Uncle's intervention likely saved abused Dallas kids

[Are_grits_groceries]

It's hard to find a hero in a sick story about the torture and starvation of children.

It's crazy to look at three kids held prisoner for months in the dirty bathroom of a cheap motel room and see any evidence of good fortune in their young lives.

Yet in one respect, these children – bruised, filthy and traumatized as they were – had a little piece of luck.

There was somebody out there who cared enough about them to ask questions and, dissatisfied with the evasive answers, drive 1,200 miles to find out what the hell was going on.

The children – an 11-year-old girl and her two brothers, 6 and 10 – were rescued early this month when their uncle, Abner Santiago, made a marathon drive from Cleveland to Dallas to check up on them.

What he found made him sick.
<snip>
"I thought something was wrong, but I never imagined anything close to this," said Abner Santiago, who has returned to his family and job in Ohio while police and child-welfare workers sort out the case against his sister and her boyfriend. "God, I just wish I'd gone sooner."

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/localnews/columnists/jfloyd/stories/DN-floyd_23met.ART.Central.Edition1.4bc3a2d.html

Cleveland to Dallas! A lot of people won't even cross the street or pick up the phone. It is a horrendous situation, but at least somebody cared - a lot. A tiny spark of humanity in a dark, dark story.

[ejpoeta]

1. thank god for caring family!!! it's easier just to believe what you are told,

but i guess this guy knew something was wrong.... enough to drive all the way out there. and if he had just called CPS they could have propped them up to look like they wee fine. If it weren't for him, those kids would probably still be locked in that bathroom. my question is.... someone had to see those kids when they checked in, didn't they?? did anyone even know they had kids in there and not question why no one ever saw them???

[bobburgster]

2. Didn't even mention him in the story I read.

The article I read just mentioned the police finding them....Thank goodness there was someone who cared enough to check on them.