JERMAINE McNEIL -10 yo and Ju'TYRA ALLEN -6 yo (2011) - Delray Beach FL

Officials have recovered the bodies of two dead children from a South Florida canal.Delray
Beach police say divers retrieved the body of a young black girl, stuffed into a duffel bag,
Wednesday morning from a canal that divides Delray Beach from Boca Raton.
Since the canal runs for miles in each direction, investigators say the body could
have been dumped anywhere.Later Wednesday, the body of a boy,
stuffed into a suitcase, was found in the canal.
Authorities haven't identified either child, but they are investigating
as if the cases are related.Police say the girl was wearing a
short-sleeved shirt, dark pants and blue Polo brand sneakers.
She had braided hair, with white beads on each
strand. No description was immediately available for the boy.

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/03/02/2094232/body-of-young-girl-found-in-canal.html#ixzz1FVI4s3xX

My immediate theory:
Parental or, at the very least, non-custodial parent or guardian.
The children are brother and sister.
This was retribution against the other parent.
When they are identified, which they will be soon, we may find the perp(s)
commit suicide to avoid prosecution.
It wouldn't be the first time.

The bodies of two children — one stuffed in a suitcase, the other in a duffel bug — were found Wednesday in a South Florida canal and police
divers planned to go back to find more clues, authorities said.A resident spotted the duffel bag around 9 a.m. in Delray Beach, and
police opened it to find a girl believed to be 6 to 10 years old. Divers
found a boy later in the afternoon.
"These kids could be from anywhere," said Sgt. Nicole Guerriero, a
police spokeswoman. She noted the canal is crossed by a number of major
roadways, including Interstate 95.
The girl was described as black, weighing 70 to 90 pounds, and about 4
to 4½ feet tall. She was wearing a short-sleeved shirt, dark pants and
blue Polo brand sneakers, and wore her hair braided with beads in it,
Guerriero said.
Police said the boy was wearing blue or black shorts and no shirt,
but gave no further description. Detectives presume the two bodies are
linked, but have no definitive evidence, Guerriero said.
Authorities reported no immediate signs of injuries on the bodies,
but they were transported to the medical examiner's office for
autopsies. The bodies did not immediately match the descriptions of any
known missing children, police said.
Divers planned to return to the canal Thursday to look for more clues.
Delray Beach is a prim Oceanside city about 20 miles southeast of West Palm Beach.
http://www.ajc.com/news/nation-world/2-children-stuffed-in-858966.html

Police are trying to identify the bodies of two children found
stuffed into luggage and floating in a south Florida canal on Wednesday.



"We're devastated, and someone is missing these children," Sgt. Nicole
Guerriero, a Delray Beach police spokeswoman, told reporters Wednesday
evening. "Someone knows these children, and we need to know who these
kids are." The remains of two African-American children -- a girl
between 6 and 10 years old and a boy believed to be 10 to 12 -- were
found about six hours and a half-mile apart in the canal that separates
Delray Beach from Boca Raton. The girl's body was found first, after a
passerby alerted police to a duffel bag floating about midway across the
canal; the boy's body turned up in a suitcase closer in as
investigators combed the banks for evidence, Guerriero said.
Police are working on the assumption that the deaths are related and
are asking the public to get involved. "If anyone has not seen their grandchild,
their niece, their nephew, please give us a call," Guerriero said. The
bodies showed no obvious signs of trauma, Guerriero told HLN's "Nancy
Grace." The bodies had been in the water long enough to have been
affected by the immersion but were still intact, she said.
An autopsy is planned, and investigators will return to the canal for a
more extensive search on Thursday, she said. Meanwhile, she said
investigators are checking missing persons reports in an attempt to
identify the children.


http://www.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/03/02/florida.child.deaths/

The body of a second child was found today stuffed into a suitcase and
apparently tossed into a canal on the city's south side, hours after police
discovered a dead little girl shrouded in a duffel bag floating in the water.

City police said they had yet to identify the children this evening but are
investigating the cases as related.

Delray Beach Police say that a resident near Avocet Road and Carl Bolter Drive
reported a bag floating in the C-15 canal, which divides Boca Raton and
Delray Beach, around 9 a.m. Wednesday.

