Cinnamon & Joshua Diaz, Missing [FOUND SAFE] Miami, FL

[Faith]

May 5, 2008

Missing Kids May Be Searching For Birth Parents

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll116/helpfindthemissing/kids.jpg

Cinnamon & Joshua Diaz Are Foster Children
They Were Last Seen Sunday Morning
Anyone With Information Is Asked To Call (305) 418-7201

MIAMI GARDENS (CBS4) ― Miami Dade police are asking for the public's help in finding two foster children. 12-year old Cinnamon Diaz and her 7-year old brother Joshua were last seen at a babysitting service in Miami Gardens.

CBS4 reporter Ileana Varela has confirmed that both children were in foster care and were being cared for at a babysitting service in the area of NW 183rd Street and 48th Avenue when they simply walked out.

Police say it's possible that the brother and sister may have left in order to find their biological parents.

Both children suffer from asthma and require daily medication.

Cinnamon has blond hair and green eyes; she's 5' 5" tall and weighs about 110 pounds. She attends Lake Stevens Middle School.

Joshua is 4' 2" tall, with blond hair, green eyes and weighs about 40 pounds. He attends North County Elementary.

Police have not revealed how the children ended up in foster care.

Anyone with information on the children's whereabouts is asked to call Miami Police Detective A. Byrd at the department's Missing Persons Unit at (305) 418-7201.

Video

http://cbs4.com/local/miami.gardens.police.2.716049.html

[Faith]

Oh God this breaks my heart.:1187603408.CR.Mothe

I hope the kids are safe and found soon.

[KittyMom]

Were these kids not being given some type of counseling? Up-rooting kids and not providing them an opportunity to talk with someone about it is just not healthy.

[Roamer]

So young to be alone and helpless on the streets!

[Faith]

12-Year-Old, 7-Year-Old Missing From Miami Gardens
Police Ask For Public's Help In Finding Children

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. -- Police are searching for two children who are missing from a Miami Gardens home.

Cinnamon Diaz, 12, and her 7-year-old brother, Joshua, disappeared from their home near Miami Gardens Drive and 48th Street on Sunday morning.

Cinnamon Diaz was last seen wearing pink pants, a white T-shirt and gold sandals. Joshua Diaz was wearing blue jean shorts, a black T-shirt and black tennis shoes.

Family members said both suffer from asthma and need to take medicine every day.

It is uncertain in which direction the children might have gone or where they were going. Anyone with information is asked to call police.
http://www.nbc6.net/news/16160128/detail.html?rss=ami&psp=news

[Faith]

The children most likely have no money, they will be hungry. Someone has to see them.

[Faith]

http://www.missingkids.com/photographs/NCMC1095122c2.jpg

JOSHUA DIAZ
Case Type: Lost, Injured, Missing
DOB: Aug 24, 2000 Sex: Male
Missing Date: May 4, 2008 Race: Biracial
Age Now: 7 Height: 4'2" (127 cm)
Missing City: CAROL CITY Weight: 40 lbs (18 kg)
Missing State : FL Hair Color: Blonde
Missing Country: United States Eye Color: Green
Case Number: NCMC1095122
Circumstances: Cinnamon and Joshua were last seen at approximately 11:45 a.m. on May 4, 2008 in the Carol City, Florida area. The children are Biracial. They are White and Hispanic. Cinnamon was last seen wearing a white t-shirt, pink pants, and gold sandals. Joshua was last seen wearing a black t-shirt, blue jean shorts, and black tennis shoes. The children may be in need of medical attention.



http://www.missingkids.com/photographs/NCMC1095122c1.jpg

CINNAMON DIAZ
Case Type: Lost, Injured, Missing
DOB: Jul 5, 1995 Sex: Female
Missing Date: May 4, 2008 Race: Biracial
Age Now: 12 Height: 5'5" (165 cm)
Missing City: CAROL CITY Weight: 110 lbs (50 kg)
Missing State : FL Hair Color: Blonde
Missing Country: United States Eye Color: Green
Case Number: NCMC1095122
Circumstances: Cinnamon and Joshua were last seen at approximately 11:45 a.m. on May 4, 2008 in the Carol City, Florida area. The children are Biracial. They are White and Hispanic. Cinnamon was last seen wearing a white t-shirt, pink pants, and gold sandals. Joshua was last seen wearing a black t-shirt, blue jean shorts, and black tennis shoes. The children may be in need of medical attention.

http://www.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/PubCaseSearchServlet?act=viewChildDetail&caseNum=1095122&orgPrefix=NCMC&seqNum=1&caseLang=en_US&searchLang=en_US

[Nut44x4]

I found this at Porchlight.....but didn't find any news link yet.
Cinnamon and Joshua Diaz missing from Carol City, FL, has been recovered. Please discontinue dissemination of this poster. Your participation in this program has made a valuable contribution to this recovery.
Please remove and discard any posters on this case that you have placed in public view.
Thank you for your support.

