Carmen Barahona's Daughter Speaks Out About Family Tragedy
MIAMI (CBS4) - The woman caught in the middle of the family tragedy is telling her side of the story. Jennifer Perez, 30, is Carmen Barahona's adult daughter. She wanted to speak on-camera because she feels that the Department of Children and Families is blaming her for what happened to her adopted twin brother and sister.
"It's a nightmare. It's a nightmare. I can't believe it. I never thought this would happen to me," Perez told CBS4's Shannon Hori. "I've lost my job, they terminated me. I don't have my daughter. I don't have my mom because I haven't spoken to her and have no interest in speaking to her either. My whole world has crushed."
Perez showed Shannon pictures of the family's happier times. Pictures of her now-seven year old daughter with her four adopted siblings. The pictures showing a happy Nubia. It was her body discovered in the back of Jennifer's stepfather's pick-up truck on Valentine's Day.
"I couldn't believe it," Perez said. "I couldn't believe my little sister was gone and that he (Jorge Barahona) would do such a thing to her."
Perez said she hadn't seen Nubia since September or October of last year. She said that she would drop off her daughter at the Barahona house before work, and then pick her up there in the afternoons. Her mother Carmen would take the little girl to and from school.
DCF's top Miami child welfare attorney said Perez psychologically abused the child by exposing her to the torture of the twins, and that she ordered her daughter never to discuss the family secrets with anyone.
"I never told my daughter anything like that," Perez said. "The only thing I told her, when I got the DCF call is not to tell her father. Because in the past I've had a problem with her father so I told her not to say anything until i knew exactly what was going on. And I could put the pieces together."
Perez said DCF first contacted her the Friday before Valentine's Day. But that prior to that, her daughter never gave her any indication of what could be going on inside that house.
"I figure she's afraid because it's my mom the one doing it. My mom kept telling her it's a family secret. But I don't know. I wish she would have told me. She talks to me about everything else. I would have done something about it," Perez said.
Jennifer says she rarely went into the house, and the few times she did, things appeared to be normal.
She told Shannon that she didn't think much about the fact that she hadn't seen Nubia because she was always in a rush to take her daughter home and beat traffic.
She says DCF is at fault and is trying to make her a scapegoat.
"I honestly had nothing to do with this. I think they're trying to blame me for all the mess they did," said Perez "I have nothing to do with it."
Perez says she wants people to know that she's a mother and that "if I would have known those kids were hurting and suffering I would have not let that go on."
