Caregivers arrested in hopes of learning missing girl's fate

As the search for Rilya Wilson continues, two women now face multiple fraud and deception charges.

©Associated Press
October 3, 2002

MIAMI -- Authorities arrested the former caregivers for Rilya Wilson on Wednesday and said they think the two women know what happened to the girl, whose disappearance exposed disarray in Florida's child welfare agency.

Geralyn and Pamela Graham, who claim to be sisters, were arrested on several fraud and deception charges related to Rilya's disappearance. Geralyn Graham's adult son and daughter also were arrested.

Doyle Jourdan, regional director of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, said investigators hope the arrests lead to Rilya.

"We think that the people we've arrested today are the people that most likely know the whereabouts of Rilya Wilson," he said. "We are operating under the assumption she's alive."

FDLE Commissioner James T. "Tim" Moore was more restrained.

"I'm an eternal optimist," he said. "We hope for a successful, happy ending, but facts and statistics are not on our side."

Geralyn and Pamela Graham stole $14,257 in food stamps and welfare payments by lying, authorities say. The two are accused of accepting payments for Rilya after the January 2001 date they say a person claiming to be a Department of Children and Families worker took the girl.

Investigators are not sure of Geralyn Graham's name because she has used more than 40 aliases. They also have been unable to establish that the Grahams are sisters.

"We're not sure what their association is," Jourdan said. "We know that they lived together. We know that they're partners in crime."

Geralyn Graham was charged with seven counts of public assistance fraud and one count each of forgery, driver's license fraud, title fraud and making a false affidavit. She was held on $600,000 bail.

Pamela Graham was charged with six counts of aiding and abetting public assistance fraud, five counts of welfare fraud and one count of grand theft. She was held on $140,000 bail.

Geralyn Graham's son, Leo Epson, was charged with grand theft and making a false statement. Her daughter, Jacqueline Epson, was charged with public assistance fraud. Leo Epson's bail was $25,000; his sister's, $5,000.

All four suspects face possible five-year prison terms if convicted.

Geralyn Graham was accused of forging Rilya's custody and immunization records to get state aid.

Pamela Graham and Leo Epson were accused of fleecing Camillus House, a Miami institution for the homeless, by claiming he was about to be evicted by her and needed money to pay the rent.

Neither Geralyn Graham nor her children would respond to questions as they were led out of FDLE's Miami headquarters and taken to jail.

Geralyn Graham's attorney, Ed Shohat, did not immediately return a phone call. Pamela Graham's attorney, Joshua Fisher, said he had not spoken to his client and could not comment. But he said he regarded the arrests as politically motivated.

"A month before an election they decide that they're going to arrest these people," Fisher said. "It's pretty clear that they're trying to throw the press and the public a bone. They can't find the girl so let's get them for something else."

The four suspects were to have their initial court hearings today.

Rilya -- whose sixth birthday was Sunday -- lived with Geralyn Graham, who claimed to be her paternal grandmother, and Pamela Graham, who had legal custody, from April 2000 until January 2001. Rilya's biological mother lost her parental rights when Rilya was an infant, and the identity of her biological father is unclear, according to her child welfare file.

Geralyn Graham has said a DCF worker took Rilya for evaluation and never returned her. The girl was supposed to receive monthly visits from a DCF caseworker but was not reported missing until April 25 because of bureaucratic blunders.

The case and other revelations of DCF sloppiness eventually led to the resignation of top administrators, including Secretary Kathleen Kearney.

Geralyn Graham, 56, has a long history of criminal and civil court cases, according to the FDLE. She has been a lay pastor and a managed care worker, ran her own business and was once charged in Miami-Dade County with bouncing checks. In Tennessee, she served a two-year prison sentence for a 1985 food stamp fraud conviction.

Court and medical records also show that dementia was diagnosed in Geralyn Graham in 1996, when she was found to be experiencing hallucinations and "organic personality syndrome" that a doctor said stemmed from a traffic accident.

FDLE Commissioner Moore said Geralyn Graham's background "gives every reasonable citizen pause to doubt that she is telling the truth about other things, most notably the whereabouts of Rilya." He said there is still no firm information on what happened to Rilya or whether she is alive.

He said the reward for information leading to Rilya's recovery was raised Wednesday from $75,000 to $100,000. Rilya's face has been on billboards in Miami and on fliers nationwide.

"Somebody somewhere knows where Rilya is and the circumstances behind the disappearance," Moore said.

-- Information from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel was used in this report.

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