The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children

[Nut44x4]

Everything I see says 'still missing'.....

?

[Roamer]

Home About Us Supporters Training Site Search News & Events

Please note the following messages:

Sorry! The case you requested does not exist or has been removed from the site.

National Center For Missing And Exploited Children

[Roamer]

http://www.nbc6.net/news/16160128/detail.html?rss=ami&psp=news

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. -- Two children reported missing from a Miami Gardens day care on Sunday were found safe on Monday.

Cinnamon Diaz, 12, and her 7-year-old brother, Joshua, disappeared from their day care near Miami Gardens Drive and 48th Street on Sunday morning.

Cinnamon Diaz was last seen wearing pink pants, a white T-shirt and gold sandals. Joshua Diaz was wearing blue jean shorts, a black T-shirt and black tennis shoes.


Family members said both suffer from asthma and need to take medicine every day. Investigators said they were concerned that the foster children might have walked out of their day care in search of their biological mother.

A preliminary police investigation showed that the children ran away from their day care facility.

Charles Thompson is the pastor of the church that runs the day care center. He said they've never had any problems in the past.

The children were under the supervision of one person, which is OK according to the Department of Children and Families guidelines.

The children were in the custody of missing persons detectives as police continue their investigation.

[Faith]

2 Children Missing From Miami Gardens Found

http://images.ibsys.com/2008/0505/16164770.jpg

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24473219/


Bless their hearts--

[Nut44x4]

The Miami Herald (Florida)

May 6--As Mother's Day approached, the teacher of a 12-year-old foster child assigned a writing project: Write a letter to mom, telling her why you love her.

The preteen's quest to deliver the letter to her mother touched off a frantic 24-hour search after the girl and her younger brother ran away from a church day care center on Sunday.

The search ended, happily, late Monday afternoon, when both children were found safe.

Twelve-year-old Cinnamon Diaz has lived in Miami-Dade foster homes off and on. Her mother, 41-year-old Elaine Marie Diaz, lost all rights to the girl last January after being declared unfit by a Miami judge, said sources who had been briefed on the case.

On Sunday, eager to see her mother, Cinnamon took cash she had saved from her lunch money and allowance and ran away from the Miami Gardens child care center with her 7-year-old brother, Joshua Diaz.

They were found late Monday afternoon after Cinnamon called her mother from a store and asked her to pick them up.

"The department has been working with law enforcement, working frantically to find these children," said Flora Beal, a spokeswoman for the Department of Children & Families in Miami.

"We are just very relieved these children were found and are safe and unharmed. We just want to do right by them," Beal said.

Before the incident was over, police, child welfare administrators and a national missing children's center had spent 24 hours looking for Cinnamon and Joshua.

The recovered children told detectives they were unhappy at their foster home and were determined to run away, Miami-Dade police said in a statement released Monday evening.

The two children -- both blond-haired and green-eyed -- walked away from the Genuine Love Academy child care center in Miami Gardens at about 11:45 a.m. Sunday, police and child welfare administrators said.

Then, they vanished.

DCF, which recently created a specialized unit in Miami to investigate mistreatment allegations involving children in state care, is looking into how the siblings were able to run away from the child care center, located at 4859 NW 183rd St.

"It is automatic, whenever a child goes missing, that we would do an investigation," said Alan Abramowitz, DCF's Miami administrator.

Most often, when older children run away from foster or group homes, they seek out their birth parents.

Indeed, of the 426 Florida foster children listed as missing Monday, most are teenagers who authorities believe are living -- at least part of the time -- with their birth families.

Pastor Charles Thompson, who leads the Genuine Love Ministries church adjacent to the day care center, said there had been "some kind of commotion" during the morning church service Sunday.

Shortly after the service ended he learned that two children had run away from the day care center.

Only six children were in the child care center Sunday morning, Thompson said, so his wife, who runs the program, noticed that they were missing almost immediately.

