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E130: Everlyse Cabrera
2.3k Plays4 years ago
When a two-year-old girl went missing in the middle of the night and her foster family insisted that she must have left of her own accord, concerns of the validity of those claims were raised in everyone’s minds. Given the questionable history of the family she was with, many wonder if Everlyse Cabrera was just another child who fell through the cracks of the foster care system.
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Transcript
Introduction & Sponsor
00:00:00
Speaker
We are excited to announce that this episode is being sponsored by Zencaster, our very own podcast recording platform. Make sure you listen for more information in the middle of the episode and in the show notes to hear exactly why we love Zencaster so much and how you yourself can get a discount.
Spotlight on Unforbidden Truth Podcast
00:00:20
Speaker
Maggie and I have become friends with other true crime podcasters. And sometimes there's a podcast so unique that we feel it's worth sharing whenever we get the chance. Enter Andrew Dodge and his podcast, Unforbidden Truth. Andrew visits and interviews convicted murderers and other criminals, as well as professionals in criminal justice and psychology. And the results are often eyeopening. Here's a little about the show from Andrew himself.
00:00:53
Speaker
My name is Andrew Dodge. I have spent the last 11 years getting to know some of America's most notorious criminals, such as serial killers, spree killers, mass murderers, domestic and foreign terrorists, and many more types of criminals. Unforbidden Truth will bring you exclusive interviews with convicted criminals, professionals in the mental health and law enforcement field, and much more. Subscribe to Unforbidden Truth on any podcast platform to join me on a one-of-a-kind true crime experience.
Insights from Middle Schoolers
00:01:19
Speaker
As a teacher who's been blessed enough to work in both a high school and a middle school setting, I can say with utmost certainty that middle schoolers share way more about their lives, interests, families, really everything than high schoolers do. Chances are your kids, middle school teachers, know a lot about you, whether you like it or not. We know when you ground your kid. We know when you're dating a new woman.
00:01:45
Speaker
We know where you go on vacation. We know everything, even the things we don't really want to know. We know about the divorce that's devastating your kid because no one has sat them down to explain the relationship was toxic. We know when you come home drunk and keep them up all night. We know when you relapse.
Understanding the Foster Care System
00:02:04
Speaker
And we know when they're scared, they'll be placed in foster care.
00:02:08
Speaker
In theory, the foster care system is a good thing. And for our out of country listeners, foster care is a system in which a minor has been placed into a ward, a group home or even a private home of a state certified caregiver referred to as a foster parent.
00:02:23
Speaker
or with a family member approved by the state. The placement of the child is normally arranged through the government or a social services agency. Foster care isn't where juvenile delinquents go, though many believe that's the case. It's where children go when their parents cannot, for many reasons, care for them. The goal for a child in the foster care system is usually to be reunited with her birth family, but that can change to adoption when this is seen as in the child's best interests.
00:02:52
Speaker
So again, in theory, we're temporarily taking kids from unsafe situations, placing them somewhere safe as we work with birth families to be able to care for their kids again. But in truth, like so many systems in the United States, the foster care system isn't always perfect. Many kids in foster care report being physically and sexually abused by their foster parents.
00:03:13
Speaker
According to adoption.org, quote, foster care is generally safe. The statistics tell us that rates of abuse are incredibly low. However, no statistic can tell us true numbers of abuse as many types of abuse are historically unreported. Foster care agencies are doing a much better job of regulating caseloads and making sure children don't fall through the cracks.
00:03:35
Speaker
There are firmer guidelines in place to screen foster families. However, there is a crisis for a need for foster families and safe places for these kids to have stability and peace." And according to focusforhealth.org, a John Hopkins University study of a group of foster children in Maryland found that children in foster care are four times more likely to be sexually abused than their peers on in this setting. And children in group homes are 28 times more likely to be abused.
00:04:04
Speaker
An Oregon and Washington state study determined that almost one-third of foster care children reported abuse by a foster parent or another adult in the home. Researchers of a study of investigators on abuse in New Jersey foster homes concluded that no assurances can be given, that any foster child in the state is safe. More than half of child sex trafficking victims recovered through FBI raids across the US in 2013 were from foster care groups or home groups, end quote.
00:04:33
Speaker
It's heartbreaking when a child has to live in fear with their birth family and downright devastating when they also feel unsafe in foster care. The premise is there, but the system seems broken.
Case Introduction: Everlyce Cabrera
00:04:46
Speaker
The baby at the center of today's case seemed to simply disappear from her foster parents' home. Somebody knows where she is, but who will talk? This is the story of Everlyce Cabrera.
00:05:15
Speaker
So.
00:05:35
Speaker
Welcome to coffee and cases where we like our coffee hot and our cases cold. My name is Alison Williams. And my name is Maggie Dameron. We will be telling stories each week in the hopes that someone out there with any information concerning the cases will take those tips to law enforcement. So justice and closure can be brought to these families.
