ST. PETERSBURG - Answers still elusive in 12-year-old girl's death

Answers still elusive in 12-year-old girl's death

Her family wants to know why she died and why it's taken so long to get
her remains.

By MELANIE AVE, Times Staff Writer
Published January 11, 2008

http://www.sptimes.com/2008/01/11/So..._elusive.shtml

ST. PETERSBURG - More than a month after she died, 12-year-old Aleena
Vetere is finally coming home.

The auburn-haired girl, who had cerebral palsy, died Dec. 7 at Miami's
Jackson Memorial Hospital of a respiratory illness while under the care
of the state's foster system.

This week a decision was finally reached between the girl's parents and
the private Pinellas County foster agency responsible for her, the
Sarasota Family YMCA, to cremate her and send her ashes to her father in
St. Petersburg.

Even so, her family has many questions about how she died on the heels
of a routine tonsillectomy and why it has taken weeks for her remains to
be returned.

"Too much time has gone by," said her grandfather, Harold Herrera, 54,
of St. Petersburg, who has called numerous YMCA and state officials to
try to get the girl's body. "She's been laying in cold metal bed
somewhere. It's so unfair.

"We want to get her remains so we can put her to rest."

Aleena had been in foster care since 2005, after her mother didn't abide
by conditions a judge had set for keeping her children, her family said.

Relatives say they have been given little information about the
circumstances surrounding Aleena's death or how to retrieve her body
from the Miami-Dade Medical Examiner's Office.

Her family said all it was told was that she died of a respiratory
illness. It wants more details.

Reached this week, a manager at the Medical Examiner's Office, Sharmaine
Luke, said results from Aleena's autopsy are pending. Also, she said,
either parent could have arranged to pick up the body at any time by
contacting a funeral home.

"There's nothing we can do to stop either parent from doing that," said
Luke, who had no record of Aleena's parents contacting the office.

Officials at the Sarasota YMCA, which is also known as the Safe Children
Coalition, said the delay with Aleena's body centered on a disagreement
between her parents about whether to cremate her body before or after
bringing it to St. Petersburg.

Her parents, who are not married, said that is untrue.

Tina Warth, 35, of St. Petersburg said she wanted to see her daughter's
body before it was cremated but did not have the $5,000 it would have
cost to bring her home and bury her.

"My child is gone, and I have no goodbye," Warth said from the Pinellas
County Jail, where she has been since her November arrest on burglary
and auto theft charges. "This child didn't need to die.

"She wasn't that sick."

Her father, Daniel Vetere, a 34-year-old electrician, flew to Florida
from his home in Eureka, Calif., after he learned of Aleena's death.
He's canceled two flights and does not plan to return home until he has
her ashes.

"I just want it over with," he said. "It should have been over with
weeks ago."

Sarasota YMCA spokeswoman April Putzulu said Aleena's caseworker, who is
employed by a subcontractor, Directions for Mental Health, made diligent
efforts to work with the parents.

"We had estranged parents," she said. "An incarcerated parent. A parent
who lived out of state. A child who was not even in this area.

"All those factors played into an unusual amount of time."

Andy Ritter, a spokesman for the Florida Department of Children and
Families in Tampa, said the agency has no plans to conduct an inquiry
into the case.

Aleena, who could not walk or talk, was diagnosed with cerebral palsy at
age 4, her family said.

Warth said foster care workers initially began overseeing her care in
2001 after an intoxicated Warth retrieved the girl from her school bus
over the protests of the driver.

She lived with her father for a while, but then was returned to Warth.

Warth said Aleena and two younger siblings, who are not Vetere's
children, were placed in foster care in October 2005 after she and a
drug-abusing boyfriend moved to Ohio despite a court order forbidding
contact between the couple.

Aleena stayed with Pinellas foster mother Sandy Dooty for more than a
year, but was hospitalized when her health deteriorated.

"She was just a loving little child," Dooty said. "The last couple of
months, she'd been in and out of the hospital. I could see her go downhill."

Warth said her daughter's tonsils were removed in November at Tampa
General Hospital. Sometime after that, she was taken to a nursing
facility in Miami instead of being placed at Lakeshore Villa in Tampa,
where she stayed after leaving Dooty.

Warth doesn't understand why no other local facility could be found.

Vetere said he wants to have a memorial for Aleena when her mother is
released from jail, but feels "a lot better" knowing he will have his
only child's ashes soon.

He signed a form okaying her cremation Thursday.

"I don't know what the problem was," he said. "It just seemed to be a
signature on a piece of paper."

Times researcher Shirl Kennedy contributed to this report. Melanie Ave
can be reached at or 727 893-8813.






CURRENTLY CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES VIOLATES MORE CIVIL RIGHTS ON A
DAILY BASIS THEN ALL OTHER AGENCIES COMBINED INCLUDING THE NATIONAL
SECURITY AGENCY/CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY WIRETAPPING PROGRAMS....

CPS Does not protect children...
It is sickening how many children are subject to abuse, neglect and even
killed at the hands of Child Protective Services.

every parent should read this .pdf from
connecticut dcf watch...

http://www.connecticutdcfwatch.com/8x11.pdf

http://www.connecticutdcfwatch.com

Number of Cases per 100,000 children in the US
These numbers come from The National Center on
Child Abuse and Neglect in Washington. (NCCAN)
Recent numbers have increased significantly for CPS

*Perpetrators of Maltreatment*

Physical Abuse CPS 160, Parents 59
Sexual Abuse CPS 112, Parents 13
Neglect CPS 410, Parents 241
Medical Neglect CPS 14 Parents 12
Fatalities CPS 6.4, Parents 1.5

Imagine that, 6.4 children die at the hands of the very agencies that
are supposed to protect them and only 1.5 at the hands of parents per
100,000 children. CPS perpetrates more abuse, neglect, and sexual abuse
and kills more children then parents in the United States. If the
citizens of this country hold CPS to the same standards that they hold
parents too. No judge should ever put another child in the hands of ANY
government agency because CPS nationwide is guilty of more harm and
death than any human being combined. CPS nationwide is guilty of more
human rights violations and deaths of children then the homes from which
they were removed. When are the judges going to wake up and see that
they are sending children to their death and a life of abuse when
children are removed from safe homes based on the mere opinion of a
bunch of social workers.


CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES, HAPPILY DESTROYING THOUSANDS OF INNOCENT
FAMILIES YEARLY NATIONWIDE AND COMING TO YOU'RE HOME SOON...


BE SURE TO FIND OUT WHERE YOUR CANDIDATES STANDS ON THE ISSUE OF
REFORMING OR ABOLISHING CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES ("MAKE YOUR CANDIDATES
TAKE A STAND ON THIS ISSUE.") THEN REMEMBER TO VOTE ACCORDINGLY IF THEY
ARE "FAMILY UNFRIENDLY" IN THE NEXT ELECTION...