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MIAMI - The former caregiver for a missing foster child now says she lied when she backed up her roommate's story that Rilya Wilson was taken away by a state social worker in early 2001.
Pamela Graham, who is helping prosecutors after agreeing to plead guilty to neglecting and abusing Rilya, told police she had backed up Geralyn Graham's story because she feared being sent to prison.
"I didn't know what had happened to (Rilya)," she told investigators in May, according to court papers released Wednesday.
Rilya was 4 years old when she vanished. Her whereabouts remain unknown.
Her disappearance was not detected by the state until April 2002, triggering an upheaval at the Department of Children and Families.
Pamela Graham had legal custody of Rilya. According to court papers, she told police she came home from work one day in December 2000 to find Rilya gone and begged Geralyn Graham for hours to tell her what happened.
Geralyn Graham would only say Rilya was fine and she didn't hurt her, but they weren't going to see her anymore, Pamela Graham said.
If someone from DCF came to check on the child, "just tell them someone from" the agency took her, she said Geralyn Graham told her.