Source: Body In Pest Truck Likely Driver’s 10 YO Daughter February 15, 2011 11:10 PM
The body in the pickup truck was identified as the owner’s 10-year-old adoptive daughter. (Source: CBS4)
MIAMI (CBS4) –As investigators continue to piece together the mystery surrounding a pesticide truck parked along the side of I-95 in West Palm Beach that sent a father and son to the hospital, a senior law enforcement source has told CBS4 News the body found in a bag inside the back of the truck is believed to be the driver’s 10-year-old adopted daughter.
The girl was the twin sister of Victor Vocter, the 10-year-old boy rescued from the truck, according to the source. Now, the children’s father is chaged with aggravated child abuse, accused of injuring the surviving child inside the truck. “We can’t really specify,” explained police spokesman Chase Scott. “But an instance that occurred here on the side of I-95 with his 10 year old son, that’s where the aggravated child abuse charge stems from.”
We do know the child suffered severe burns. “He did suffer some burns from the chemicals that were on his clothes and his body as well as some internal issues,” said Scott, “some severe internal reaction to breathing in the fumes of the chemicals.”
The body remained on the scene until 8:30 in the evening. The strength of the chemicals made it hard to move the body. In fact, just to get it into the medical examiner’s vehicle was difficult. “I believe they tried to do a partial decontamination,” Scott explained. “Then the bag was placed into another bag, which was placed into another bag, then on the gurney and then placed into the vehicle for transport.”
One day after the disturbing discovery, it is still a very active scene near the Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard exit on I-95, except now several large tents cover the small red pickup truck where the body was found.
Chase Scott said while he could not say the body on the truck was not the twin girl, someone saying so now “would have to have x-ray vision”, because the body is still wrapped in plastic, surrounded by hazardous material, and has yet to be unwrapped as experts work to decontaminate the scene.
The discovery was made Monday when a Road Ranger stopped to assist the driver of what he thought was a broken down truck which had the words “C. J.’s Pest Control Miami” on its side.
When the ranger approached the truck he found the driver, Jorge Barahona, 53, of Southwest Miami-Dade, and his 10-year-old adopted son, Victor Vocter, conscious but having breathing difficulties.
Barahona was taken to Columbia Medical Center with a unspecified medical condition caused by the chemicals and the son was taken to St. Mary’s Medical Center. Both are said to be in fair but stable condition.
It was when firefighters on the scene also started feeling sick that a hazardous materials crew was called in to take over the investigation. In the back of the truck they found a leak in a container which contained acid. It’s believed that fumes from this chemical were what sickened Barahona, the boy and four firefighters. According to police, the chemical is not the type typically used in pest control but it is used to clean metal.
It was while the Haz-Mat team were looking through the truck that they spotted something unusual.
“The Department of Environmental Protection went into the rear of the vehicle, moving aside some chemicals,” said Chase Scott, spokesperson for the West Palm Beach Police department, speaking to reporters late Monday night. “(They) located a body in a bag in the rear of the vehicle.”
With the discovery of the acid and the body, Miami-Dade Police and Fire Rescue Haz-Mat were sent to Barahona’s home in the 11000 block of Southwest 47 Terrace in Southwest Miami-Dade to search for more potentially dangerous chemicals and possible clues as to why Barahona had a body in his truck.
Neighbors said Barahona regularly parked his truck in front of his home and kept a steel container full of pesticides on his property. Jim Sheppard said he never noticed a problem.
“He was always very cautious when he did his stuff,” said Sheppard. “He sprayed my house, and when he came in and sprayed my house he’d always put on a big respirator and ask me to step out. He’s always really cautious and careful about the chemicals.”
Late Monday, the FBI joined the investigation, though no reason was given for the federal interest.
According to state records, Barahona operated his business out of his home. Last week, he filed with the Florida Secretary of State to use the name C.J.’s Pest Control for his business. The Florida Secretary of State’s office said Barahona had operated a business as C.J.’s Pest Exterminator, Inc., since March of 1998. That corporation was dissolved by the state last September, when he failed to file the proper state documents.
Barahona’s wife, Carmen, was holed up inside her parents Southwest Miami-Dade home with two of the couple’s four children, according to CBS4′s Gary Nelson. But the two children were removed from the home by child welfare officials.
The couple has four adopted children, ages 7 through 11, according to the Department of Children and Families. Those children are under DCF protective supervision at the grandparents home, according to DCF’s Mark Riordan.
