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FDLE Offers Reward To Find Missing Girl

Case Becomes More Complicated, Investigators Face More Frustration

POSTED: 8:00 a.m. EDT May 10, 2002
UPDATED: 5:02 p.m. EDT May 10, 2002

Frustration is growing for law enforcers unable to find a child who has been missing more than a year.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement announced on Friday that it will offer a $25,000 reward to anyone with information on the child's whereabouts. (The number to call is (888) FL-MISSING.

DNA Proves "Precious Doe" In Kansas City Is Not Rilya Wilson

Kansas City Police say that the DNA of a headless body found in Missouri does not match that of a missing South Florida girl.

Rilya Wilson Speculation that the body, dubbed "Precious Doe" by residents in Kansas City, was Rilya Wilson, 5, was fueled by several similarities in both physical appearance and the fact that the beheaded body was found several months after Wilson disappeared.

The DNA comparison did not match.

There is also more news about the most recent caretakers for Wilson. Police say they provided deceptive answers in a polygraph test, but "the deceptive results may be attributed to questions other than the child," Miami-Dade County police spokesman Ed Munn said.

Munn also said he "can't say what they were deceptive about," and that there was no "concrete evidence" that Riyla had been killed.

Miami-Dade police chief Carlos Alvarez would not say whether Pamela Graham and her sister Geralyn Graham, who claims to be Riyla's grandmother and was taking care of her, are suspects. But he did say,"Everybody involved in this case is being investigated. Nobody is immune."

Ed Shohat, a lawyer for the Grahams, said police had not told him about the polygraph administered last week.

When told of the police announcement, he said: "They seem to be suggesting that it didn't really have anything to do with the disappearance to the child."

Shohat said before the test was given, the Grahams were told by police for the first time that Rilya may have been Precious Doe.

"From my experience, that would have been the worst possible time to administer the polygraph on somebody," Shohat said.

Maria Shohat, also representing the sisters, said Geralyn Graham has been hospitalized at an undisclosed location suffering from dehydration.The Graham sisters were unavailable for comment, their lawyers said.

Governor Speaks

Gov. Jeb Bush met in Miami with investigators today and said it's his "hope and prayer" that the child would be found.

"We're doing everything we can to determine the whereabouts of this child," Bush said.

Alvarez said investigators were making progress in the case and following a number of leads. He said they have established a timeline from Rilya's birth but acknowledged they had to fill in many questions.

"Basically we're starting from scratch," Alvarez said.

More Concerns About "Grandmother"

There are also questions about the mental stability of Geralyn Graham, who said she handed over the 5-year-old child to someone claiming to be a state child welfare worker 15 months ago. Court records show that Graham suffered from dementia and needed her sister to serve as her legal guardian.

Graham was suffering from the mental disease and needed a legal guardian because of a May 1996 car accident, Pamela Graham, the sister, wrote in response to a lawsuit in October 2001.

Geralyn Graham said Wilson was never returned after being removed from the sisters' home in January 2001. The state agency reported the girl missing April 25.

On Thursday, a judge refused to immediately open the state child-welfare agency's file on Rilya but promised to make it public when a police investigation into her disappearance ends.

Miami-Dade County detectives had argued the investigation would be compromised if the file from the Department of Children and Families was released, as at least six news organizations have requested.

Judge Lederman The top priority should be finding Rilya Wilson, then going after whoever took the girl, Circuit Judge Cindy Lederman (pictured. left) said.

Nine months after Rilya's reported disappearance, Pamela Graham wrote a letter in a landlord-tenant dispute in which she said she was Geralyn Graham's guardian. She wrote that her sister "now suffers from dementia."

The dementia was caused by the accident and "the numerous surgeries afterward, including one on her spine to try to allow her proper air and blood flow to her brain," Pamela Graham wrote.

Ed Shohat, attorney for the Grahams, said Thursday that Geralyn Graham "is perfectly capable of normal activities."

"Spend any time with her and you'll recognize that you're dealing with a very competent, intelligent person who appears to be intact in every way," Shohat said.

He said she still has "mostly physical problems today" from the 1996 accident. Shohat said he has not been able to talk with her current doctor to get an updated assessment of any dementia.

Shohat said Pamela Graham is her sister's guardian for purposes of a Social Security disability application. He said the sisters would be unavailable for comment "for the next couple of days."

Pamela Graham wrote the letter in a lawsuit filed by their landlord seeking unpaid rent.

A psychologist concluded in another lawsuit that Geralyn Graham had suffered dementia, hallucinations and memory problems following the accident. Graham had sued Alamo Rent-A-Car in August 1996 for $2.5 million for injuries suffered when her sister ran over her with a rented van.

In an Aug. 12, 1997, video deposition in the Alamo lawsuit, Geralyn Graham said she does not remember her old jobs, being arrested in Tennessee for food stamp fraud or being married.

Asked about the memory problems, she said, "I don't know when it started. I don't know what's even going on with me."

Court records in the Alamo case show that Geralyn Graham had at least 14 aliases, six driver's licenses and five Social Security numbers.

Rilya moved in with Graham after being removed from the home of Pamela Kendrick in April 2000. State officials had investigated allegations of abuse there in 1998 involving other children, but the inquiry was dropped, according to records.

Rilya was an infant in 1996 when the state placed her in the care of Kendrick, whom the child's mother had met while dating Kendrick's nephew.

"I was with her for the first three years of her life," Kendrick said in an interview Thursday with The Associated Press. "I made it possible that she could have a normal life, because I cared for her as my own."

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