Bathtub Removed from Barahona Home

Police back at Miami-Dade home at center of deadly child abuse investigation

Police were back at the Barahona home in Southwest Miami-Dade early Tuesday morning, where officers removed what appeared to be a bathtub from the house at the center of a deadly child abuse investigation.

The bathtub is believed to be the same one that adopted 10-year-old twins Nubia and Victor Barahona were allegedly forced to sit in for hours while their hands and legs were bound with tape.

Jorge Barahona has been charged with attempted murder and aggravated child abuse after Victor was found covered in chemicals and bruised and badly burned in a truck on the side of I-95 in Palm Beach County on Valentine's Day.

Nubia's dead body was found wrapped in plastic in the bed of the truck.

On Monday, the Department of Children and Families released a phone call -- placed just four days before the ghastly discovery -- that details the alleged abuse in the home of Jorge and Carmen Barahona.

The call was made by a therapist who had talked with Carmen Barahona's 7-year-old granddaughter, who allegedly witnessed the abuse of the twins.

"She stated that her, the house of her grandma, which she goes to after school, that there are foster children in there and some of the foster children are being abused, and she was scared," said the unidentified caller.

"Being abused by who?" the abuse hotline worker asks.

"Being abused by the grandparents, which are hers, because they take care of her in the afternoon as well, and that she has been seeing abuse and she was threatened not to say anything," the caller replies. "When they're being punished, they're being taped up and with their arms and legs and being put in a bathtub. They're in there all day and all night, and she undoes their arms when they eat."

The caller also says that when the 7-year-old, who told the therapist she wasn't being abused, needed to use the bathroom, the twins were still in there.

"She also states that when she does need to use the bathroom, that she is not allowed to speak to them, that the grandmother watches," the caller says.

The call was reportedly one of several claims of abuse against the Barahonas. Andrea Fleary, the DCF worker who was assigned the Barahona case, has been placed on administrative leave.

The independent review panel that DCF has appointed to look into the handling of the Barahona case is expected to hold its second meeting Tuesday morning.

Victor Barahona has been in intensive care at Jackson Memorial Hospital, but is expected to be released soon.

Jorge Barahona has not been charged in Nubia's death. Carmen Barahona has not been charged with any crime.

Contact Us