Related Stories
Posted on 17 February 2011 Tags: Florida's Department of Children and Families, Jorge Barahona, Jorge Barahona burned his son, Jorge Barahona child abuse, Jorge Barahona child neglect, Jorge Barahona dead daughter in truck, Jorge Barahona killed his kids
Jorge Barahona Accused Of Horrific Child Abuse Has Dead Daughter In His Truck
This is one of those stories that you wish would not get reported. Because this is the kind of story where the perp needs to be taken out to the Florida Everglades, dipped in chicken grease and towed very slowly by an airboat until the gators have had their fill.
These kind of scumbags have a special place in hell and instead of wasting taxpayer dollars on a trial they should just take terminate him. And it should not be a humane execution. I’m sorry, when it comes to kids, you should be punished accordingly. No judge, no jury…just a few hungry gators.
Jorge Barahona is a Florida exterminator and father of four children adopted from Florida’s foster care system has told police that a body found in the pest-control truck he was driving is one of them — his 10-year-old daughter, authorities said Wednesday.
Barahona, 53, already faces a charge of aggravated child abuse for injuries to the dead girl’s twin, Victor, who was also found in the truck, which was parked on the side of I-95 near West Palm Beach, Florida, officials said.
According to a probable-cause affidavit filed by the West Palm Beach Police Department, a roadside assistance ranger with the Florida Department of Transportation stopped to check the red Toyota pickup Monday around 5:30 a.m. and found the 10-year-old boy inside next to an open gas can.
The boy “appeared to be in respiratory distress and (was) trembling” and his clothing “was soaked with an unknown chemical,” the affidavit said.
The ranger then found Barahona on the ground beside the truck and called for help.
The boy was hospitalized in intensive care with severe burns to his abdomen, upper thighs and buttocks, the affidavit said. While examining the boy, doctors noted he had sustained previous injuries, including a broken collarbone, a broken arm, scarring to his buttocks and lower abdomen, and ligature marks on both wrists, police said.
After Barahona and his son were taken to a hospital, a worker decontaminating the truck discovered the body of the girl, wrapped in a plastic bag, the document said.
Barahona told police he was distraught over the death of his daughter, and had intended to commit suicide by dousing himself with gasoline and setting himself afire, the affidavit said. Barahona said he didn’t go through with his suicide plan because his son was with him, the document added.
“Basically, to paraphrase, he was stating that he placed his daughter in a plastic bag being distraught over her death,” West Palm Beach Police Spokesman Chase Scott told reporters. “He drove here from South Florida accompanied by his son, Victor. He then pulled off to the side of the road saying that he poured gas on his self, intending to light himself on fire. His son’s head was in his lap and he decided, after giving his son some sleeping pills, that he wasn’t going to do that.”
Barahona told police that he doused himself with gasoline and inadvertently got some on the boy, Police Capt. Mary Olsen said.
But, she added, the man’s story doesn’t add up — there was no gasoline on the boy. Instead, he was covered with another chemical whose composition had yet to be determined. “That’s why we’re still treating this as a hazmat (hazardous materials case),” she said.
Scott said the chemicals were so potent that staff caring for the boy at the hospital became ill as well, he said.
Victor, who was transferred Wednesday morning to a specialized burn unit at Miami’s Jackson Memorial Hospital, has not been able to talk to investigators because he is on a breathing tube, she said.
Olsen said police would decide how to charge Barahona further once the autopsy on his daughter determines her cause of death. Asked whether Barahona has expressed remorse, she said, “He feels remorse, but we’re not getting consistent statements with what we’re seeing in our evidence.” She added, “It’s a complex case.”
At a hearing Wednesday in Miami attended by Barahona’s wife, Carmen, a judge ordered that the remaining two children in the home be placed in foster care.
Florida’s Department of Children and Families had opened a child protection investigation within the past few days to look into a complaint involving the Barahona family, and it wasn’t the first such complaint, spokesman Mark Riordan said.
Reporters in the courtroom Wednesday heard tales of abuse, mainly concerning the twins, from state officials and experts. The caller to the child protection hotline in the latest case reported that the twins were routinely locked in a bathroom for long periods of time and had been bound with tape, the court heard. The story was corroborated by interviews with the other two children in the home, officials said in court.
An investigator told the court that she had showed up last Friday night at the family’s home but had not seen the children. Instead, she said, she had left the family’s house after speaking with Carmen Barahona, planning to return on Monday. Asked why she had not planned to return sooner, she said, “I’m not allowed to do investigations on a weekend.”
However, a spokesman for the department, John Harrell, said it is the job of investigators to follow through immediately or refer to someone else in the department to follow through when a matter is urgent.
