Posted on 05/23/2005 1:32:15 PM PDT by Nachum
LAKE WORTH, Fla. - An 8-year-old girl who was raped and buried alive told a friend she remembers her attacker towering over her before she passed out, then awoke seven hours later beneath a pile of rocks and concrete blocks when she heard the voices of rescuers.
The girl, who had been staying overnight at her godmother's house, was reported missing early Sunday. She was hospitalized in good condition Monday and a teenage boy who also had been staying at the home was arrested. Authorities said he confessed.
"She said the last thing she remembers is that he looked over her with these big eyes and then she said she went to sleep. She said she was waiting for us to find her," said 18-year-old Danielle Holloman, a family friend who calls the girl her sister.
"She said she knew we would come get her. That's why as soon as the police came, she wiggled her fingers," Holloman said Monday.
The girl was found Sunday morning when police Sgt. Mike Hall climbed into a 25-foot long trash bin, opened the lid to a 30-gallon recycling container and saw part of her hand and foot peeking out from under heavy concrete slabs.
Hall told ABC's "Good Morning America" he summoned a fellow officer "and he shouted out, you know, 'her finger is moving!' And at that point, the expression on everybody's face just changed. I mean, it went from a hopeless scene to there's hope there now."
Police Sgt. Dan Boland said there was no doubt that the girl would have been dead if Hall hadn't found her.
"She was dehydrated and in rough shape with pieces of cement blocks on top of her and she was face down," Boland said. "There was no way for her to get out on her own."
She had been sexually assaulted, authorities said.
Her disappearance rattled a state that had been outraged over the arrests of sex offenders in the separate killings earlier this year of 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford and 13-year-old Sarah Lunde.
"When a child is abducted and abandoned like this, the critical thing is time," Police Chief William Smith said. "That we found this child alive is a miracle."
The 8-year-old had been staying overnight at her godmother's house. After police found her, the girl named her attacker and described him. The teenage boy she named, a friend who was staying in the home, was arrested.
Authorities said Milagro Cunningham, 17, confessed and was charged with attempted murder, sexual battery on a child under 12, and false imprisonment of a victim under age 13, police said. A court appearance was scheduled Monday.
The teen initially told investigators that the girl may have been abducted by five men in a station wagon, and that he tried to follow them. He changed his story during questioning, Boland said.
"He was a good person. He would clean and do chores, laugh and play jokes and stuff. We never thought he would do something like that," Holloman said. "The only reason I can think he went crazy like this is his father died and his mother didn't want him. Nobody wanted him."
Holloman said the teen stayed with an aunt until she kicked him out about four months ago. He then went to live at the home of Lisa Taylor, Holloman's mother, where the victim occasionally spent weekends while her mother worked.
Cunningham's aunt had accused him of stealing and the teen has a relatively minor criminal record, authorities said. He was on probation for throwing a rock through a car window.
Taylor was asleep when the girl vanished from the bedroom she was sharing with Holloman's 1-year-old son. Holloman and her sister discovered the girl was missing when they came home after a night of roller-skating, authorities said.
A half hour later, Cunningham knocked on the door and the sisters found him with his shirt torn and his clothes covered with dirt. Investigators said that's when he started telling his story about the men in the station wagon.
Authorities said the girl was found far enough from any homes that no one would likely have heard if she had cried out. The trash bin was in a fenced-off former landfill behind a park where she often played with Holloman, Holloman's son and other friends.
Bummer he's not of legal age. He'll be walking the streets again one day. Hopefully, the prison population will take care of him.
DITTO!
Capital punishment is a form of eugenics. You don't need to codify reproduction. Just make such a crime a capital one.
You seldom read about fathers in these articles. You seldom even read anything about functioning brains in the womenfolk. The only thing they seem to be good at is creating tons of kids who don't have a chance for stable homes. The mothers are kids themselves.
Too many of the little 'uns don't even have a chance of staying alive past age 15.
Leni
What's with the past tense? Nobody wants him or will ever want him. Kill him (after a couple of minutes of due process, of course). When are we going to start defending our children from these scum, I mean really defending them?
Thought maybe they found my daughter in her bedroom.
Note well, folks: The AP has made sure we know that perp is a "boy", not a man. Goes without saying, since he's 17, doesn't it? But in reality, the AP only noted this because he's facing criminal charges and wants to elicit sympathy for him. When the issue is something else, like abortion, well, then the AP tells a different story:
"The New Hampshire law required that a parent or guardian be notified if an abortion was to be done on a woman under 18."
Florida-is-the-modern-Sodom-and-Gomorrah Bump!
I wonder if Florida has a biolerplate for these daily news releases....they sure enjoy their kids down there...
or No Nick tonight
In my AP English class in high school (1995) we had to read Native Son by Richard Wright.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0060929804/102-4061372-6897731?v=glance
The book is about a young black man that commits heinous crimes against two women yet Wright attempts to persuade the reader to feel sorry for him because of his economic and social plight. The acts of violence committed by this young man were brutal and Wright did not spare words describing them however he attempted to justify them.
I cannot fathom any reason, socioeconomic or sociopath, that would motivate someone to do what Milagro Cunningham did to this young girl. He is pure unadulterated evil and hell is too good for him. Every breath he draws is an insult to life and I pray his will be ended soon.
A human blender could solve so much problems and with a new lottery system to determine would gets to hit the buttons...
Bring back stoning or crucifixion.
Bring back stoning or crucifixion.
Bring back stoning or crucifixion.
sorry sorry sorry
I think I heard them say today that he is going to be tried as an adult for this crime.
Great point!
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