The Pennsylvania Department of Human Services told MassLive that it is assisting Massachusetts in its search for a missing 13-year-old from Worcester.
The 13-year-old is the youngest daughter of Rosane Ferreira-de Oliveira, a Brazilian woman apprehended by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on Eureka Street in Worcester on May 8th.
Following Ferreira-de Oliveira’s arrest and detention, her 17- and 13-year-old daughters were placed in the custody of the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families (DCF). According to the family’s lawyer, the 17-year-old has since departed the United States to join her older sister, Augusta Clara Moura, in Brazil.
The 13-year-old daughter is still missing, according to the Worcester Police Department. She was last seen in Worcester on July 20, and the Worcester Police Department has been searching for her, MassLive previously reported.
“These are heartbreaking and complex situations and DCF has been working extensively with law enforcement to ensure their safety,” Secretary of Health and Human Services Kiame Mahaniah said in a statement on Friday.
Angélica Almeida, a lady from Philadelphia, told MassLive this week that she drove the 13-year-old from Worcester to Maple Shade, New Jersey, unaware she was Ferreira-de Oliveira’s daughter.
Maple Shade is approximately a 30-minute drive from Pennsylvania.
“Keeping children safe is our top priority at the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services (DHS),” the press secretary for the Pennsylvania DHS wrote on Friday. “Massachusetts has alerted Pennsylvania to this situation and we are working with Massachusetts.”
In a statement to MassLive, the New Jersey DCF stated that it works with “law enforcement as needed to assist with missing child cases in and outside of New Jersey,” but that state and federal confidentiality laws prevent the agency from “commenting on or confirming involvement in any specific cases.”
How Almeida came across the girl
In July, Almeida went to Worcester to visit her sister.
While she was there, she said she spotted a Facebook post in a group for Brazilians in Philadelphia asking for help getting a person from Massachusetts back to Philadelphia.
The individual said the ride was for his sister and agreed for Almeida to pick her up and drive her to Philadelphia for $200.
“I wasn’t scared because I didn’t know who she was, and didn’t know she was missing,” Almeida told MassLive. “To me, I was just giving a ride to a girl who was going to live with her brother.”
Almeida picked up the girl in Worcester on July 27. The girl informed Almeida that she was 15 and that her parents were in Brazil. Almeida stated that the girl was exhausted and had not showered, but she appeared “nice” regardless.
The girl remained silent for most of the drive. The individual who requested transportation notified Almeida that the destination would be altered to Maple Shade, New Jersey.
After dropping off the girl in Maple Shade, Almeida phoned the requester regarding the money. She claimed that the gentleman informed her that he would not pay since she was being nasty. She then wrote about her dilemma on Facebook, where she spotted a missing child alert. The child’s picture was of a 13-year-old from Worcester, whom Almeida identified as the adolescent she had driven to New Jersey.
Almeida had no idea the girl she had driven had gone missing or that she was 13, not 15, as she had previously stated.
“After I found out that she was missing and it came to my attention that she used my ride to escape, I was obviously scared,” she said. “I don’t want to be involved in anything involving ICE. I don’t want to be involved in controversy and I also don’t want people to think that I helped her, because I didn’t even know who she was.”
Almeida informed DCF of the address of the house where she had dropped off the 13-year-old.
The teen’s mother is being jailed at the Strafford County Correctional Center in Dover, New Hampshire.
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