00:05:54
Speaker
With each case, we encourage you to continue in the conversation on our Facebook page, Coffee and Cases podcast, because as we all know, conversation helps to keep the missing person in the public consciousness, helping keep their memories alive. So sit back, sip your coffee, and listen to what's brewing this week. So Allison, after two long days, because
00:06:19
Speaker
Well, I've been keeping a countdown on my board for school days left until summer vacation, so I don't count today when I get up. Once you get to school, it's rounded off. So tomorrow we'll make, I think, 18 days that we have of school until summer vacation.
00:06:39
Speaker
So my little people have been very hyper since probably the beginning of April. So I am in the need of some good things. So I thought we could start out with shout outs like we normally do. Sounds like a perfect plan. And we've had several new like
00:07:07
Speaker
reviews on Apple Podcast. Not all of them have been written, but we've read a couple written ones. Listen, I'm good with a five star. Whether there's a written review or not, though, I do like to read the written part.
00:07:17
Speaker
Right. Same. I mean, we're English teachers, so of course. Same. And we check it like every day. So we know when we get new ones. That's all right. So I wanted to start with thanking Lauren James, mama of two, and she gave us the sweetest review on Apple podcast. She said, quote, I'm obsessed with your podcast. I literally listened to it every day. I heard it once and I was like, I like this.
00:07:40
Speaker
and ever since then I've been trying to catch up so I'm listening to all of them and from end quote so from the sound of her review Lauren and I sound like we would be like kindred spirits because I could hear myself saying I heard this and I was like I like it
00:07:57
Speaker
That is totally something that you would say, like 100%. Also, while we are on this topic of listeners, I do not want to ignore our listeners on other platforms other than Apple. So we also wanted to say thank you to mommy of 40 little toes.
00:08:22
Speaker
I had to do the math. I was like, Oh my God, that's a lot of kids. And then I was like, Oh wait, no, it's four. You left us a review on pod chaser. She said, quote, I love listening to both of you. Your podcast is awesome. And listening to you trying to pronounce Southern words and places always makes me giggle and quote. So thank you for laughing along with us because Maggie, I love you, but we all know you can't pronounce rural.
00:08:51
Speaker
at all. So true. I mean do you have any other words for us today that you are struggling with? Well not so much today because um when I listen obviously to news stories before so I can figure out that I'm pronouncing everything correctly um but it helps because um well the family today is Hispanic so that in itself for my
00:09:22
Speaker
tongue caused a lot of...
00:09:24
Speaker
a lot of thickness, it was hard to say some things. But it was helpful today that like last week where we didn't really name a lot of people involved, the same is gonna be for this week's case. And I say that because this week's case one will be in Nevada, which I don't know, have we ever been there before? I don't, I think this is our first.
00:09:52
Speaker
So we are in Nevada for the very first time then. But today's case has won. No people have ever been named in this case. So you can find their names. They're on a lot of the news stories that I read. But just for us, I'm not going to name any names. So they're going to be foster family and birth family or foster mom and birth mom.
Everlyce's Troubled Background
00:10:22
Speaker
and Also like last week's episode and actually I feel like a lot of our episodes there are gonna be a Lot of hypotheticals This place also potentially lends itself to some type of like some form of stereotyping because again, we're gonna be talking about foster families and addiction so We're gonna be talking about that
00:10:53
Speaker
and giving everybody the benefit of the doubt because we don't know for sure what happened and because to be the best that we can be in covering this case, I think it's fair that we give everybody the same benefit of the doubt. Okay. So let's talk about the case. I'm ready. So Everly's at the time was two. Her younger brother Benjamin was 11 months old. So the cutest stages. Yeah.
00:11:23
Speaker
when they ended up in foster care. And like so many other kids, they ended up in foster care because both of their parents were struggling with drug abuse, which is a very common reason that kids will be taken from the home. Now, as kids get older, obviously when they're in elementary school, middle school, high school,
00:11:45
Speaker
we know more about their lives because they're around adults. And so that's reported sometimes through school or through extracurricular activities, but I'm not sure how they really came to be on police radar. I don't know if they had a criminal history and that kind of put the spotlight on them. Neighbor or family called in or something. Yeah. But I do know through my research that being the 11 month old,
00:12:14
Speaker
was addicted to drugs at birth, cocaine to be specific. So I'm wondering if maybe that kind of sorted everything. But the duo does end up in foster care after being seized by Child Protective Services. While the parents struggled to get clean, their children actually bounced from a couple different orphanages and they actually moved into several different counties.
00:12:44
Speaker
So they're from orphanage to orphanage and county to county. Okay. Their parents though, which I think speaks a lot to them.
00:12:54
Speaker
were never far behind when they had the cash or jobs to accommodate moving. So if their kids moved to a different county, they tried to move to that county as well. So they could kind of keep in touch with their kids, which I think speaks a lot to them. So they are trying their best to get their own lives kind of back in order to get their kids back.
