On her 11th birthday, friends mourn death of abused girl

Charlenni Ferreira would have turned 11 yesterday.

Instead of marking her birth, friends and relatives mourned the death of a girl police said was tortured to death by her father and stepmother.

A private funeral service was held in the morning, before Charlenni's body began its trip to the Dominican Republic, where she will be buried.

A small group of mourners, including Charlenni's 26-year-old sister, Glenny, went in and out of the Guckin Funeral Mansion in Juniata Park, talking quietly and sometimes comforting each other.

"I couldn't prepare for this," said Maria Ramirez, who said she was a friend of one of Charlenni's cousins. "That beautiful girl, she was innocent. It's terrible."

Another mourner, Manuel Perez, said Glenny Ferreira was devastated.

"She's doing badly," he said. "She's crying, crying so much."

Final Farewell, a Jenkintown charity that subsidizes funerals for the children of needy families, assisted with the funeral costs and the transportation of Charlenni's remains.

Meanwhile, on Charlenni's old Feltonville block, neighbors who have kept a memorial since her Oct. 21 death held a birthday celebration in her memory.

About 200 people filled the street, which police blocked off. Neighbors brought out a cake and sang "Happy Birthday" to Charlenni in English and Spanish before releasing hundreds of balloons into an overcast sky.

Daly Blanco, a community activist who helped organize the party, said all the stuffed animals, balloons, and other items left at Charlenni's memorial would be given away by today to children in the neighborhood.

"The point of this is, she's all right, she's in heaven, she has no more pain," Blanco said. "Everything is clean again, and the girl is in peace."

After Charlenni's funeral service, Guckin held a service for her father, Domingo, who was charged last week in his daughter's death and hanged himself in his jail cell Sunday morning.

His body will be cremated and the ashes returned to the Dominican Republic at a later time.

This week, a lawyer for Charlenni's stepmother, Margarita Garabito, said Domingo Ferreira's suicide could be seen as "an admission of guilt."

Police sources, though, have said that Garabito, 42, is believed to have been the parent who inflicted most, if not all, of the abuse on Charlenni.

Domingo Ferreira, 53, was charged as well because he did nothing to stop the beatings, sources said. He also was visiting the Dominican Republic for a month this fall, and did not return until three days before his daughter's death, according to police sources and the family's landlord.

Sugeiry Holguin, a niece who arrived from New York for the funeral services, said she was convinced that her uncle was not involved in Charlenni's death.

"He's a good person," she said. "He didn't do it."

Drivers from High Class Limousines, Domingo Ferreira's old employer, stopped again and again at the funeral home, parking their cars briefly to pay their respects and then quickly going back on the job.

Charlenni was suffering from a number of injuries at the time of her death, including a seven-inch gash on her head that had been stuffed with gauze and covered with a hair weave.

Ultimately, she died from an infection caused by untreated broken ribs.

She also had injuries that showed she had been sexually abused. No sexual assault charges have been filed, as police await the results of DNA tests.

During the last three years of her life, Charlenni was seen by a succession of doctors, counselors, and school nurses, and the Department of Human Services was involved with the family for five months in 2006 and 2007.

DHS closed her case in 2007 after being unable to substantiate a school nurse's concerns. The agency received no more complaints about Charlenni.

Investigators are conducting interviews and combing through Charlenni's medical and other records trying to determine how her abuse, which police officials called one of the worst cases they had seen, could have gone unchecked.

Last night, on Charlenni's C Street block, next-door neighbor Wanda Torres, who came up with the idea for the birthday party, spoke to the crowd.

Aida Alva translated from Spanish as Torres urged the crowd to be vigilant of children suffering abuse.

"Please, please, help them and report it," Torres said.