"It wasn't but a minute before someone noticed that they were not there," said Thompson. "My wife immediately got in her car and went searching for them."

http://www6.lexisnexis.com/publisher/EndUser?Action=UserDisplayFullDocument&orgId=574&topicId=100020825&docId=l:786766303&start=1
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Just something bugging me.....have to vent.....
It is clear to me this young girl has dark brown hair. The reports all said 'blonde'.
I notice that a lot w/ adults in missing reports who may color their hair, but when a child is missing and the reports say BLONDE......when it is clear to the eye from photos she is NOT blonde......
I dunno....it just bugs me....grrrrr
Anyway, glad they are safe!

[Roamer]

ITA, Nut. It's sad how children can be abused and neglected by their parents, but still love them and would rather be with them than anywhere else.

[packy]

It is sad, Roamer.

I'm glad they're safe.

[Faith]

'Missing' siblings: We were at Mom's


The mother of two foster children who were found Monday after they were missing for a day is under investigation and facing potential charges, police say, as the story she and the children told authorities began to unravel Tuesday.

Under questioning, Elaine Marie Diaz told police she picked up her 7-year-old son and 12-year-old daughter from a Miami Gardens day care Sunday after she said they contacted her ``alleging physical abuse from their foster home.''

Initially, police were led to believe the children had run away from the day care in search of their mother, who lost custody earlier this year after years of drug addiction.

''She is looking, at a minimum, at interference with child custody charges,'' said detective Alvaro Zabaleta, a Miami-Dade police spokesman.

On the same day, 7-year-old Joshua Diaz told Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Cindy Lederman that his mother had picked him and his 12-year-old sister Cinnamon Diaz from the day-care center and taken them home.

Joshua has spent most of his life in and out of foster care as his drug-addicted mother often forgot to send him to school, was sometimes unable to provide him a bed, and allowed the boy's violent father to stay with them -- and beat her.

AT COURTHOUSE

But in a small room inside Miami's juvenile courthouse, as Lederman asked Joshua to recount the 30 hours when he and Cinnamon had reportedly run away -- setting off a frantic search for the foster kids -- all Joshua could think to say was: ``I think Mom is going to be in trouble.''

When police went looking for the children Sunday at their mother's home, Joshua said, he was hiding under a bed, and Cinnamon was hiding in a closet.

Their disappearance sparked a massive search involving police, the FBI, the Department of Children & Families, and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.

''You had a 12-year-old, and a 7-year-old, out on the streets where it could be dangerous, not having any money or adult supervision to care for them and protect them,'' Zabaleta said. ``The community was very touched by their story.''

During the hearing, Lederman wanted to know how the children had disappeared, how they had eluded recovery for much of two days, how they had been found. Then, she convened in a small room near her chambers, where Joshua and Cinnamon had been sipping Cokes and throwing pretzels at each other.

''You have no idea how worried everybody at the courthouse was,'' Lederman said to the children, sitting in a chair in her black robe as Joshua fidgeted and Cinnamon averted her gaze. ``We just didn't know what had happened to you. . . . Everyone in this building is here to help children. We just want to make sure you're happy.''

At first, the children stuck to the story they had told police and child welfare workers Monday night: They were unhappy at the foster home where they lived. They left the Genuine Love Academy day-care center and walked in search of where they thought their mother was living in North Miami-Dade.

Then, their story changed. ''Mommy came and picked us up,'' Joshua said. ``We didn't run away.''

As Lederman leaned over and listened, Cinnamon questioned her brother in a firm, almost accusatory voice. Where were we when the police came looking, she asked. ''We were hiding,'' Joshua answered. I was under the bed. You were in the closet.''

Lederman stressed to the children that ``you're not safe with your mom. You know that. I know you want to go there, but you're not safe there.''

Diaz, 41, surrendered her right to raise four children after a Miami judge declared her an unfit mother. A fifth child was given up for private adoption.

A `STORYTELLER'

Lederman told the children they would get to live with a woman -- police called her the ''storyteller'' -- who had visited them in a children's shelter, read them stories, and taken them on field trips.

''Forever?'' the little boy asked.

''Maybe,'' the judge replied. The foster mother has expressed an interest in adopting the children.

More than 420 foster children remain missing throughout Florida. Most of the missing children are teenage runaways, and authorities believe most of the teens have returned to their birth parents, whom the children continue to love.

''Our kids, for the most part, yearn for their natural parents,'' Flora Beal, DCF's Miami spokeswoman, said.

``They don't stop loving their parents just because they are abusive.''
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking_news/story/523668.html

[KittyMom]

Isn't it sad that this woman doesn't realize just how blessed she is?