Trapped girl recounts wait for rescue
Associated PressA Lake Worth girl buried amid trash told a friend she knew she would be found. A teen charged in the case could face trial as an adult.
Published May 24, 2005
LAKE WORTH - The last thing she remembered before being stuffed into a trash bin under rocks and concrete blocks was looking into the eyes of the man who was leaving her there to die.
The 8-year-old remained trapped for hours, sleeping intermittently, wondering if anyone would find her. Then she heard muffled voices and people lifting the bin's lid. She wiggled her fingers and heard elated cries.
The girl, who was found by police seven hours after she was reported missing early Sunday, was hospitalized in good condition Monday. After her rescue, she described her attacker to police, leading to the quick arrest of a teenage boy who had been staying at her godmother's home.
"She said the last thing she remembers is that he looked over her ... and then she said she went to sleep. She said she was waiting for us to find her," said Danielle Holloman, 18, a family friend who recounted the girl's story.
Lake Worth police Sgt. Mike Hall found the girl about 10:30 a.m. Sunday after climbing into a 25-foot-long trash bin in a former landfill and opening the lid to a 30-gallon recycling container. Inside, he saw her hand and foot amid the heavy concrete chunks.
Rescuers feared the worst, but the mood turned jubilant when they saw the girl's fingers move.
"There's no doubt in my mind that this child would have been dead if he didn't find her. She was dehydrated and in rough shape with pieces of cement blocks on top of her and she was face-down," Sgt. Dan Boland said. "There was no way for her to get out on her own."
Her disappearance rattled a state outraged over the killings earlier this year of 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford and 13-year-old Sarah Lunde.
The Lake Worth girl had been staying overnight at her godmother's house in this town about 10 miles south of West Palm Beach. She often stayed there on weekends when her mother worked.
Authorities said Milagro Cunningham, 17, who also was living in the house, confessed and was charged with attempted murder, sexual battery on a child under 12 and false imprisonment of a victim under age 13.
The teen initially told investigators the girl may have been abducted by five men in a station wagon and that he followed them but they got away. His story unraveled under questioning, Boland said.
Family friend Holloman said Cunningham's mother lives in the Bahamas, and he was staying with an aunt until she accused him of stealing and kicked him out about four months ago. He then was taken in by Lisa Taylor, Holloman's mother and the girl's godmother.
The teen has a relatively minor criminal record, authorities said. He was on probation for throwing a rock through a car window.
The girl vanished from the bedroom she was sharing with Holloman's 1-year-old son. Her disappearance was discovered when Holloman and Taylor's other teenage daughter came home after a night of roller-skating, authorities said.
A half-hour later, Cunningham knocked on the door, his shirt torn and his clothes covered with dirt. Investigators said he told about the men in the station wagon.
"We all believed him because we never thought he would do something like that," Holloman said.
After an Amber Alert was issued, neighbors saw holes in the story. He first said there were five attackers, then four, then two.
Prosecutors want to charge Cunningham as an adult, and a grand jury will hear the case on Thursday, said Chief Assistant State Attorney Jeanne Howard.