00:13:22
Speaker
Yeah, from everything I read, it seemed that the two were trying to get clean so that they could get their kids back because like you said, that's the purpose of this system. The purpose isn't for the government to rip kids away from their families and to tear families apart. It's to actually keep them together because we're helping families get back on their feet so that they can take care of their kids.
00:13:47
Speaker
Right, like let's remove the children from the situation so you could focus on your own health and wellbeing and then reintroduce the kids to the home. I mean, that's the premise behind it. Does that always happen? Maybe not, but it's good at its bones. Right.
00:14:03
Speaker
biological parents did continue to see Everly's as they had visitation hours, although at the time of the story they actually lived in California and the kids lived in Nevada.
Foster Family's Problematic History
00:14:16
Speaker
Which, depending on where they are in California, might not be that far of a drive.
00:14:22
Speaker
I'm not a parent and I don't pretend to know what it is like to be one, but I can imagine the stress is a lot to deal with at times. I think of these parents trying to break their addiction and get their kids back. I know they must have felt immense pressure because you not only have the pressure of
00:14:44
Speaker
You have birthed humans into the world, but you also have this pressure of you're trying to get your life back to where it needs to be. Right. I mean, heck, Rodney and I did low carb diets and we were like, oh my gosh, I'm craving pasta. Oh my goodness, I'm craving sugar. And I literally looked at him and I was like, if it's this bad with carbs, can you imagine how hard it would be
00:15:14
Speaker
to get yourself clean from drugs. Oh, yeah. So if we're this way with that thing, which is small, and where, you know, it hasn't changed our brain chemistry, imagine how hard that is to get your life back together.
00:15:30
Speaker
Yeah. And then have the added pressure of your kids are taken from you. Right. So while birth parents struggled to get clean, their kids went from like a group home kind of situation called child haven to a temporary
00:15:47
Speaker
Shelter home thing to foster care eventually ending up with the this foster family Okay, and I'm sure that the birth parents felt a little bit of relief because their foster family was from what I've read Well respected
00:16:08
Speaker
Mm-hmm, and I'm gonna say that loosely because I'm wondering how much people really knew about them But they were like it helped ease The bear mind. Yeah. Yeah, and the birth mom actually explained quote initially we felt good because we were told all those things said don't worry that the kids were checked on once a month and
00:16:31
Speaker
They do home inspections once a month that they're highly recommended. End quote. So all good things for a parent who is worried about their kids. Right. So they're like, OK, well, at least if they have to go to a foster home, this is a safe and good one. It's what I'm thinking. And there's reassurance that somebody's coming in monthly to check on the kids and do these home visits. So, you know, there's that reassurance, too. We know from Irvin Greniger, the third case, that's not
00:17:01
Speaker
doesn't always happen. Well this case is the same. So unfortunately the things that the birth parents had been told about the foster family were pretty much far from the truth. In fact in an article called and I'm shortening this because when I typed out the entire article name it was three lines long
00:17:25
Speaker
that's a little ridiculous yeah so i'm shortening it we've always said shorten your titles people yes shorten your titles i mean like you weigh so much ink just printing your titles no wonder the newspapers are going out of business seriously so we're going to call this one 14 years ago a two-year-old girl disappears in the middle of the night that's what we're going to call it
00:17:46
Speaker
And it continues on after that. But according to that article, it said, quote, Everly's shouldn't have been in that foster care home in the first place. This information only came to light when the county asked an independent consultant to review its case files involving the foster home. During this review, the consult also interviewed child protective services staff and medical personnel.
00:18:13
Speaker
foster family, I'm leaving out their names, were licensed in June of 2005. However, they raised red flags from the very beginning. Soon after they received their first child, a three-year-old boy, they wanted the child removed from their home immediately. When the county didn't move fast enough, the foster family took the matter into their own hands and dumped the child at Child Haven." End quote.
00:18:35
Speaker
Uh, yeah, they should not be given any other foster children. If they're just going to be like, well, I don't want this one. You haven't responded to my call quick enough. So I'm just going to drop them off someplace. Right. I'm just going to drop them off this child. Hey, then if they don't take him, I'll drop him off to the fire department. Yeah, that's not good. So that's the first incident. So in June of 2005, they have the kid that they decide they don't want any longer. Mm-hmm.
00:19:04
Speaker
And then in December of 2005, a second foster kid comes into their care and actually ended up in the emergency room with burns all over his body, allegedly caused by spilling hot soup.
00:19:24
Speaker
So Alison at first I'm like This is a little weird, right? You're in the ER because you spill hot soup on you. Yeah. Okay, but then as I'm typing this episode This a lot a core memory for me, but I forgot that I had Okay, I remember that something very similar happened to my cousin while she did not have them all over her body She did
00:19:54
Speaker
burn herself on soup. We were in probably second or third grade. Well, I was in second or third grade, so she was third or fourth grade. And she was carrying soup from my granny's kitchen, ramen noodles to be exact, into the dining room. And she dropped the bowl as she was carrying it. And it's built on her foot. And it caused third degree burns from the soup. We had to take her to the ER, or they did. And she had to wear bandages on her foot for a really long time.
