Emilliano Terry
20-year-old Camilia Terry, mother of slain 3-year-old Emilliano Terry, was arraigned on an aggravated murder charge and held in lieu of a $2 million bond.
Prosecutor Brian Murphy told the judge that Emilliano died of blunt force trauma to the head. His skull was fractured, according to the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's Office, Murphy said. Camilia Terry at first told investigators that her son went missing from Kossuth Park. After further questioning, authorities began to doubt her story.
The search for Terry's son ended when FBI agents found a boy's body at a trash transfer station in Oakwood. The body was in a trash bag inside two other bags that had been picked up Monday from a Dumpster near Terry's apartment on Buckeye Road near East 130th Street, about a half-mile from Kossuth Park. The body was disfigured in the compacted trash and was also decomposed. Witnesses last saw Emilliano alive Wednesday, Nov. 21. Terry was arrested after Emilliano’s body was discovered.
Camilia Terry Indicted in 3-Year-Old’s Death
CLEVELAND — Camilia Terry was charged in a 10-count indictment Monday for the death of her 3-year-old son, Emilliano.
According to the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office, between November 20 and November 26, Terry, 20, of Cleveland, purposely caused the death of her son.
On November 25, Terry reported her son missing, resulting in various law enforcement officials searching for the child throughout the Cleveland area.
Interviews following the discovery of the toddler’s body revealed that Terry admittedly sent police searching for the child knowing she had placed his body in the garbage earlier that week.
Charges include two counts of aggravated murder, two counts of murder, two counts of endangering children, one count of felonious assault, one count of tampering with evidence, one count of making false alarms and one count of gross abuse of a corpse.
Earlier on Monday, the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office released the cause of death for Emilliano.
A spokesperson said the toddler died from blunt force trauma to the head, torso and extremities.
Terry is being held behind bars on $2 million bond. She’s also been ordered to have no contact with her two other children.
Pernel Jones & Sons Funeral Home will handle Emilliano Terry’s services. Further details, including the date of the funeral, were not immediately released.
Emilliano Terry's death should move us to action: Regina Brett
Published: Sunday, December 02, 2012, 5:00 AM Updated: Sunday, December 02, 2012, 5:02 AM
It's hard to wrap your mind around his death.
That perfect smile. Those lively brown eyes. Emilliano Terry looked so easy to love.
He lived just three years before his body was found in the trash last week.
The trash.
It's hard to wrap your mind around his mother's life.
Camilia Terry is 20 and single. She's a student at Cuyahoga Community College. She has been charged with aggravated murder. The police believe she killed her son.
County social workers started showing up in her life when she was 8. The Plain Dealer reported that Camilia's mother was accused of kicking, choking, whipping and starving her children, according to records. Camilia ended up in various foster homes. The county took custody of her.
Camilia was assaulted by her mother's friend, court records show. Her mother not only failed to protect her, her mom didn't believe her.
Camilia attempted suicide.
At 14, she gave birth to a son. He's now 5.
At 17, she had another boy. He's now dead.
At 20, she had another baby. He's five months old.
If you listen to the 9-1-1 call, you'll hear her weeping over her middle son, who she said vanished at the park. "I can't find him," she cried, then described the red and black sweater, jeans and a gray coat Emilliano was wearing, as if that would help identify him.
By the time police found him, his body had decomposed. Police say he died from blunt force trauma to the head. Emilliano's skull, that little head that should have been showered with Mommy kisses every day, was broken.
Broken.
That's what he died of: Brokenness.
It's not an official cause of death, but that's what it appears to be. A broken parent from a broken family.
They found Emilliano's body wrapped inside trash bags. He had been tossed in a Dumpster near his home. Can you imagine what his older brother saw? TV reports said when the police showed up, the 5-year-old kept pointing at the Dumpster.
What do we do for that boy and his brother? What do we do for all of the unloved, unwanted, broken children?
Make the net stronger, people will cry. That net that is the child welfare system, the foster care system, the web of counselors, psychologists and psychiatrists that tried to help Camilia.
But a net has holes. No matter how strong it is, children like Camilia and Emilliano will fall through.
The truth is, we're the net. Each of us. We're somebody's net.
It's hard to wrap our minds around this tragedy, but we can wrap our hearts around it. Hurt people hurt people. Instead of talking about the death penalty, let's talk about what we can do to prevent girls like Camilia from having babies at 14.
Instead of leaving teddy bears to rot in the rain and snow at more vigils, let's drop off new toys in the Toys for Tots boxes all over town for all the Emillianos out there.
Instead of looking for fault in everyone who tried to help Camilia, let's send checks to Providence House to provide shelter for homeless infants and children. Let's send money to the Cleveland Foodbank to feed stressed out families broken by poverty. Let's support Adoption Network Cleveland with money and volunteer hours so they can help more kids in foster care and find more children permanent loving, safe, adoptive homes.
May Emilliano Terry rest in peace, but not us. May his brief life cause us great unrest.
At his vigil they sang, "This little light of mine, I'm gonna let in shine."
His little light went out.
Where will we shine ours?
To reach Regina Brett: rbrett@plaind.com, 216-999-6328 Previous columns online: cleveland.com/brett
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On Twitter: @ReginaBrett
The search for 3-year-old Emilliano Terry was suspended Monday night after the body of a young boy was found at a waste plant in Oakwood Village, Cleveland police said.
“We come here with heavy hearts, I’m sure you understand. Today, at approximately 4 o’clock, a body of a small child matching the description of Emilliano Terry was discovered at a waste treatment plant in Oakwood Village. At this time, we have suspended the search for Emilliano Terry, pending a ruling from the coroner’s office tomorrow morning," said Cleveland Police Chief Michael McGrath.
"So, in other words, right now, currently, we are treating this as a homicide, rather than a missing person or abduction.”
Cleveland police said officers spotted a Waste Management truck in the area of East 130th Street and Buckeye Road, and recorded the number of the truck. Officers then contacted Waste Management to have them set aside the trash from that truck and that's where the body was found intact.
The child's body was wrapped in four or five plastic bags, Cleveland police said. The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's office has an autopsy planned for Tuesday morning to decide time and manner of death.
His mother, 20-year-old Camilia Terry, told police she was pushing one of her three children on the swing when the 3-year-old vanished. Her 5-year-old told police he saw a car in the area, but Cleveland police said there was nothing to indicate Emilliano got into that car.
Camilia Terry called 911 and told dispatchers that she hadn’t seen her son for 15 minutes. She cried and described Emilliano’s cloths before hanging up.
“Some time during the day, of today, the statements of Miss Terry became very inconsistent and we decide that we would further investigate her involvement in this situation,” Cleveland Police Cmdr. Deon McCaulley said.
Camilia Terry is in the custody of Cleveland police and it will be up to prosecutors to determine charges. Officers said she did not admit to any crime.
Her other two children are now with Cuyahoga County Children and Family Services. Cleveland police said they plan to search Camilia Terry's house again.
"On behalf of the Cleveland Division of Police, our condolences go out to all those who loved and cared for this child throughout his life, and to the community who came to care for him these last 24 hours," McGrath said in a blog post. "This is a tragic end for an innocent young life in our community. And we will not accept it."
Officers and police dogs searched the park, which is about a half mile from Shaker Square, and nearby Buckeye Road Sunday night. They also examined surveillance videos from businesses along Shaker Boulevard.
Sunday night, the volunteer group Guardian Angels canvassed RTA stations, garages and abandoned homes for several hours in the area of East 116th Street to East 128th Street, but found no sign of the boy.
Cleveland police are still asking anyone with information to contact them at 216-623-5464.
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