The Killing Of Nubia Barahona

On February 11, 2011, the body of a 10-year-old American girl named Nubia Barahona was found in the pickup truck bed of her adoptive father, wrapped in a plastic garbage bag.

Her body had partially decomposed due to exposure to chemicals, possibly pesticides.

The Beginning

Nubia and Victor Docter, fraternal twins, were born on May 26, 2000, in Spokane, Washington. Their mother, Sandra Docter, was a drug and alcohol abuser.

Nubia was born with a condition known as congenital adrenal hyperplasia, which made her dependent on medication.

It was suggested that she be placed in a medical foster home, but she instead remained with her biological mother, who claimed to be sober.

In 2003, the twins were taken away from their mother and given to their father, Victor Bustillo, but they did not stay with him for very long. In 2004, he was accused of sexually abusing a child. The twins were then put in foster care, and Jorge and Carmen Barahona, who live in Miami, Florida, took them in.

The Abuse Starts

Carmen worked as a homemaker, while Jorge ran a pest control company. Nubia began missing medical appointments just months after being placed with the Barahonas because the family did not want to go with her, despite the fact that the visits were necessary to manage Nubia's chronic condition. The nurse advised against allowing the Barahonas to adopt the kids.

Nubia allegedly informed a schoolmate in 2005 that her father was assaulting her. The Department of Children and Families( DCF) looked into it but wasn't sure if she meant her biological father or her foster father. The matter was closed once it was revealed that she had intended her birth father.

Then, in 2006, a huge bruise on Nubia's face was reported to DCF by school employees who believed it was the result of child abuse. The Child Protection Team of the Department of Health in Miami had scheduled a meeting with the Barahonas, but they did not appear until a week later. State doctors agreed with the Barahonas' claim that the bruise was caused by a fall by the time the majority of the bruising had vanished.

More complaints were made in 2007, when school officials said that Nubia was very skinny, always hungry, and smelled filthy all the time. DCF looked into the charges, but the Barahonas insisted that Nubia's condition was not due to poor hygiene or abuse but rather to her medical condition. The investigation was discontinued.

The Legal Guardian Is Replaced

In 2008, the Barahonas started the process to adopt the twins. However, the twins' guardian ad litem, Paul Neumann, was against the idea.

They asserted that they and Neumann had a "personality conflict," and that's why he was accusing them of being irresponsible. The Barahona family addressed letters pleading with influential people, including then-Gov. Charlie Crist, to remove him.

The Barahonas expressed their positive view of the care they were giving the twins in these letters by claiming that they were "raising [their] children with affection, as any mother and father would do." Just before the adoption was finalized, Neumann was abruptly fired as the twins' guardian ad litem.

The twins were formally adopted in May 2009.

The Death Of Nubia

The same allegations from 2007 were brought up again by school officials in 2010, this time with the addition that Nubia was balding.

The investigation was once more abandoned when DCF was given the same justification from the Barahonas: that it was brought on by her endocrine illness and the medicine she was taking for it.

On February 14, 2011, at 5:00 a.m., a Road Ranger in West Palm Beach saw a car on the side of the road. Two and a half hours later, while the truck was still there, he dialed 911 to contact the police.

Jorge Barahona, 53, was found on the ground and Victor was found inside the truck's cab when the rescue team arrived on the scene. By the time the rescuers arrived, both were awake, but Victor was having seizures. 

Victor was covered with acid, and there was so much of it inside the vehicle that it soaked the carpet and seats.

They discovered a black waste bag while going through the truck's bed and there were human remains inside- Nubia remains.

Trial and Sentencing

Carmen Barahona pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and a multitude of counts of aggravated child abuse on February 21, 2020. As part of a deal, she also agreed to talk against Jorge. Her sentence has been put off until she has finished helping prosecutors with their case against Jorge.

Due to Carmen's plea deal, Jorge Barahona's lawyers asked for his trial date to be moved back on February 26, 2020.