00:20:24
Speaker
Well, while we're on this subject, a guy I dated when I was in grad school, I feel so bad about this to this day. He was at my apartment and I was making dinner for the two of us. I'm pretty sure I was making pork chops, you know, and there's a little bit of oil in the pan.
00:20:45
Speaker
Well, I go into the living room and I can see in the reflection of my china cabinet where this pot of pork chops is on the stove and I see flames coming up from it.
00:20:59
Speaker
And so he ran in there to grab it and he started to do water. And I was like, no, you know, water on grease. Luckily he didn't, but he ran with the, uh, pot outside the door and then like dropped it on the ground. But the oil was splashing and got on his hand and I had to take him to the emergency room and he had third degree burns on his hand.
00:21:27
Speaker
And it's a lot. Oh no. So I've literally scarred someone for life. Literally. Unintentionally. But you know, that happened not that exact scenario, but a girl I knew in college, she picked up a test tube in the biology lab and just forgot to use a little on thing. She just grabbed it and not wanting to get in trouble. She didn't drop it. So she actually carried it across the room and it was so hot. It burnt her fingerprints off.
00:21:59
Speaker
So she could kill someone now. Get away with it. So you're right. I mean, this did initially sound crazy, but maybe not so. Maybe not so much. Maybe not impossible after all.
00:22:15
Speaker
What is crazy to me, and you're going to agree, is that the foster family waited a total of eight hours before seeking medical attention for this kid, which is crazy. That's not crazy. That is unconscionable. Like I cannot imagine how somebody could do that.
00:22:34
Speaker
Right. Like seems to me that they should have gone straight to the ER since the injuries were accidental and so bad. Why try to hide it? And he did suffer second and third degree burns and actually required a night in the hospital. Wow. So these were bad. And following this incident, a child protective services investigation was ordered, but it never happened. Oh my gosh. So it is like,
00:23:04
Speaker
again falling through the cracks. Mm hmm. Yep. There was
00:23:12
Speaker
not a full blown investigation, but a follow-up a few weeks later when an investigator questioned the foster mother, but she was like, you know, the burns were accidental. It was not anybody's fault. The investigators like, okay, see you later. Oh no. And that kind of really bothers me. I don't know why.
00:23:36
Speaker
we find it so difficult to believe kids. Like why as adults do we automatically mark kids as liars? Because why would they lie about a situation at a house they potentially have to go back to, you know? Exactly. Yeah. Like they're not going to make it worse for themselves. Right. But no allegations of child abuse or neglect were ever filed on this foster care family.
00:24:03
Speaker
But the kid in question was removed from the home. So, so far we've had two kids removed from the house. And this is before Everly's and her brother go there. Correct. Yeah. And over the next month, three other kids moved in and out of this home and, you know,
00:24:22
Speaker
Again, I don't know these backstories. So I don't know if they came from other foster care homes and you know, their say was short because they were going back to their families because that's the goal. I don't, I don't know why they were taken out. Um, but I do know of the three, two, they took to the child haven. So there was only,
00:24:51
Speaker
So they're just dropping them back off. That didn't end up back at Todd Haven. Wow. Right. And this behavior concerned the county as obviously it shows a lack of commitment and a temporary hold was put on all placements in this foster care home in 2006. So that brings us to the year in question.
00:25:16
Speaker
And according to that gigantically long article that I cited earlier, the hold was lifted in April of 2006. Wow. So three months later.
00:25:27
Speaker
Right. Very long hold there. Okay. Yeah.
The Night of Disappearance & Investigation
00:25:30
Speaker
Super, super good. And the foster family's license was renewed despite, and this grinds my gears. So their foster license was renewed despite the family's failure to complete the required training, which was literally from what I read, just videos they had to watch. I'd be like, if you don't even have the commitment to do that, how the heck are you going to have a commitment to take care of a child?
00:25:57
Speaker
Right. And one that you didn't birth into the world and one that is going to have a lot of emotional back. Right. Wow. And I know people get tired. I know people get burned out. There probably isn't a teacher or a nurse on this planet that hasn't felt some type of burnout since COVID sent us all home in 2020. But the thing is you can't let the burnout change how you manage your job or in this case, how you manage,
00:26:26
Speaker
your foster care home. Perhaps the person responsible for training them, like maybe they tried to reach them multiple times to renew their training and all the attempts failed. And they were just kind of like, well, you know, they passed it before so we'll just pass them now or we're in really, you know,
00:26:44
Speaker
We're in need for foster families, so I don't want to pester them too much. So we'll just renew it. But as a nation, we have to do better. We have to hold these people accountable. They signed up to be a safe house for kids in need. So there has to be some type of accountability there. I agree. So at the same time that the family neglected their training, Everlyce and Ben move into their house.
