Rilya Wilson - missing since January 2001

[Doyle]

Rilya = Remember I Love You Always
A social worker once assigned to monitor a foster child whose disappearance shook up Florida's child welfare agency was sentenced to five years' probation for billing the state for pay when she actually was at her other job.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/state/8339821.htm

[WasBlind]

For Rilya

With love and hope, Lanie

[fourboys]

Police Arrest Caretakers In Rilya Wilson Case
Girl Disappeared Three Years Ago

POSTED: 10:59 am EDT August 18, 2004

MIAMI -- Miami-Dade police have arrested Rilya Wilson's former caretakers in connection with her disappearance.

Rilya was 5 years old when she vanished while in custody of the Department of Children and Families.

http://www.nbc6.net/news/3662919/detail.html (http://www.nbc6.net/news/3662919/detail.html)

[messiecake]

FINALLY SOME NEWS!!!!!!!!!!!!


Now if only these two would ADMIT to what REALLY happened to poor little Rilya!!

[tennessee]

I was thinking about this pretty little girl and wondered if anyone has any updates.

Rilya- you aren't forgotten

[WasBlind]

NCMEC link (http://www.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/PubCaseSearchServlet?act=viewChildDetail&caseNum=934322&orgPrefix=NCMC&seqNum=1&caseLang=en_US&searchLang=en_US)

Printable flyer (http://www.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/PubCaseSearchServlet?act=viewPoster&caseNum=934322&orgPrefix=NCMC&searchLang=en_US)

With love and HOPE, Lanie

[phylliyum]

Are there any new leads in this case? I remember watching this several years ago and being shocked that a little girl could just dispear from her foster home..

[gatetrekker44]

was a couple of months ago-the foster parents jailed on various charges of abuse and neglect-but still no answers as to what really happened to Rilya! :behindbar

[findlorne]

Here is a post from September.

http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/news/politics/9756374.htm

[findlorne]

http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/florida/news-article.aspx?storyid=25400

http://www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/9859393.htm

Here are a couple more articles.

[Jeana (DP)]

An arrest:

Woman charged with murdering missing girl

MIAMI – A woman who was supposed to be taking care of Rilya Wilson, the 4-year-old foster child whose disappearance three years ago scandalized Florida's child-protection agency, was indicted Wednesday on charges of murdering the little girl.

Geralyn Graham was also charged with kidnapping and aggravated assault. No body has been found, prosecutors said.

"Our grand jury has heard the facts and determined that Rilya's disappearance was the result of an act of violence and has indicted the child's former caretaker," State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said.

* * *

Prosecutors said they believe that the girl was dead by the time her disappearance was discovered.

Graham's attorney, Brian L. Tannebaum, said he had not seen the indictment.

"This is a woman who they charged with kidnapping without any evidence that she took the child anywhere and now they've charged her with the murder of a child they have not located," Tannebaum said.

* * *

But no charges were filed for Rilya's disappearance until August when Geralyn Graham was accused of aggravated child abuse, for locking Rilya in a cage and other alleged mistreatment. She was also charged with kidnapping for removing Rilya from Pamela Graham's custody. Pamela Graham, who was cooperating with authorities, was charged with child abuse.

* * *

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/031705dnnatmissing.a3df1.html

[CaliKid]

http://famulus.msnbc.com/famulusgen/ap03-16-124153.asp?t=apnew&vts=31620051722
"DCF later acknowledged that its background check had failed to discover that Geralyn Graham had a long criminal history for fraud and had been diagnosed as psychotic six months before Rilya moved in."

Poor Rilya!

[gatetrekker44]

that I hope Florida and the rest of the country remembers-it was under Gov. Jeb Bush's watch that almost 1000 children entrusted to the care of the DFS could not be accounted for-Rilya just one of the many! And to this day not all of these children have been accounted for. Maybe he should be more concerned about the DFS shortcomings and try to acually CORRECT this problem and quit trying to do an end-run around the courts in the case of Terri Schiavo! After all, he claims that he is "trying to protect the weakest and most helpless in society"-then let him actually DO SOMETHING about the situation with the DFS!!!



Bring Maura Home!

[bbmcrae]

This is sickening. But it seems like it was where this case was headed. This woman is a sick monster.