When the department's dive team recovered the bag, they found that a young
black girl was packed inside.

Since finding the girl, police said investigators have checked national
missing children's notifications and found none that match the girl's
description.

Even the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children is now involved in
the investigation, which is ongoing, said Sgt. Nicole Guerriero, spokeswoman
for the Delray Beach Police Department.

Sgt. Nicole Guerriero of the Delray Beach Police Department speaks to reporters

The body of the girl appears to be in the 6- to 12-year age range, weighing
70-90 pounds and about 4 to 4 1/2-feet tall, Guerriero said.

She added that the girl was wearing a short-sleeved shirt, dark pants and blue
Polo brand sneakers.

Also, Guerriero said the girl's hair was braided with 8-10 clear and white
beads in every strand.

Although she could not say whether the girl was injured in any way, she
confirmed that the child's body was not dismembered.

The girl's body was sent to the Palm Beach County Medical Examiner's Office to
determine the time and cause of death.

Jeff Strohsahl, a nearby resident who listened to the police debriefing,
called the news "terrible" and "heartbreaking."

"Seems to be the trend of things happening now," Strohsahl said. "People being
found dead."

But Strohsahl wasn't too concerned that anyone in his neighborhood could have
anything to do with the incident, stating that anyone along the canal
could've been the culprit.

The C-15 canal runs from as far west as U..S. 441 all the way into the
Intracoastal Waterway. And since the canal's current runs east or west,
depending on the tide, the girl's body could have been dropped anywhere,
Guerriero said.

"We don't have reason to believe that anybody else is in danger," Guerriero
added.

The discovery is being treated as a homicide, and police ask that anyone with
information about the girl call Delray Beach Police Homicide Det. Peter Sosa
at (561) 243-7828.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/crime/police-second-childs-body-found-in-canal-between-1292716.html?cxntcid=breaking_news

Divers To Search Canal Where Children Found Dead


6:21 am EST March 3, 2011
DELRAY BEACH, Fla. --
Divers planned to continue scouring a South Florida canal Thursday, a
day after the gruesome discovery of two children whose bodies were
stuffed in luggage. A little girl, believed to be 6
to 10 years old, was found in a duffel bag Wednesday. Hours later, and a
half-mile away, a boy, who appeared to be 10 to 12 years old, was found
inside a suitcase. Delray Beach detectives presume the two bodies are
linked, but have no definitive evidence. The bodies didn't immediately match the descriptions of any known missing children, police said.
The wide canal where the children were found flows east to
west, stretching between U.S. 441 and the Intracoastal Waterway and
passing beneath Florida's Turnpike and Interstate 95.
"Where they were found, these kids could have been from anywhere,"
said Sgt. Nicole Guerriero, Delray Beach police spokeswoman.
An autopsy will help determine how long the children had been
in the water. Authorities told the Palm Beach Post both bodies were
intact but "had been affected" by the water. Delray Beach is a prim oceanside city about 20 miles southeast of West Palm Beach.
http://www.wftv.com/news/27060179/detail.html

Divers from the Boynton Beach and Boca Raton police department are expected to
join Delray Beach Police this morning when they resume searching a canal for
any additional clues that might lead them to the identities of two kids'
bodies found in the brackish water Wednesday.

After the horrific discoveries, at 9 a.m. and 3:30 p.m., detectives are also
attempting to learn how the children - both of whom are African-American -
died, and to track down who dropped them in the water.

The girl had been shoved into a black duffel bag. The boy was folded into a
suitcase.

Both had been placed in the long, wide C-15 canal that divides Boca Raton and
Delray and stayed there until Wednesday, when a passerby spotted a strange
little buoy bobbing near the city's south side.

Police divers went into the water twice, 6 1/2 hours apart, and emerged
cradling little bodies, children who had died and were cast off like old
shoes, investigators said.

The bags were found about a half-mile apart in the canal near Avocet Road and
Carl Bolter Drive. The canal stretches between U.S. 441 and the Intracoastal
Waterway and flows under almost every major north-south road in Palm Beach
County. The water flows east or west, depending on the tides.

"Where they were found, these kids could have been from anywhere,"
said Sgt. Nicole Guerriero, Delray Beach police spokeswoman said Wednesday
night.

Here's what detectives know:

They found the girl about 9 a.m. They said she appeared to be between 6 and 10
years old. She was dressed in short sleeves, dark pants and blue Polo
sneakers. Her hair was arranged in beaded braids.

They found the boy about 3:30 p.m. in a soft, black suitcase, a half-mile west
of where the girl was discovered. He appeared to be between 10 and 12 years
old. He wore dark blue or black pants but no shirt.

Neither child showed obvious injury. Neither carried any immediate clues to
his or her identity. Detectives were investigating the deaths as homicides,
and they believe, for obvious reasons, that the killings were related,
Guerriero said.

"We're devastated. Someone is missing these children," Guerriero
said. "Someone knows these children, and we need to know who these kids
are."

No children fitting their description had been reported missing in the area.
Detectives had no immediate way of telling how long they had been in the
canal. The bodies "had been affected" by the water but were
intact, Guerriero said.

As forensic investigators scoured the bodies for clues Wednesday night,
detectives were working with the National Center for Missing and Exploited
Children and reaching out to the state Department of Children and Families
for help.

And residents of the neat, middle-class neighborhood were reacting to the news
with a collective shudder.

Juanita Brodeur, who lives near the canal with her four children, ages 8 to
19, said the discovery unsettled her family.

"This is scary," she said. "My kids were like, 'Can we sleep in
your room tonight, Mom?'"

Anyone with information about the children can call Delray Beach Detective
Peter Sosa at (561) 243-7828 or Crime Stoppers at (800) 458-TIPS (8477).

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/crime/police-divers-renew-search-for-clues-to-identities-1294889.html

This is too far away to have anything to do with this case right? It's just that it's not too often you'd here of 2 stories both about kids being killed and dumped in suitcases.
http://www.justice4caylee.org/t10939-jadon-higgenbotham-6-yo-durham-nc-colorado-springs-co#631488

Police on Thursday named a local man a suspect in the deaths of two
children whose bodies were stuffed in luggage and found in a canal a day
earlier.Detectives spent all day questioning Clem Beauchamp, 34,
one day after the bodies of a still-unidentified girl and boy were
found about a half-mile apart in the C-15 canal.