00:27:10
Speaker
And on June 10th, 2006, in the 6500 block of Diamond Point Court in North Las Vegas, Everly's was seen for the last time.
00:27:25
Speaker
When Allison and I no longer work together, we knew that recording the podcast could potentially be hard. How were we going to record and maintain crisp audio sound when we now had to record remotely? Luckily for us, that's when we found Zencaster.
00:27:40
Speaker
Maggie and I use ZenCaster each week to record our episodes and it couldn't possibly be any easier. You don't even have to download a program. I create the session for which you can record audio, video, or both and email Maggie the link. She clicks and that's it.
00:27:57
Speaker
Even when we have guests who aren't tech savvy, all they have to do is click the link to join the recording. Zencaster is an all-in-one podcast production suite that gives you studio quality audio and video without needing all the technical know-how.
00:28:12
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And once you're finished recording, the magic of Zencaster continues as it is securely backed up on the cloud, so no more lost files. You get a transcript generated from your recording and you have crisp quality material to work with in post-production.
00:28:28
Speaker
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00:28:59
Speaker
All right, Allison, so here are the very few details that we know of Everly's final night in the foster care home. Okay. After putting her to bed, the foster family went about their normal like evening activities, you know, I assume picking up the house, relaxing together, reading, watching TV, you know, normal things. Mm hmm.
00:29:30
Speaker
They stated that they checked in on the babies around 1 a.m. that night and everything was normal. They added that Everly's was sound asleep and dreaming peacefully in her bed. So, so far so good. Okay.
00:29:48
Speaker
But in between the peaceful one a.m. slumber and breakfast time, something unthinkable happened when the family went to check on her at eight that morning, according to them, which kudos for you guys.
00:30:02
Speaker
for getting very little sleep because i can tell you if i went to bed after 1 am they're probably falling asleep like two yeah kudos to you all for being those elite people that need zero sleep but when they go to check on her at eight that morning her bed was empty and she was nowhere to be seen in the house did they not lock their doors
00:30:28
Speaker
OK. So this was something you know again I'm not a parent so my brain doesn't think that way. But one of my kids at school was talking about their sister has learned to unlock doors and so their family has been and she's too. So they've been oh like putting locks up higher where she can't reach. I didn't think that kids that small could do that but apparently they can. Oh.
00:30:58
Speaker
My little sleuthound luckily never tried. Oh, yeah I mean that when they were talking about that that really scared me because I was like, what if that really happened? You're sound asleep your kids Apparently safe in their bedroom and then you wake up the next morning and they're not there. I'm gonna I don't know. I'm gonna have like a large something on doors, right? Right gave me instant anxiety, you know, yeah So
00:31:25
Speaker
Hi, this next detail that I want to tell you, I am led to believe that the Foster family must have looked for little Everly's before alerting the police because there is quite a large gap of time that passed before she was reported missing to the local police department. So this is kind of like when the, when the one kid was taken eight hours after the burns. So even after they discovered she's missing, they're just waiting. This is exactly like that.
00:31:55
Speaker
Okay, so the foster family actually didn't report her missing until noon of that day So nearly 12 hours from the last time they saw her asleep and over four hours from the time they discovered her to be gone Wow So I'm just trying to say in my mind you know, maybe they were out canvassing the area for her before they called police and
00:32:19
Speaker
That helps me sleep a little bit better. I don't know that that was true. I still think it was true, but. Yeah, I would think I would believe that if it were an older child. Like if my little sleuth hound, who's 13, were missing. Well, no, I would still call police immediately, but I might at least first call people who, you know, other family or whatever around. But if it's a two year old, I'm calling police immediately.
00:32:49
Speaker
Yeah, because really where, you know, with where would they go? You're a sleuth hound. Yeah, you could justify. Oh, you know, maybe I forgot and she was meeting a friend down the street for breakfast. You know, you can justify little things like that. But when they're two, they know nobody. So this is what the prevailing theory was that the foster family held and what they told police must have happened.
00:33:19
Speaker
Okay. Now again, I don't have kids. You have had a two year old. You tell me if you think this is possible. All right. So they say that she must have, you know, woken up, gotten up from bed. Okay. That can happen. Walked into the kitchen.
00:33:45
Speaker
Pushed a chair to the door, climbed said chair, unlocked the door's deadbolt, removed the chair so that she could walk out, and walked out of the house into the night. Because they said that their door was open when they got up in the morning. No. Nope.
00:34:06
Speaker
First of all, OK, a two year old thing, even if a two year old climbed on a chair and unlocked the door, the two year old is not going to be like, I should move this chair back to where it came from. No, they would. If it were moved out of the way, it would be knocked out of the way. You know what I mean? Like, nope, I don't believe it. Right. And like.
00:34:27
Speaker
I think, in my mind, this is a very determined little girl with a very good attention span to be able to complete all of these steps to escape.
