Police Search, Dig Around, Barahona Home
SOUTHWEST MIAMI-DADE (CBS4) -- Miami-Dade Police, along with investigators from the West Palm Beach police department, continued searching the home and yard of Jorge and Carmen Barahona Wednesday. The search came more than a week after their 10-year-old adopted daughter's body was found in the family's pick-up truck along with her critically ill twin brother.
In video from Chopper 4, Miami-Dade police investigators could be seen digging up a corner of the backyard of the family's Southwest Miami-Dade home located at 11501 SW 47th Terrace. Investigators could be seen carefully lifting off a heavy lid of what apparently is an old septic tank. It's not known if police were searching for something specific.
The next door neighbor to the Barahona's said he had been smelling an odor "since before Christmas."
"It smelled like something was dead," the neighbor said. "I thought something had died in the attic or in the wall or something. But it just stayed right in my bathroom, mainly coming out of the drain of the tub."
Then one day before the truck was discovered in West Palm Beach, things changed.
"The smell disappeared that Sunday before they found his truck on the side of the road," the neighbor said. "We haven't had the smell since. It was just a dead carcass smell."
Wednesday, officers could be seen going through the family's recycled bottles and lining them up outside the house. A crime scene technician then dusted some of the bottles for fingerprints. Police have not said what they are looking for at the Barahona home.
Jorge Barahona has pleaded not guilty to attempted first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse for allegedly pouring chemicals on his son, Victor, the same day that the body of Victor's sister, Nubia, was found in the truck.
Victor continues to recover at Jackson Memorial Hospital's burn unit.
Victor, and two other children adopted by the Barahonas are at the center of a custody hearing Wednesday afternoon. A biological aunt and uncle from Texas are seeking custody of Victor.
Child welfare officials have said the couple tied the twins' hands and feet and locked them in the bathroom as punishment. The couple, who adopted the twins out of foster care in 2008, has been the subject of three abuse investigations in the past few years.
