Florida girl still missing; state agency under gun

MIAMI -- As recently as last month, state authorities got a tip that Rilya Wilson was alive. But like all the others, it turned out to be another false lead in the year since the state agency responsible for the little girl discovered it had no idea where she was.

During that year, the state Department of Children & Families has been shaken from top to bottom, even as other children it sought to protect died violent deaths.

Rilya, who would now be 6, was reported missing April 25, 2002, when department officials realized case workers had skipped more than a year of required monthly visits to her foster home.

The news went from bad to worse when Geralyn Graham, who calls herself Rilya's grandmother, told authorities she hadn't seen the girl in 15 months. She said Rilya was taken from her home by a social worker when she was 4.

Police say they have exhausted all sources among the people who had contact with the Graham house while Rilya lived there, and no criminal charges have been filed over the girl's disappearance.

They are still looking for Rilya.

"I feel we've made progress. We know a lot more than we knew six months ago," said Miami-Dade police Sgt. Al Singleton. "We're not prepared to say we feel closer to knowing what happened to Rilya."

When Gov. Jeb Bush was elected in 1998, he increased DCF's budget and brought in a new secretary, Kathleen Kearney, who was considered one of state's strongest child welfare advocates.

But Rilya's disappearance exposed deep disarray within the agency, which has thousands of employees and a budget measured in billions of dollars. Kearney resigned four months later.

Seven of the 14 district administrators have been replaced. The agency is trying to have local nonprofit agencies take over child welfare services, and it is working more closely with police to track missing children.

Bush also tapped Jerry Regier, credited with weeding out fraud at Oklahoma's Department of Health, to overhaul DCF. Some child advocates applaud Regier's approach, particularly his willingness to listen to workers who deal directly with children.

"The morale is up, the turnover is down, the funding is going toward things that will increase quality," Bush said.

According to department figures, the average caseload per child abuse investigator has dropped from 43 when Rilya's disappearance was discovered to just under 10 this month. The average number of children supervised by child welfare workers dropped from 24 to 10.5. Last April, there were 372 vacant caseworker positions. Now, there are 232.

But Karen Gievers, a Tallahassee lawyer and child advocate, isn't convinced children in state care are any safer.

"There have been changes in personnel, there have been changes in structure, there are more contracts now with private providers, but from everything we're seeing, children are faring no better and being treated no better than they have in the past," Gievers said.

Several children have died while under the department's supervision. Among them was a 5-year-old boy who fatally beaten, allegedly by his father. Agency officials acknowledge a caseworker recommended granting custody to the father without disclosing results of a background check that turned up arrests for assault, stalking and selling cocaine.

David Lawrence, who chaired a blue ribbon panel on the DCF for the governor, said more funding is needed to make changes.

"Unless and until the people of the state and the elected representatives invest significantly more in the safety of children, then I think we're still going to have substantial problems," he said.

In January, Regier asked for an increase of $473 million in his $3.6 billion budget. Bush's budget recommended half that increase; House and Senate proposals would reduce it even more.

Back in Miami, Geralyn Graham's attorney, Brian Tannebaum, said his client had cooperated with investigators, but they have not contacted her since her October arrest. She was sentenced in February to two years in prison for stealing a friend's identity to buy a car. She and roommate Pamela Graham also face fraud and other charges.

Singleton, who leads the squad investigating Rilya's case, said the key to finding her lies with her former caretakers. "The big obstacle is that the people closest to the truth are not talking to us," he said.

The case has spurred community involvement, said state Sen. Frederica Wilson, who is not related to Rilya but closely follows the investigation because the girl lived in her district.

"We're making progress simply because of little Rilya," she said. "She definitely deserves a place in history."