Island Niglet Found Locked in Crawl Space

[The Bobster]

http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/news/051805_nw_confined.html

Child Found Locked in Crawl Space

May 18, 2005 ”” The Big Story on Action News is about a young girl whom police say has been literally held captive in a crawl space for a couple of weeks.

The child had been reported missing 14 days ago. Missing person's leaflets have been plastered all over the neighborhood. You can imagine every body is shocked. Neighbors have been scouring the neighborhood, looking for the little girl, but they had no idea of the evil living in the basement.

"There appears to be some type of pan that was used for a bathroom facility. "

Before the police searched the row home and were unable to find the child. They decided to search the house a third time. When they went down in the base
ment, they noticed the guardian mother kept looking nervously toward the back of the basement steps. Underneath the steps, there was a door, but the door was hidden by a large panels of ply wood. Police say the child had nothing but a box of cereal.

But relatives say the child would never be harmed.

"They are not crazy."

"Are you saying this little girl did this to herself, hiding in the basement living like this.?"

"We searched the house two or three times before, and we decided to come back and search it again and the third time was successful."

The child is at St. Christopher S Hospital, being treated for severe dehydration.

 

[The Bobster]

http://www.nbc10.com/news/4506204/detail.html

'Missing' Girl Locked In Own Family's Basement
Girl's Guardian Asked For Public's Help In Finding Her

POSTED: 11:48 pm EDT May 18, 2005
UPDATED: 6:45 am EDT May 19, 2005

PHILADELPHIA -- A 12-year old girl who has been missing for two weeks, was found Wednesday night inside her family's basement on North 6th Street in Philadelphia.

Guirlene Dupuy was found hidden in a small crawl space under the stairway in the basement.

On Tuesday night, during an exclusive interview with NBC 10 News, Dupuy's guardian and cousin, Daniela Joseph, tearfully begged for the public's help in finding the girl.

Now, detectives believe that Dupuy was locked away in the basement during the entire interview.

When police went back
to the house on Thursday to interview the guardian, they said her story began to unravel and they searched the house one more time.

When the girl was discovered, Dupuy was alive, but barely breathing, officials said.

"When they found the 12-year-old child, she was wrapped in a blanket, living in squalor. There appears to be some type of a pan that looked like it was used for a bathroom facility. The child was extremely dehydrated," said Inspector Bill Colorulo of the Philadelphia Police Department.

Dupuy's relatives, who lived in the home with her, were taken in for questioning about why and for how long the girl was allegedly locked away with only a box of cereal.

"I cannot believe that she was down there. I said, 'How come nobody noticed that she was down there?" asked Wildnick Lubin, Dupuy's cousin.

On Wednesday, as she was led away to be questioned by police, Joseph told NBC 10 that she had no idea why Dupuy was in the basement.

"It's hard to say wheth
er or not the child was being punished but, obviously, somebody had to barricade that door from the outside," Colorulo said.

Dupuy came to the United States from Haiti four years ago for a better life. She is in stable condition.

Police still have questions about why her family claimed that Dupuy disappeared.

"The only thing we know is that we have a 12-year-old girl who had been reported missing 12 days, who is found alive, but who is found alive in the same location that she was reported missing from. It's disturbing," said Philadelphia Police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson.

 

[The Bobster]

3

http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/news/52005-barricadedgirl.html

Who Barricaded Area Youth?

PHILADELPHIA (AP) May 20, 2005 --Police were trying to determine who, if anyone, barricaded a 12-year-old girl inside a squalid basement crawl space in her home with only a half-box of cornflakes and a pan for a toilet.

Guirlene Dupuy, who moved from Haiti four years ago to live with a cousin, last attended school on May 4. On Wednesday, police suspicious of the family's story searched the row house for a third time and found the severely dehydrated child in a space underneath the basement stairs that was blocked by a heavy wood tabletop.

"I don't think an animal could live in there comfortably," Police Inspector William Colarulo said of the cramped space, which he estimated wa

s about 4 feet high by 4 feet long by 2 feet wide. (Ob
viously one did.)

"The officers ... were relieved to find her alive, but they were shocked and saddened that a child would be in that situation," he said.

No charges have been filed in the case. Police Capt. Len Ditchkofsky said it was possible the 4-foot-11, 109-pound girl had been hiding in the closet, although another officer described the tabletop as "very heavy." A relative said she may have been upset about a bad grade at school.

A spokesman for the city's Department of Human Services said the girl showed no signs of abuse or neglect, and that no prior complaints about the family had been made.

Guirlene, who was hospitalized overnight for observation, was being released Thursday to a foster family.

Daniela Joseph, a young woman who identified herself as Guirlene's cousin, had made a tearful plea for the girl's return on Tuesday. "If somebo
dy g
ot her please can you send her back, please?" Joseph asked from inside the house where the girl was found.

Joseph lived in
the home with her parents and her 9-year-old daughter. That girl was also expected to be placed in foster care while the investigation proceeds, officials said.

Guirlene, a 5th grader, was a good student with good attendance, school officials said.

Police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson lauded Detective Romanita King for her decision to search the house again after interviewing relatives for several hours Wednesday.

"She probably saved this girl's life," Johnson said.

Philadelphia School District spokesman Vincent Thompson said Guirlene's caretakers did not initially respond to calls from the school about the child's absence. But on May 10, the fourth school day she was absent, a relative visited the school to ask for help finding the girl.

Guirlene turned 12 on Sunday.

"The big picture is, this
child w
as found alive and is going to survive," Colarulo said. :cursin: