This week shocking news came to Belize out of California. The report from Fresno said that an 11 year old Belizean girl, Jamelia Hinds had been sold by her mother into slavery- and that she was kept by American Family for ten years, enslaved and living in a garage.
Well there's a whole lot of local blowback on that story tonight, which, for starters, says that she wasn't sold, but rather she was given away.
More on that shortly…..but there's also a dramatic and disturbing twist - another Belizean woman who gave her two young sons to that same American woman - says she hasn't seen or heard from them in eleven years - and has no idea where they are now, especially since the woman she gave them to is facing human trafficking charges.
That one left our heads spinning….
But we start with Karen Baptist, she is the mother of Jamelia Hinds - and when Jamelia appeared on the ABC News report out of Fresno it was the first time that this mother had seen her daughter since the year two thousand.
And while she was overjoyed to see the grown up 23 year old, she wasn't at all happy with what she heard. Here's the story:…..
Karen Baptist, Gave Away Daughter
"When I hear the reaction on the news that I sell my daughter I was so shock because I know I will not sell my children to no one no matter how hard I had life."
Jules Vasquez Reporting
What happened is she says a friend introduced her to a woman she knows only as Michelle who showed kindness to a then 11 year old Jamelia - seen here on the far right in this family picture with her younger sister Erica Wills in the bottom center.
After Erica was killed in 1999 and left here in a puddle in Gracie Rock - her mother Karen Baptist decided that perhaps it was best to give Jamelia to this kind American woman:
Karen Baptist, Gave Away Daughter
"First she took my daughter to spend time with them at Placencia. After she took my daughter, she brought her back and she told me that the lady treats her good and that she brought her new things even a teddy bear for my grand baby. So I say that the lady was a good lady. The lady asks me if she could take my daughter to the states and I told her that she could take her."
She says she did so under duress from her young daughter
Karen Baptist, Gave Away Daughter
"I told my daughter that I don't want to send her, she start to cry and she told me that I don't want "good" for her. At that time she was 11 going on to 12 years. I still send her."
Jules Vasquez
"Explain the reason that you felt it's alright to give your daughter away?"
Karen Baptist, Gave Away Daughter
"Well I felt like that was the correct thing for I to do."
Jules Vasquez
"Why?"
Karen Baptist, Gave Away Daughter
"Because of the situation I was in. I have life very bad. I use to live in a little two bedroom house but the house was very small and I have 10 children. When the lady came to me I thought that it was a good opportunity for me to better off at least one of my children's life. The lady could give her what I couldn't give her."
Little did she know - she would not hear from her daughter again for years:
Karen Baptist, Gave Away Daughter
"My daughter didn't contact me any at all."
Jules Vasquez
"For how many years?"
Karen Baptist, Gave Away Daughter
"For like 2 years. When she left she was like 12 years old at the time?"
Karen Baptist, Gave Away Daughter
"She was about to be 12 years old."
Jules Vasquez
"11 going to 12 years?"
Karen Baptist, Gave Away Daughter
"Yes."
Jules Vasquez
"So she didn't contact you for two years. What were your concerns during that time? What were you thinking?"
Karen Baptist, Gave Away Daughter
"Well I was thinking all kinds of things because a mother will think all kind of things when it comes to their children especially if you don't hear anything from them."
Jules Vasquez
"And you didn't hear anything from the foster parents either?"
Karen Baptist, Gave Away Daughter
"No, not even her, whenever you call her phone - all that you get is an answering machine."
Two years later, she finally got a number to reach her daughter:
Karen Baptist, Gave Away Daughter
"She says 'ma, Mrs. Michelle is not the person that we thought she was' she said that she got to know Mrs. Michelle when she start to live with her that she only want her for slavery. Then I ask her why can't she call me when I gave her two phone numbers. She says that the lady got us locked up and we can't get to any phones that's why I start to think all kinds of things and I told my daughter right away 'you see why I didn't want you to go, but I just did it because you said that you wanted a better life'."
Jules Vasquez
"But you have to accept that that is a difficult decision for an eleven year old to make because children don't know the wickedness of the world that we adults know. You ever blame yourself that 'I should have put my foot down'."
Karen Baptist, Gave Away Daughter
That is what I said after I found out this. I find out that the woman who took my daughter was not the person who she was supposed to be, she is like a devil."
But that's behind them and she says she and her daughter are reconciled
Karen Baptist, Gave Away Daughter
"My daughter even text my other daughter and tell her that I must not worry because she says she is free but it's just the lady that took them she went to complaint about because she (Jamelia) can't talk anything about me Jules because I did the best for my children."
Jules Vasquez
"People in the society right now have a very bad view about you. People think that you sold your daughter; you threw her one side - that you didn't care. What would you like to say to those people?"
Karen Baptist, Gave Away Daughter
"Jules I don't want anyone to feel like I sold my daughter because I went through a lot of things for my children. And never a day I think about sell my babies them, never a day. I sleep in a house that leak, where when it rains I get wet up and I sit up and make all my babies fit on my bed and I watch them. So I don't want anyone to feel like I will sell my babies and I will sell my daughter and my daughter know that I will never sell any of my children."
And while that makes her emotional, the emotion turns to anger when she thinks of the woman she knows as Ms. Michelle.
Karen Baptist, Gave Away Daughter
"If I could see Mrs. Michelle, I wouldn't even want to tell her anything. I would want to do her something for all that she did to my little girl and all that she put her through. Because she came to me professing that she is a loving person and behind us she is like the devil."
That view is shared by Shermadine Daly formerly a resident of Mango Creek. We met both of them at the home of their Area Representative Michael Finnegan. In a shocking twist we found that she too gave her two sons to the same Ms. Michelle at the same time:
Shermadine Daly, Gave Away Sons
"Well what really happen was that I was not able to take care of my children so this lady - Michelle Bartoli ask me if she could help me with my sons and then I was happy for that because it was for the betterment of my kids because I couldn't do it."
Jules Vasquez
"So now, do you know where your sons are? It's been like 11 years, you sent them in 2000. How old were they at the time?"
Shermadine Daly, Gave Away Sons
"My son Camron Daly 4 and Jalen Daly was 6 months."
Jules Vasquez
"Do you know where they are?"
Shermadine Daly, Gave Away Sons
"No idea where they are."
Jules Vasquez
"Apparently they are no longer living with Michelle Bartoli."
Shermadine Daly, Gave Away Sons
"I don't know who she left them with because then I see the news and I know that she went to jail, so I have no idea who they are with at this time."
Jules Vasquez
"Now a lot of people will at you and say 'you don't have no heart if you gave away your kids'. How would you respond to that?"
Shermadine Daly, Gave Away Sons
"Jules I did it for betterment. For betterment of my kids because at that time I was sick very bad so I had to before social department took my children. I prefer give them to her because she made a lot of promise to me and I thought that she would have fulfill the promise which she did not do so."
Jules Vasquez
"If you could see her right now - Mrs. Michelle. What would you tell her?"
Shermadine Daly, Gave Away Sons
"Jules I don't know, maybe I would pull out all her hair. I don't know because she lied to me and I gave her my kids with a clean heart. It's not that she says that she will take my kids, she says that she will help me because she was in Placencia so I say from Mango Creek to Placencia is nowhere. She just tells me that she will help me; she didn't say that she will take these kids solely. I had her get my children and it's like a lot of regret every day and night in and out I talk about my sons and i want to see them again. I am sorry that I did that so I know that I will have to have a good explanation to give to them if they should come back to Belize."
Jules Vasquez
"Do you ever blame yourself?"
Shermadine Daly, Gave Away Sons
"Well I wouldn't want to blame myself, I was just trying to look for betterment for my children."
Very disturbing is the report that there is one more Belizean mother who gave her child to the same American woman. All the mothers were originally from Independence and the American woman, known to them as Ms. Michelle, frequented Placencia at the time.
Where is that woman and what's her full name? And where are the boys? That's what we have been trying to find out from authorities in Fresno but up to this evening, no answer was forthcoming. We'll keep following that end of the story.
According to Karen Baptist, her daughter Jamelia Hinds is married and is the mother of two.
She is pending deportation but is still in the United States on a special visa for victims of human trafficking.
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