Identified! TX - Houston, 'Beloved Doe', 4-5, in apt dumpster, Mar'03 - Jose Martinez

[diamondgirl]

Im going to look at see if there are any homes for disabled children in the Houston area. There is a home near where I like for the severly disabled children. I wish we knew if his legs were atrophied. Then we could know if he was wheelchair or bed bound.

 

[diamondgirl]

ooh, or maybe some schools may have a special education program. My friends son has CP and he attends school and is severely disabled. Let me go look.

 

[barb0301]

Im going to look at see if there are any homes for disabled children in the Houston area. There is a home near where I like for the severly disabled children. I wish we knew if his legs were atrophied. Then we could know if he was wheelchair or bed bound.

I talked to the detective today, and according to him, there were no signs of atrophy, no birthmarks, no signs of abuse (other than the severe starvation and dehydration), previous broken bones, etc. The only scars were the one on his neck (surgical), and 2 small surgical scars on his abdomen, right below the sternum area.

It is still very possible that he could have been mentally challenged, or challenged in ways that did not require wheelchairs, etc.

You are all AWESOME !!

 

[Teresa Larson]

I think the letter is very good! How about if somebody sent his picture and story to the hospitals around the area he was found. Maybe someone would recognize him. I also wonder if he died and his parent(s) couldn't afford to bury him and they didn't realize the state would have helped them with the burial. This is a sad case.

 

[barb0301]

I think the letter is very good! How about if somebody sent his picture and story to the hospitals around the area he was found. Maybe someone would recognize him. I also wonder if he died and his parent(s) couldn't afford to bury him and they didn't realize the state would have helped them with the burial. This is a sad case.

Thanks for the nice comments on the letter - TEAM effort !! I'll start sending it out tomorrow or Wednesday, and keep an updated list of who it has been sent to, so if anyone else wants to send it out, they can do so.

I talked a bit about the hospitals with the detective today. We had a nice long chat, but he was already away from the office and didn't have his notes. He remembers going to several hospitals with pictures and info, and noone recognizing this young boy. He is going to get back with me on where all they went, and then maybe we can send the info to others.

At the time, the thought that the family did not have the financial means to pay for needed medical care or a burial was discussed as a BIG possibility, and is still an open question today. Noone in the HUGE apartment complex recognized the little guy, nor did anyone aroundd there.

This case has just captured my heart and I want so badly to find out who he is. He was buried on July 31, 2004, under the name Amado Angelito, which is Beloved Little Angel in Spanish. Of that I am thankful. Someone, somewhere loved him and misses him though, and he should be home with them.

 

[Elphaba]

The post-mortem image really brings his size into perspective: that is gloved hands holding up his head... his head was very very small for a child in his age range. Poor baby...

 

[barb0301]

So far, I have sent the letter to

CNN
Fox News
Greta
Shepard Smith
Geraldo
Nancy Grace

I will continue sending the letter out, and it couldn't hurt to have others send it to the same people, if you care to.

Thanks everyone, and hope your Christmas was wonderful.

 

[barb0301]

I'm beginning to think this poor child might have been born prematurely and treated in a NICU environment - therefore the scars on the neck and the abdomen. Neither of those types of scars would be unusual for a premature infant. When he was found in Houston, the autopsy report states they were "well healed" scars.

Being born prematurely, depending upon how premature, could have brought on a whole host of medical and neuro problems. The syndromes we mentioned earlier could certainly be tossed into the mix and would not have shown up until later.

I ran Beloved Doe's size through a child growth calculator, and he was way down in the 3rd percentile in both weight and height, which also led me to believe in the premature birth. I know my granddaughter was born 4 weeks premature and is in the 15th percentile for height, a bit more for weight.

Any thoughts? This could be why noone recognized him at hospitals years later.

 

[clemy]

Barb,
As you requested, I sent your letter and links to some news media (cnn, different shows on msnbc, etc.).
In the subject line of my emails, I put "A dumpster as this little boy's final resting place" instead of "A tragedy in Houston". I'm thinking they receive hundreds and thousands of request for stories, so the title better be raw, descriptive, and poignant to make them even open the email.

