angiEmedia

Serenity Gandara

Renee Maese, grandmother of deceased foster child Serenity Gandara, has decided what she can best do to honor her granddaughter’s memory is to fight against the abusive CPS and foster care system in California. Each year, dozens of children die in California foster care homes from child abuse. Serenity was one of these children. Her foster parents, Albert and Carla Garcia, are more than a month later still missing and wanted by police for murder and child endangerment.

Maese explains that the 3 year old girl’s death on July 18, 2010, has motivated her to work to change the system to protect children and families:

I will be the first to admit, if it wasn’t for Serenity dying, I probably would be doing my everyday life things, but now I’m advocating for Serenity. Deceased children no longer have a voice, but being her Grandmother, I will speak for her and fight for her justice.

Read more…

The medical examiner has reported that Bakersfield foster child Serenity Gandara, a 3-year-old girl living in the home of relatives, was found dead on the living room floor of the home. Blunt-force trauma injuries are the cause of death. The foster parents, Albert and Carla Garcia, are being sought by the government for murder and felony abandonment.

Grandmothers Maria Garcia and Renee Maese both state that other relatives wanted to care for Serenity and her abandoned brother Isaiah. Isaiah is still alive, but was found with injuries appearing to demonstrate a pattern of ongoing physical child abuse. Kern County CPS refused to place the kids with other relatives, preferring to leave them with Albert and Carla Garcia despite child abuse complaints by Maria Garcia.

After Maria Garcia complained to the CPS social worker that they ignored her reports, CPS took away another child in her care apparently as retaliation. The child was returned after local media started asking questions. It is common for CPS agencies in the United States to use children as pawns to punish those who question their actions.
Read more…

In Bakersfield, California, family members allege that the dead 3-year-old girl Serenity Julia Gandara and her still-alive 4-year-old brother Isaiah were suspected child abuse victims prior to Serenity’s death.

Their 1-year-old sister Juliana wasn’t in the home as she has been staying with other relatives. But CPS showed up to take her away from her aunt and uncle for several hours before they returned her. CPS would not reveal why they took the child. The maternal grandmother, Maria Garcia, suggested that the CPS taking of the 1-year-old baby was in retaliation for her reporting to the media that she had previously complained about child abuse regarding Serenity and Isaiah yet CPS did nothing to protect the children.

Grandmother of murdered foster child said CPS wrongly took sibling

Meantime, there are serious accusations against Child Protective Services. Serenity’s maternal grandmother, Maria Garcia, said CPS retaliated against her after she criticized a social worker for allegedly ignoring reports that Serenity and her brother, 4-year-old Isaiah, were being abused at their foster home.

“You needed to take care of thing when I told you what happened with my kids the other kids. You never listen to me,” Maria Garcia said she told the social worker.

The paternal grandmother, Renee Maese, said that other family members wanted to adopt the two kids, but CPS sided with foster parents Albert and Carla Garcia who are now wanted for murder and felony child abandonment and are believed to be in hiding in Mexico.
Read more…

Foster children are often at higher risk for child abuse than kids who live with their biological parents. Today, there is yet another dead foster child with the foster parents on the run from police.

On July 18, 2010, a 3-year-old girl named Serenity Julia Gandara was found dead with signs of trauma to her head and torso in the home of her foster parents in Bakersfield, California. Her 4-year-old brother Isaiah was still in the home.

The foster parents, Carla Torres Garcia and Alberto Garcia, fled with three other children reportedly born to Carla. Their names and ages are Carlos Joe Solvalvarro, 10, Crystal Garcia, 4, and Alberto Garcia Jr., 4.

The children left behind, Alberto’s dead niece and still-living nephew, had been removed by the courts from their mother’s home reportedly due to drug use.

Police are looking to find the Garcias who are reported to have fled the home in a white SUV with the following description:
Read more…

Legally Kidnapped has narrowed down the voting to four candidates for their “Babystealer of the Year” final vote starting January 10, 2010. The candidates are:

• Rozita Swinton of Colorado – false child abuse reporter
• Suzanne Stovall of Texas – judge
• Amy Langley of Seattle, Washington – former foster mother
• Mary Callahan of Maine – former foster mother turned foster care activist

Read more…

That disturbed mug you see to the left is foster mom Jennifer Ann Montag. Montag, a 40 year old Weber County, Utah foster mother, is another of the very caring foster moms chosen by the careful selection process used by a CPS agency. You’d think this process should be a snap in Utah. As you may know, Utah feels like a throwback to the days when crime didn’t pay and streets were safe. The citizens have strong family values and widespread involvement in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, commonly known as the Mormon church. Personally, very nearly every Mormon I’ve ever known has been a polite, responsible, and decent person. Many of them are very devoted to community service, too. So you’d think that in Utah, finding good foster parents would be easier than in much of the United States.

Profile of a Caring Foster Mom: Jennifer Montag

The government did find a very caring foster parent in Montag, but not of the sort you might expect in Utah. Montag cared so much about her 14 year old foster son that she bedded him, allegedly had sex with him repeatedly, and when discovered threatened to kill herself if she was exposed and couldn’t be with her young love any longer.
Read more…