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/nation/11327974.htm

MIAMI - Hours after she was charged last year with kidnapping and abusing 4-year-old Rilya Wilson, Geralyn Graham whispered to a comforting cellmate that she smothered Rilya with a pillow to end the girl's "suffering" spawned by the abuse and neglect of others, the confidante later told police.

"I killed it," Graham said, according to robbery suspect-turned-state's witness Robin Lunceford.

Lunceford also told detectives that Graham - who uses a walker and suffers from various health problems - admitted burying Rilya's body near a pond where Rilya used to play with Graham and her former lover, Pamela Graham, Rilya's legal guardian.

Graham picked the spot "because the water represents peace and she gave the baby a proper burial," Lunceford said.

[mysteriew]

A second inmate steps forward with information that incriminates Geralyn Graham with the murder.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/11467892.htm

[CinnamonGirl]

Something needs to be done here in Florida about the children services and all the other lame laws they have here,regarding sex offenders.Florida better wake up and start protecting the kids here.

[mysteriew]

The star witness in the murder case against the caregiver of 4-year-old Rilya Wilson is no longer willing to cooperate with prosecutors, her attorney said on Thursday.

Miami attorney Ellis Rubin said Robin Lunceford has experienced a "number of things" in recent months and it is "very much in doubt" that she will testify against Geralyn Graham, the foster parent charged with first-degree murder.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/miami/sfl-drilya17jun17,0,7379370.story?coll=sfla-news-miami

[mysteriew]

A judge ruled Tuesday that Geralyn Graham, the woman accused of murdering foster child Rilya Wilson, deserved to be released on bond after the key witness against her refused to testify.

Although Graham, 59, will remain behind bars until May at the earliest because she is serving a sentence for an unrelated motor vehicle fraud conviction, her attorney said the decision by Circuit Judge Andrew Hague to grant bond in Rilya's killing suggested the prosecution's case is weak.
http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050823/APN/508230989&cachetime=3&template=dateline

[concernedperson]

A judge ruled Tuesday that Geralyn Graham, the woman accused of murdering foster child Rilya Wilson, deserved to be released on bond after the key witness against her refused to testify.

Although Graham, 59, will remain behind bars until May at the earliest because she is serving a sentence for an unrelated motor vehicle fraud conviction, her attorney said the decision by Circuit Judge Andrew Hague to grant bond in Rilya's killing suggested the prosecution's case is weak.
http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050823/APN/508230989&cachetime=3&template=dateline

And so it goes. Rilya is gone and lost in the system and not one loving person has shown up.Deny everything and point to obscurity but this child is dead and something is so wrong with that.We don't ask to be born ,but if we are we deserve a modicum of respect for our existence. We can't know about everyone that needs to be loved but we can't deny them the right. Welfare fraud and other entitlement issues are just part and parcel to the mindset. Throwaway people.Used by the system....to continue a fraud it is so upsetting to me.

[mysteriew]

Police and prosecutors say Rilya Wilson is dead, and they have charged her former caregiver with killing her. But the Miami judge who presided over Rilya's foster-care welfare case continues to hold hearings into her welfare.
Every six months during Rilya Wilson's short life, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Cindy Lederman held a hearing to make sure the little girl was safe and receiving proper care from state child-welfare workers. Such judicial reviews occur for all children taken from their parents because of abuse or neglect.
A pig-tailed, chubby-cheeked youngster who was taken into foster care shortly after her birth in 1995, Rilya was missing for more than a year when Department of Children & Families officials discovered in 2002 that she was gone. Her DCF-approved caregiver, Geralyn Graham, has been charged with killing Rilya.
And though Rilya is officially considered dead in Miami's criminal courthouse, her presence can still be felt at the juvenile courthouse a few miles away.
''There's no body,'' Lederman said Friday at the regularly scheduled review of Rilya's case, in an apparent explanation for the hearing.

