INQUISITR.COM / News & Politics

Missing Toddler Angela Dufrene Tragically Overlooked By DCF

By Noelle Nicholas
Published on: 02:02 PST, Aug 9, 2016

Missing Miami toddler Angela Marjorie Dufrene has been the subject of much speculation in the news lately as the nation waits with bated breath to hear news of the baby girl’s fate. Newly released records from the Florida Department of Children and Families show that the organization was aware that Angela and her twin brother were about to be born into a dangerous home shortly before their birth and chose to do nothing about it.

Evidence of prior child abuse allegations.

Angela’s mother, Marjorie Dufrene, has three older children with her ex-husband, Lewis Dufrene. According to the Miami Herald, DCF had received a minimum of three child abuse allegations for these children in 2011 and 2012. In December of 2012, Marjorie Dufrene was arrested for hitting her son so hard it resulted in cuts and bruises. The child confirmed the injuries were caused by his mother, and a medical examination verified the boy had suffered abuse. The children were removed from Dufrene’s home and placed with their father.

Knowing what we do now about the prior abuse of at least one of the parents, it begs the question: Are the older Dufrene children safe in their father’s care? After losing custody, Marjorie still maintained weekend visitation at her home with the kids, and yet again, DCF was called by concerned neighbors reporting that the children did not have anything to eat and were living in filthy conditions.

The disappearance of Angela Dufrene.

The Inquisitr previously reported it was during the investigation of one such call that DCF workers learned that Angela Dufrene had virtually vanished. Trying to cover up the girl’s absence, her mother claimed she had only four children. The discrepancy was reported to the police department, and research uncovered Angela Dufrene’s birth certificate.

In court, after being pressed by Circuit Court Judge Cindy Lederman, Ms. Dufrene said Angela was dead, but she could neither remember when it happened nor how. At first, she stated the death occurred sometime last year, then narrowed it down to November. One of the several scenarios she used to describe the missing toddler’s death revolved around some type of a fatal fall, where she then tossed the baby girl’s body in a dumpster.

DCF inconsistencies

The Miami Herald further reports that while the Department of Children and Families claimed to have no knowledge of the twins, recently released records indicate otherwise. The Dufrene twins were born in April of 2014. During that month, a meeting was held to determine if the newborns would enter the system upon their birth. All the pertinent child protective services were in attendance, including the Broward Sheriff’s Office, ChildNet (Broward County foster care agency), and the Florida Attorney General’s Office. After reviewing Marjorie Dufrene’s case, which shows proven child abuse, the powers-that-be somehow decided that the unborn twins should not be added to the case.

DCF Secretary Mike Carroll said the failure to include Angela and her brother in their older siblings’ case was a detrimental error.

“If the older children were not safe, how in the world can a newborn be safe? It defies logic.”

He goes on to say that the failure to add newborns to an existing case, in general, can have tragic results.

“The chances of that child becoming invisible in the future increase exponentially.”

The record also states the mother admitted to murdering Angela.

“The mother admitted to murdering child Angela in November of 2015…Angela would not stop crying.”

According to Fox News, no charges have been filed against the mother at this time.

The Inqusitr also reported that the Miami Police Department released a photo showing what the missing Miami toddler might look like now at 2-years-old. Angela was about 19-months-old when she vanished, and the one picture of her that has surface shows a much younger baby.

Although an urgent investigation into the disappearance of Miami missing toddler Angela Dufrene has been launched, the window in which her life might have been saved has closed.

[Image via Miami Police Department]

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