00:34:42
Speaker
And they wouldn't be easy for her to do. Moving the chair alone is a feat for a two-year-old. Right. And I don't know any two-year-old that has enough attention span to say, all right, I'm walking to the kitchen. I'm moving this chair. I'm going to climb up on it. Oh, this is kind of harder than I thought it was. This is taking a little bit. All right. Let's open this. Let's turn this deadbolt. Nope. Turn it.
00:35:06
Speaker
turn it okay got it right chair back so i could open the door like it's just a lot of things it's just not gonna happen right too much
00:35:16
Speaker
The detective that covered the case said, quote, she found, meaning the foster mom, that Everly's was missing and she reported that the front door of the home was partially open with a small chair pushed against it and that the child had most likely wandered out of the home, end quote. Hmm. And I feel like even if you unlocked the lock, turning that door handle for a two year old who has teeny tiny hands, that'd be kind of difficult.
00:35:47
Speaker
You know, hadn't even thought of that. That is hard. Yeah. Yeah.
00:35:51
Speaker
I don't buy this theory, but we'll keep going. Okay. Police did react really fast and soon a huge search was on for the little girl. The detective in charge said that officers working the case came from all over. They searched high and low looking for her. He said, quote, I can tell you an extensive investigation was done of the neighborhood of the desert areas around looking for Everly's alive or otherwise, end quote.
00:36:21
Speaker
So, you know, the search is extensive. We're looking in the desert. We're looking around the neighborhood. Volunteers from the community also got involved in the search. And this pulls out my heartstrings. But, um, Everly says biological parents who lost custody of her came in from California and handed out flyers in an effort to find her. Yes. And I think
00:36:52
Speaker
One, it's hard, as we talked about, trying to overcome the addiction. Two, it would be hard because your kids are in foster care. And three, it's another thing to try to deal with now because one of your kids is missing. Right.
00:37:10
Speaker
It was reported by many people and in many of the sources that I read that foster parents lacked any enthusiasm in the hunt for a release. And in fact, think about how easily they just dropped off the other kids. Right. And I don't know. I just feel like even if
00:37:34
Speaker
they're not your biological kids, you should still love them because they're in your home. And just the lack of their involvement, I think, speaks a lot in this case. And in the Charlie Project, it said that the family actually stopped cooperating with police early on in the investigation.
Legal Actions & Systemic Failures
00:37:55
Speaker
And then- The foster family did? Yeah, foster family.
00:37:57
Speaker
But actually, the more I read and then I watched some stuff on it too, said that the Foster family stopped talking to police day one. They report her missing and... And then they're like, okay, I've done my duty. Yeah. Done. I've done my duty. She's been reported missing. Leave me the heck alone. Wow.
00:38:19
Speaker
So at first, it is believed that the toddler left the house on her own account, which gave everyone hope that she would be found. I mean, after all, how far could she have possibly gone? She would have been in pajamas. She would have been barefoot because what two year old is going to be like, wait, let me put on my shoes. Butch could have gone pretty far in four hours. That's right. Well, that's right.
00:38:44
Speaker
Even if something unthinkable had happened to her, I'm thinking, you know, maybe she drowned. Maybe she was struck by a car. Right. Surely police would have stumbled upon her body. We're searching everywhere. Exactly.
00:38:58
Speaker
But as the hours and days pass by, there was absolutely no trace of Everly's. And the lack of the cooperation from the foster parents, it pretty much became obvious to the investigators that someone knew more than they were letting on.
00:39:17
Speaker
The Charlie Project, which Sleuthounds, if you have never checked out the Charlie Project, I really like the Charlie Project. It's a lot of very straightforward information and I'm pretty positive. Isn't it like solely donations from the Charlie Project?
00:39:35
Speaker
But they stated that authorities said no one outside the foster family, your mouth is going to drop, remembers having seen Everly's after May the 15th. Oh my goodness. Yes, and we're in early June.
00:39:56
Speaker
So, yeah, this is, I mean, on a smaller scale, but the Ervin Greniger, the third case where people are like, oh, I haven't seen him in this long. Wow, poor Everly. So it could have been long before the date she was reported missing. Yeah. And
00:40:15
Speaker
That particular day that her biological parents last saw her, so they were the last ones to see her outside the foster home, they noticed that she had a burn on her hand. So burns again. One times an accident, two times isn't. Right. And I read that when they asked for an explanation from the foster parents, they were pretty much like,
00:40:41
Speaker
told to back off, they gave them no answer. Which, you know, is a typical response, obviously. If, though, like you said, these allegations were true, that is multiple children having burn marks from this home.
00:40:57
Speaker
Mm-hmm and more serving than the family not completing their training So we have the you know, we're not really trained to be foster family We've let kids be burnt multiple times. We have also let our adult son live in our home living there Not Being cleared by with a criminal background check Which is a huge no. No, we don't know I
00:41:28
Speaker
And that's the issue, right? Like we don't know if he would have cleared the background check or would he have failed this background check.