This little boy must have received lots of medical attention (although, sadly, not quite enough), at least at a very early age. There is someone out there who has to recognize him!

 

[believe09]

I'm beginning to think this poor child might have been born prematurely and treated in a NICU environment - therefore the scars on the neck and the abdomen. Neither of those types of scars would be unusual for a premature infant. When he was found in Houston, the autopsy report states they were "well healed" scars.

Being born prematurely, depending upon how premature, could have brought on a whole host of medical and neuro problems. The syndromes we mentioned earlier could certainly be tossed into the mix and would not have shown up until later.

I ran Beloved Doe's size through a child growth calculator, and he was way down in the 3rd percentile in both weight and height, which also led me to believe in the premature birth. I know my granddaughter was born 4 weeks premature and is in the 15th percentile for height, a bit more for weight.

Any thoughts? This could be why noone recognized him at hospitals years later.

I have a daughter with a rare neuromuscular disease. One of the features of the disease is very slow growth in weight...it has kept her between 0 and 7 percentile on the growth chart. She was not a preemie-it is simply a feature of her disease which afflicts 100 (approx) babies worldwide each year. Unlike Beloved however, I have been fortunate in that it has simply given her a slight somewhat weak body, but no extra-ordinary features. I truly believe that Beloved had one of the diseases that were dug up earlier on the thread. If his parents were migrant workers or crossed routinely into the country for work, he may have not been involved in the healthcare system for sometime....do they cap care in Texas at a certain age? Perhaps when he hit 5, he was no longer eligible for state health care.

 

[Cubby]

I have a daughter with a rare neuromuscular disease. One of the features of the disease is very slow growth in weight...it has kept her between 0 and 7 percentile on the growth chart. She was not a preemie-it is simply a feature of her disease which afflicts 100 (approx) babies worldwide each year. Unlike Beloved however, I have been fortunate in that it has simply given her a slight somewhat weak body, but no extra-ordinary features. I truly believe that Beloved had one of the diseases that were dug up earlier on the thread. If his parents were migrant workers or crossed routinely into the country for work, he may have not been involved in the healthcare system for sometime....do they cap care in Texas at a certain age? Perhaps when he hit 5, he was no longer eligible for state health care.

I agree. I've also wondered if this young boys parents were from Mexico and had attempted to get better medical attention in the states after exhausting medical options in Mexico and were unable to do so. Any thoughts on that possiblity?

 

[barb0301]

I truly believe that Beloved had one of the diseases that were dug up earlier on the thread. If his parents were migrant workers or crossed routinely into the country for work, he may have not been involved in the healthcare system for sometime....do they cap care in Texas at a certain age? Perhaps when he hit 5, he was no longer eligible for state health care.

I absolutely agree that Beloved had to have some sort of disease, probably one of those submitted earlier. I was just thinking that in addition, he could have been a premature infant and that was the reason for the extremely small size, especially in height. His weight was obviously from starvation.

From what I can find out, they do not cap health care in Texas until 18, longer if disabled. I will do some research on the hospitals in the Houston area as far as uninsured, etc. The detective is going to give me a list of all the hospitals that they visited at the time and noone recognized him.

 

[barb0301]

Could this be a possible match, based on the scars and size? http://childsearch.org/show_missing.php?id=61 I can't find any other info on NCMEC on this missing child, does anyone know anything about this website, childsearch.org ?

 

[believe09]

Could this be a possible match, based on the scars and size? http://childsearch.org/show_missing.php?id=61 I can't find any other info on NCMEC on this missing child, does anyone know anything about this website, childsearch.org ?

Run with this!!!! Great find!!!! :clap:

 

[Angie4b1g]

Holy cow, I think that is a great possible!!!

 

[barb0301]

Run with this!!!! Great find!!!! :clap:

Holy cow, I think that is a great possible!!!

Thanks!! I got chills when I saw the pic and read the whole description. I have turned it in to the detective and am just waiting now. Will keep you posted if I hear anything.

