, just hours after the girl was found unconscious in their home on C Street near Loudon. She was found about 8:30 a.m. that day and pronounced dead at St. Christopher's Hospital for Children a short while later.
Detectives who went to question the father in a homicide-division interview room found him "asleep on the table," the source said. Ferreira's whole body was on the table, "almost like he went to bed," this person said.
Detectives "had to wake him up," the source said, adding that Ferreira's demeanor was calm and "he did not shed a tear" with regard to his daughter's death.
Garabito was also calm and didn't cry, the source said.
Garabito gave a statement admitting to abusing Charlenni, the source said. Ferreira was also interviewed, but did not give a formal statement. The source said he could not divulge the contents of what either parent said.
He added that Charlenni had been sexually penetrated, and that tests are being done to determine whether she had been violated by a person or with an object.
Several brooms were taken from the family's home, the source said, declining to elaborate if they were suspected of having been used in any physical or sexual assault.
Charlenni, a fifth-grader at Feltonville Intermediate School, was living with her father, stepmother and two stepbrothers, ages 16 and 19, in their rented home.
Neighbors and acquaintances said Ferreira and Garabito are both originally from the Dominican Republic, but had been living in Puerto Rico before moving to Philadelphia several years ago.
Charlenni's biological mother is said to be living in Puerto Rico.
Luis Viera, a city firefighter who owns the home Ferreira and Garabito were renting, said yesterday he had dealt mostly with Garabito. He said he did not know Charlenni lived in the house and had never seen a photo of her.
Of Garabito, he said she seemed nice and "was very immaculate. You walk in the house, you can eat off the floor. Very clean. Very nice furniture."
He said he last saw Garabito and Ferreira last Monday. Ferreira said he had just returned from the Dominican Republic, where he often visited.
Neighbor Wanda Torres, 37, whose porch abuts Ferreira's, said yesterday of Ferreira's suicide: "He took the easy way. . . . He's a coward." She said neighbors will do something for Charlenni this Friday, on what was to be the girl's 11th birthday.
Ferreira worked as an independent limousine/taxi driver for High Class Limousine, on Wyoming Avenue.
"We all were really sad for him," Antony Cruz, 28, a fellow driver, said yesterday outside Ferreira's home. "Nobody know anything that go on in the house."
Aurie Martinez, 34, another driver, said: "He looked a happy person. He always was joking around. He never looked like a sad person."
Company owner Yolanda Deliz-Arroyo said by phone that she was "saddened" and "shocked" with the news of Ferreira's suicide.
"It's a loss on top of another loss," she said, adding she had known Ferreira to be "a good person." He often worked seven days a week, sometimes taking calls as early as 4 a.m., she has said.
The police source said the abuse of Charlenni appeared to go back to at least 2006. The city's Department of Human Services had investigated allegations of abuse at the house, but closed the case in 2007 after injuries on the girl were found to not be suspicious, sources said.
Kevin Foster, a police officer at the airport who did not know Charlenni, was so affected by news of her death that he wrote two poems about her and posted them on the girl's house. In one poem, he called her "Philadelphia's 10-year-old Spanish Princess."
In another, titled "Charlenni Ferreira," he wrote: "You're no longer in a home of rejected love . . .
"Although it's painful for a world to lose you, God has moved you into a new realm where love is not blind . . . You are now the distant runner, who has won this race, because in the face of adversity, God allowed you to stand sturdy and smile."
|
|
|
|
|
|
MOST POPULAR PHILLY.COM PHOTOS
Daily Headlines
Subscribe now! Daily Headlines Newsletter
Philly.com news blogs
Philly.com Promotions