Though officials promised to reform the state's system for tracking children in state care, missing and runaway foster children continue to make news in Florida. On Friday, DCF's website listed 537 children as missing from state care.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/13429283.htm?source=rss&channel=miamiherald_local

[aussiegran]

And so it goes. Rilya is gone and lost in the system and not one loving person has shown up.Deny everything and point to obscurity but this child is dead and something is so wrong with that.We don't ask to be born ,but if we are we deserve a modicum of respect for our existence. We can't know about everyone that needs to be loved but we can't deny them the right. Welfare fraud and other entitlement issues are just part and parcel to the mindset. Throwaway people.Used by the system....to continue a fraud it is so upsetting to me.
You are so right CP
This is one of the most distressing stories i have read ,this poor little girl .:furious:
I sure hope they have enough evidence when it goes to trial this B*tch should go down.:furious:

[KatherineQ]

For everyone who blames the social worker here, I wish they could work for CPS for a year or two. It's too much. It's horrible that this girl wasn't checked on, but social welfare usually employs girls right out of college, gives them more than they can do in 65 hours a week, and pays them minimum for 40 hours.

I've been there, done that. I've sat on couches in dark Section 8 apartments trying to do baby assessments in dark rooms while an adult man is sleeping on the same couch I was sitting on. There aren't enough foster care providers to go around, and that's why a lot of clearly abused children are left where they are.

If all of us who cry *tears* day after day for these children on the internet would actually get up out of our computer chairs and do foster care, I think the world would be a better place.

[mysteriew]

Katherine, in most cases it is not the social worker that is the problem.
In this case it is the combo- a social worker who was lying about doing her job- she said she was doing her visits, but she was actually working a second job. And a system that covered up the problem, under the guise of 'we cannot release that info'.
I agree with you that there are huge problems in the system. Caseworkers are often inexperienced, underpaid and overworked. Not only that the court system, ofter does not support it- when they find out about an abused chid, often the courts will release the child back to the parents.
But it seems that in some cases at least, there seems to be situation where the agency will often try to cover up (as they did in this case) in order to protect the system. Because if it became known, it would mean more work, and possible problems with funding.
The think is- when a system is broken- esp. a system that works with kids- it needs to be fixed.

[Opie]

KatherineQ, God bless anyone who can be a social worker and do a good job. It would be the nature of the job rather than the overwhelming job that I am afraid would get to me. I seem to have little tolerance for idiot parents. While all families involved with social workers certainly do not fall in that category, there seem to be a lot who do.

[Bobbisangel]

Has anything happened in this case? I checked on google but couldn't find any updates. That woman hasn't been taken to trial? This case is just sickening. I wonder if LE ever checked ponds in that area or talked to the other Graham woman to see where she used to take that little girl to play.

[italianchica]

Has anyone heard anything newon this case? It's been a while.

[bykerladi]

I couldn't find the outcome of the charges against her caretaker. Apparently though one of the suspects was cooperating with LE.


http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/03/17/rilya.charges/index.html

[Beyond Belief]

I thought two people went to jail. But it has been awhile.

[hoppyfrog]

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/10/08/rilya.wilson.ap/index.html

It's now been more than six years since foster child Rilya Wilson went missing, a disappearance that led to a shakeup at Florida's child welfare agency and murder charges against the little girl's former caretaker.

Yet Rilya's body has never been found and there's little physical evidence against the woman accused of abusing and killing her, 61-year-old Geralyn Graham.

Faced with no firm evidence that a slaying occurred and no witness who can definitively identify Graham as the girl's killer, prosecutors have been assembling a largely circumstantial case, according to case records.

and

Graham, who maintains her innocence, is being held on $250,000 bond after completing a sentence on an unrelated motor vehicle fraud conviction. Her attorney, Michael Matters, said he expects prosecutors to seek the death penalty in Rilya's death.

much, much more at link

[Spazkat9696]

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/10/08/rilya.wilson.ap/index.html

It's now been more than six years since foster child Rilya Wilson went missing, a disappearance that led to a shakeup at Florida's child welfare agency and murder charges against the little girl's former caretaker.

Yet Rilya's body has never been found and there's little physical evidence against the woman accused of abusing and killing her, 61-year-old Geralyn Graham.

Faced with no firm evidence that a slaying occurred and no witness who can definitively identify Graham as the girl's killer, prosecutors have been assembling a largely circumstantial case, according to case records.

and

Graham, who maintains her innocence, is being held on $250,000 bond after completing a sentence on an unrelated motor vehicle fraud conviction. Her attorney, Michael Matters, said he expects prosecutors to seek the death penalty in Rilya's death.

much, much more at link

Good maybe she will tell where the body is in exchange for her own sorry life.