‘Miracle’ girl survives burial in old landfill
Published: May 23, 2005
A missing girl was found alive after being buried under rocks in a recycling container in Palm Beach County. A 17-year-old was charged with attempted murder and sexual battery in the case.
The two officers stared down at the pile of stones, saw only a small hand and a foot sticking out and assumed the little girl they had frantically searched for was dead.
They had found her at a secluded landfill Sunday morning, her body stuffed inside a large yellow recycling bin, with rocks and crushed concrete covering her. The bin lay inside a trash container, a squalid last resting place.
The officers summoned a superior, Lake Worth Detective Lt. Dave Matthews, who, after seven tense hours of searching, also thought the case had ended in the worst way.
And then something happened.
”Her hand just moved!” Matthews shouted.
Moments later, the officers unearthed the 8-year-old girl who had lived through a nightmare and survived to identify a teenager as her abductor, sexual attacker and would-be killer, police told The Palm Beach Post.
The girl was found at 10:25 a.m., about seven hours after she was reported missing, according to the Associated Press.
The girl was in St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach on Sunday, where medical staff said she was in good condition. Her alleged assailant, Milagro Cunningham, 17, of Lake Worth, was in custody, on attempted murder, sexual battery and false imprisonment charges. Police said he had confessed.
”Pretty much a miracle,” Lake Worth Mayor Marc Drautz declared.
Police said the weight of rubble dumped on the child would have made it impossible for her to dig her way out. The trash bin was far enough away from any home that a cry for help would never have been heard, The Post reported.
Police said if she hadn’t been found very soon, she almost certainly would have died.
The Sunday miracle was the result of a massive police operation — some 100 officers from local, county and state jurisdictions.
911 CALL
It began at 3:44 a.m. when Lake Worth police received a 911 call from 713 Latona Ct. According to police, it was Cunningham, a guest at that address, who reported a terrible crime:
He told a dispatcher that several unknown men had entered the apartment, abducted the girl, and escaped in a brown station wagon.
Lake Worth police Chief William Smith said patrol officers were notified immediately. An Amber Alert was issued.
Lake Worth police Sgt. Dan Boland said Cunningham made up the story about the station wagon when he was interviewed by police at the home of the girl’s godmother, where Cunningham and the girl had been staying.
Boland said the girl was able to talk to authorities after she was removed from the container.
Detectives then re-interviewed Cunningham, who confessed, Boland said. Investigators were still trying to figure out how long she was buried.
The girl was staying overnight at her godmother’s house when she was abducted, Boland said. Cunningham had lived at the girl’s godmother’s house for about four months, but is not related to the girl, Boland said.
Lisa Taylor, godmother of the girl, had been caring for the child because the mother, a medical secretary, sometimes works on weekends.
Taylor said Cunningham was a friend of her son’s, who had been thrown out of an aunt’s home nearby, allegedly for stealing from that house.
ON PROBATION
A relative at the aunt’s house confirmed the story. He said Cunningham, who had dropped out of high school, had one previous brush with the law, for throwing a rock through a car window. Neighbors told The Post Cunningham was still on probation.
Taylor, who had given Cunningham a place to stay several months ago, said he had always been respectful, helped with household chores and caused no trouble.
”If I could put my hands around his neck, he would be dead,” the 30-year-old mother said of Cunningham. ”He left my daughter to die.” The mother’s name is being withheld to protect the girl’s identity.
The girl later told police that she was raped by Cunningham in her bed, according to Taylor and the mother.
Taylor said the girl had been remarkably brave, had tried to fight off her attacker and had been the one who ripped Cunningham’s shirt.
”She said that she was laying there, that she couldn’t move because the rocks were too heavy,” Taylor said. “But she was waiting because she knew we were coming.”
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