00:41:40
Speaker
Well, we don't know that, but my initial issue was just the fact that he was living in the house without one. Right. Right. Exactly. Because that in and of itself is a no-no. Problematic. Yeah. Still though, the search for a release continued. The detective said multiple times they are having an extensive investigation. They're combing everything.
00:42:05
Speaker
But despite all those efforts, Allison, no trace of the little girl was ever found. Oh, wow. Her biological parents actually filed a lawsuit against her foster family and the Clark County Nevada Department of Family Services in September of 2006, which yes, good. So many
00:42:29
Speaker
bad things. They filed alleging negligence and supervising and monitoring. True. Yes. They cited all the things that we talked about, the lack of the training renewals, the burn marks that were reported, the unchecked adult son living at home, all of that brought up in this lawsuit. Yep.
00:42:51
Speaker
And the Charlie Project said, quote, attorneys for the child's birth parents unsuccessfully attempted to question the foster family about their custody of every lease during depositions in March. The birth family have brought a lawsuit against Clark County and several individuals related to every lease's time and foster care alleging child endangerment and failure to safeguard the girl once she was in protective custody, end quote. And again,
00:43:17
Speaker
Yes to all of those. Yeah. Yeah. Because she is missing. Had she been properly cared for then this story would not be taking place right now. Right.
00:43:28
Speaker
At the time of all these depositions, the Foster family exercised their Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination, which was challenged by attorneys who represented the birth parents, but eventually their right for the Fifth Amendment ruled superior. Okay.
00:43:51
Speaker
I will say, you know, there's a lot of confusion regarding the Fifth Amendment. When I hear that people take the fifth, I'm automatically like, you're guilty. Right. Why are you not talking?
00:44:02
Speaker
But I mean, really, that's not always the case. The Fifth Amendment is a law that was added to the US Constitution in 1791. I looked it up as part of the Bill of Rights, and it's still something we use today. And it safeguards a lot of our liberties as individuals. So it ensures that we have
00:44:24
Speaker
Like we're protected against double jeopardy. We're protected against self-incrimination. We have due process. So all of these things that are important to us. So when the foster parents pleaded the fifth, it doesn't necessarily mean they were guilty. Right. They were just protecting their brides and they have those for a reason. So it's lawful for them to do that, even if we kind of frown upon it. Sort of like not taking a polygraph test.
00:44:49
Speaker
Right. Exactly. Which we talk about all the time. Yeah. Yes. The lawsuit was eventually settled out of court for $300,000 in September of 2007. And it released her foster family from future civil liabilities. Hmm.
00:45:07
Speaker
Which to me means they, does that mean that let's say we found incriminating evidence they couldn't be brought to trial or is it just civil? Like civil's different. Civil is different than criminal.
00:45:23
Speaker
Right. So like they couldn't be sued again over this, but they could be brought up against like with criminal charges. I would think so because the charges themselves would be different. Right. Okay. That makes me feel a little bit better. The funds were paid by the foster families insurance company, which was provided by the County. So then I guess the taxpayer, the County taxpayers paid this settlement. Okay.
Legacy & Theories
00:45:49
Speaker
Right. Same reaction for me. Um, her parents, actually her biological parents did go on to donate $35,000 to a nonprofit organization called Child Focus. And they started the Everly's Everlasting Education Fund and the money was used for tutoring and mentoring services for foster children in Clark County in the public education system. Wow. So I thought that was really sweet.
00:46:16
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, look at, look at our parents here. I mean, they were, they already faced devastation with their addictions and then with losing their kids and now to have fully lost Everly's, you know what I mean? But then to have at least, yeah, despite all of that.
00:46:38
Speaker
So Allison, we don't really know a lot about the investigation. We didn't really find anything. But we are going to talk about a few limited theories. OK. Obviously, the first one we're going to discuss is Everly's leaving of her own accord, which... Right. No. If we believe the information the foster care family gave, then Everly slipped out the front door in the dead of night and wandered off.
00:47:08
Speaker
You know, not totally uncommon. We hear all kinds of horror stories about babies being ran over after escaping their homes or being kidnapped. But I feel more uncommon would be us never finding any evidence of those little ones. Right. Right. Which we haven't here. Investigators do not believe the theory that she left on her own account. Nor do we.
00:47:34
Speaker
And we can all agree that it would take a very determined two-year-old to do all the things needed to escape that room without getting sidetracked. A detective on the case said, quote, a two-year-old wandering out of a home in the middle of the night is significant, but then also she was never found. That would also mean some perpetrator would have had to come around at the exact same time, which would be another significant coincidence.
00:48:02
Speaker
And it's just a lot of coincidences lining up at one time. Right. So not impossible, but not likely. Yeah, not impossible, but not probable. And if it did happen, we need to buy lottery tickets because it's just probable.
