Grand Jury Admonishes Florida's Child Welfare System in Barahonas Case

Child welfare workers should have known Jorge Barahona was a monster, grand jury says.

​Child welfare officials for Florida's Department of Children & Families failed to stop Jorge and Carmen Barahona from victimizing their adopted children Victor and Nubia, because state investigators don't treat foster parents with the same level of scrutiny applied to biological parents suspected of abusing their kids, according to the Miami-Dade Grand Jury.

Jorge and Carmen have been charged with murdering Nubia, as well as child abuse crimes against her and her 10-year-old twin brother Victor. Law enforcement officers discovered the girl's grisly remains in the back of Jorge's pesticide truck this past February 14 after a Road Ranger found him passed out on the ground near his vehicle. Victor was found unconscious from toxic pesticide fumes inside the truck's cabin.

"The sad reality is if the Barahonas had been the biological parents... a more thorough investigation would have been conducted following the various reports" to the child abuse hotline, grand jurors wrote. "Based on [their] history of being 'saviors,' no one wanted to recognize [Jorge and Carmen] for what they apparently were, monsters."

Read the full grand jury report below:

Final Report F 10

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