Thanks for the encouragement. Being new to this, I wasn't sure if I was seeing the whole picture and you 2 and LionHeart helped a great deal. I'm praying that we find a match soon on this poor angel.

 

[forthelost]

I bet the kid you linked to has been found - tons of kids that have been found are on the site. I can't verify all of them, and I'd like to see who hasn't been so I could gather the closed ones that aren't recovered.

I personally think his features look so big *because* he was starved and not the other way around. In people who die that way, or lose weight rapidly, you can see the features seem to get bigger.

 

[LionRun]

On March 13th, 2003 Beloved Doe who was believed to have been 4-5 years old was found in Houston, TX. Andrew Ray Sanchez was 2 1/2 when he was reported to have disappeared from Hammond, IN on May 9th, 2000. I am just restating statements/info from the links to be clear on this myself.

The ages concerning the two sites work, but the locations are conflicting. Yet, it does happen that a missing person travels to another state or is taken (as Andrew would have had to have been) to another state (deceased or still living), and that aspect was either not known or was not reported.

The one problem I have with this as being a possible match is that at The Doe Network it was reported that, "His right ear is far larger than his left ear." However, in Andrew's picture, his ears are similar in size, in fact if anything it seems that his left ear may be slightly larger than his right ear.

Still, there are some striking similarities, and if Beloved Doe is Andrew, then I hope that this match is made.

I haven't read through the whole thread, so I am sorry if I am missing important points. I saw this thread and became interested after hearing from barb that she was working on it. I hope and pray for Beloved Doe's identity and the truth of what happened to be found.

Lion

 

[barb0301]

I bet the kid you linked to has been found - tons of kids that have been found are on the site. I can't verify all of them, and I'd like to see who hasn't been so I could gather the closed ones that aren't recovered.

I personally think his features look so big *because* he was starved and not the other way around. In people who die that way, or lose weight rapidly, you can see the features seem to get bigger.

You may be right, and he may have been found, but I can't find any reports on him from any other missing children's sites. I don't know where this particular site gets its info from. My thought is that it deals a lot with child custody cases, maybe those that go unreported on NCMEC and others? I'm pretty new to this, so I have a lot to learn. I also noticed that many of the kids on there had been located, but I could find some of them on searches when I was researching.

As far as his features, I would agree with you except for his height. He was soooo tiny, only 33 inches in length for a child of 4-5 years old. That is extremely small, in the 3rd percentile in the growth charts. Also, if you look closely at his right ear, it looks a bit deformed, not only in size, but in structure.

Thanks Lion, I think you have most of it covered. There is so little available on Beloved Doe, no coverage available. The detective has given me a lot of info, most of what is available I think. He's been very willing to talk to me. Right now, I'm just trying to generate publicity and interest in the case.

Thanks to both of you, I need all the input I can get on this one. Like I said, I'm new to this. I'm bound to make lots of mistakes, I just don't want to pass on lots of useless info and waste the detective's time.

 

[jodierenee]

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5511491.html


FBI officials in Houston today made a plea for help in solving the 2003 case of a boy found dead in a southeast apartment trash bin.
The child, nicknamed "Beloved Doe," is believed to have died of starvation and dehydration. Just 21 pounds, the boy had a surgical scar on his abdomen, indicating that he received medical care. He wore a diaper adorned with bears and had been wrapped in a blanket before being stuffed inside a red and white zippered bag.

The FBI is offering a $20,000 reward for information leading to his identity and Crime Stoppers of Houston is offering $5,000.
The previous release of composite sketches never resulted in an identity for the dark-haired boy, believed to be Hispanic and between the ages of 3 and 6 years old.

Federal investigators were asked to step in after efforts of Houston Police and Texas Rangers never resulted in an identity for the boy.
A maintenance worker found the boy's body with garbage at the Willow Creek Apartments at 7575 Office City Drive near the Gulf Freeway and South Loop on the morning of March 13, 2003.

By the time "Beloved Doe" was laid to a proper rest in July 2004, he'd been nicknamed "Amado Angelito," or "Beloved little angel" in Spanish.
Federal investigators hope national media attention for two children found dumped recently in Galveston will ignite new interest in this boy's case.