00:48:21
Speaker
The second theory, which most are inclined to believe, is that something happened in the foster care home. Again, we don't know this for sure. This is my personal gut feeling, but it is strange to me that no one close to Everly's had seen her for nearly a month before she went missing. I know her parents,
00:48:49
Speaker
might be stereotyped because they were in the court system. They had their kids taken away. They're one of those people that society frowns upon. But from everything that I've read, the two seem to have cared about their kids despite their addictions and were working hard to overcome those addictions. So I find it strange that they wouldn't have been talking to her.
00:49:15
Speaker
Mm-hmm, cuz then we know they had those weekly visits so I don't know if maybe their rights had been restricted or to me I feel the foster parents were probably not letting them speak to every least is what I know but that time that like 15 days or whatever that gap almost
00:49:41
Speaker
makes it seem like the foster family was hiding something. We know there were incidents of other abuse in the home, even though they never were officially given that. We know there were burns, there were delayed ER visits. We know the sun wasn't even clear to be in the home. And I think
00:50:08
Speaker
her waking up in the middle of the night, opening the front door, wandering off, is the perfect excuse. The perfect getaway for anybody. Something happens to her and you don't want to get in trouble, so you wait a long enough amount of time and then she just mysteriously disappears in the dead of night.
00:50:33
Speaker
That's my take on that. Again, total hypothetical. All of these are really hypothetical. There is a theory that Everly's was a child recovered from a Wisconsin drug house.
00:50:50
Speaker
there was an article that I read that said North Las Vegas police were contacted after Wisconsin police found information on Eberly's case and someone through the Wisconsin police said quote we would be remiss if we didn't contact North Las Vegas police said the Green Bay police captain he goes on to say quote there are a lot of similarities end quote and
00:51:18
Speaker
I didn't really read a lot about what type of similarities because, you know, as much as I want to say 2006 was like two years ago. It wasn't. And so really this theory has kind of lost footing.
00:51:34
Speaker
In spite of all the efforts police have put into place, they actually think the girl belonged to a former inmate at a Las Vegas women's prison who gave birth in 2005 and surrendered the infant. So we don't now think it was Everly's. Oh. Oh, from Wisconsin. Yes, the Wisconsin girl.
00:51:57
Speaker
Well, lastly, we do have to mention the possibility that it could have been her biological parents. I read that I only mentioned this because I think
00:52:11
Speaker
She would have easily left with them. She would, you know, recognize them and go with him. I don't really know how they would have got her out of the house without an adult waking up. Right. Unless it's a, you know, a bigger house or the master's on one side and all the other rooms are on the other top. Cause you're not going to coax a two year old to come unlock the door for you in the middle of the night.
00:52:35
Speaker
or like the last time you talk to her say remember you're opening the door for mommy and daddy right at 2 a.m. yeah um the one thing that kind of makes some people say it could be the birth parents is that the couple terminated their rights to all of their kids except ever least
00:52:56
Speaker
not long after this incident. I don't know if it was because they knew the kids would be better off being adopted by whatever family they had been placed with and they didn't terminate their rights to Everly's because the investigation was still ongoing. There's also the part of
00:53:19
Speaker
us that say, well, you know, they're getting money from this to support a bad habit. That's some of the stuff that I read, like on Reddit. And you hate to say that, but I guess anything is a possibility. Yeah. Again, I don't know how they would get her
00:53:37
Speaker
out of the house without somebody waking up. And I don't feel like they would have done all of that donation. Yes. You know, I just don't. The aftermath and those other actions, I don't think that those would have happened if they had anything to do with it. Right. And like, why?
Call to Action & Conclusion
00:53:55
Speaker
your kid is already gone. So like you don't have, and they weren't with you when they went missing. So you don't have to do an action to like make yourself look better. So I feel like them setting that fund up was genuine. So I'm with you. I think the most likely theory, especially with the history of
00:54:19
Speaker
what they called accidents, but what look now like abuse. And with their inconsistency of wanting to kind of follow through with caring for children for any extended period of time, I feel like the Foster family has something to do with it.
00:54:39
Speaker
Detectives also made it clear that the investigation is still ongoing, saying, quote, we have not closed this case and we're actively looking for Everly's Cabrera. Someone knows there is someone who knows what happened. We just need them to tell us, end quote.
00:54:55
Speaker
Sleuthhounds, really this case isn't that old. We will post an age progression picture for you guys. Please share this story and let's find a release. The foster care system may have some holes, it may be broken, but we can all agree that what happened to her should never have happened and together we can work to right a wrong.
00:55:17
Speaker
If we work together to share her story, keep people talking about her, and pull more resources, maybe we can bring a release home. As of today, she is still classified as endangered and missing. And if alive, she would today be 18 years old.
00:55:35
Speaker
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00:56:04
Speaker
Stay together. Stay safe. We'll see you next week.
00:56:27
Speaker
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