They also surrounded Beauchamp's house with yellow police tape
in the 100 block of Southwest Seventh Avenue in Delray Beach.Police
spokeswoman Sgt. Nicole Guerriero also on Thursday said the dead
children appeared to be siblings, but stopped short of explaining
Beauchamp's relationship to them.
Throughout the day, a crowd of
curious neighbors gathered along the street to speculate and trade
hypotheses about what happened to the children. At one point, two groups
started shouting at each other and police had to intervene to break
them up and calm them down."I'm just surprised. It's just crazy,"
Tameka Jackson said. "I live one street over, I can't believe it."Kenneth
Marshall, who lives across the street and knew Beauchamp since they
were 13, said he noticed strange behavior from Beauchamp a couple of
nights ago."When we saw him he was very distraught [and crying],"
Marshall said. "We saw him go [next door to the front of a] church and
pray. He cut his hair, he had dreads like we do, and he cut his hair."
Marshall said Beauchamp, who has a long criminal record, was an "excellent father.""Things
happen, and if he did anything that involves him with the missing kids
then turn himself in," Marshall said. "Speak the truth, just speak the
truth and tell the people what happened."Earlier on Thursday, an upset-looking Beauchamp walked into the Delray Beach
Police headquarters around 10 a.m. He waited in the lobby, sitting with
his head in his hands and rocking back and forth. Minutes later, he
followed detectives into another room. Detectives also questioned two
women who arrived with him.Late on Thursday,
detectives still were interviewing the Delray Beach man. Federal
agents later filed a federal complaint against him, charging him with a
weapons violation for possessing an illegal gun silencer, a charge that
could allow authorities to keep Beauchamp in custody.Beauchamp's
lengthy criminal history includes aggravated assault, armed robbery and
home-invasion robbery charges, state records show.
Investigators released few new details about the investigation.Delray Beach
Police had 15 detectives working non-stop following up on every one of
hundreds of tips being phoned into the police department, according to
Guerriero.Police and Delray Beach
Fire Rescue personnel scoured the murky waters for evidence on Thursday
using sonar to scan the 15-foot deep waters of the canal, which flows
east between U.S. 441 and the Intracoastal Waterway.Boca Raton police
used a small, remote-controlled submarine equipped with a camera to aid the search."It
was devastating finding it," police diver Joe Hart said of the
discoveries. "Any time it's kids, it's a lot harder, especially when you
have kids of your own."The girl's body was found about 9 a.m.
Wednesday, while the boy's body was found about 3 p.m., west of the
Interstate 95 overpass.An area resident called police on
Wednesday morning after spotting a black duffel bag in the canal, about
halfway between I-95 and the two-lane bridge connecting Carl Bolter
Drive and Brant Drive to the east. Around 9 a.m., police opened the bag
and pulled out the body of a girl, who appeared to be between 6 and 12
years old.Six hours later on Wednesday, police found the boy's
body, about a half-mile away, west of the I-95 overpass. They had been
looking for clues in the girl's death.The boy, about 10 to 12
years old, was "folded" into a black canvas-type suitcase, police said.
Neither was dismembered but it's not known how long they had been in the
water, Guerriero said.The girl is described as black and
weighing 70-90 pounds. She is just over 4 feet tall and her hair was
braided with white or clear beads, officials said. She was wearing a
short-sleeved shirt, dark-colored pants and blue Polo sneakers. The boy
was wearing dark blue or black shorts.The National Center for
Missing & Exploited Children in Alexandria, Va., declined to comment
on the case. Also, the state Department of Children & Families is
looking into records of runaways and children in foster care and
protective supervision to see if there are any matches."There's a
big chance these kids were not reported missing," said Dan Henry, a
retired sergeant with the West Palm Beach Police Department special
victims unit. "This was a murder. You don't throw people in bags unless
you kill them."There were 40,000 children reported missing in the Florida
in 2009, according A Child Is Missing, a Fort Lauderdale-based nonprofit organization.Florida
is ranked worst in the nation for child-abuse deaths, according to the
National Coalition to End Child Abuse Deaths, a nonprofit group based in
Washington, D.C. There were 156 child fatalities reported in 2009.
Whoever put the bodies in the water wasn't too calculating, Henry said."They
obviously may not have known it was going to show up," he said. "They
probably thought [the luggage] would sink to the bottom and no one would
ever find it. But in human body, at some point, the gases expand and it
becomes float-able."Police ask anyone with information to contact
Delray Beach police Detective Pete Sosa, 561-243-7828;
Detective Jason Jabcuga, 561-243-6220; or Crime Stoppers, 800-458-8477.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/palm-beach/boca-raton/fl-bodies-found-delray-folo-day-2-20110303,0,6840459,full.story

The man being questioned in the deaths of two children found in luggage
in a South Florida canal has a record of several arrests.

Police named Clem Beauchamp, 34, a suspect in the deaths Thursday, but
Delray Beach Sgt. Nicole Guerriero said he has not been arrested or
charged in the case.

Investigators have tentatively identified the children as siblings but
have not released their names or if Beauchamp is related to them.

Beauchamp was arrested several times over the last 15 years, court
records show. The most serious was in 1995, for aggravated assault with a
firearm, and resulted in an 18-month sentence.

It was not immediately known if he has a lawyer.

Investigators said the girl, whose body was found Wednesday in a duffel
bag, was between 6 and 10 years old. The boy, whose body was discovered
later in a suitcase about a half-mile away, was between 10 and 12.

Authorities did not know how long the bodies had been in the water. Autopsy reports were not immediately released.

"We believe that this situation is domestic-related," said Guerriero, who declined to elaborate.

Throughout the day Thursday, small boats of divers and other police
combed the canal for clues. Guerriero said they found nothing.Under a tree near the canal's banks, a tiny makeshift memorial took
shape, with a teddy bear, a hippo spotted with pink hearts and two
bunches of carnations.

Neighbors said Beauchamp lives with his children from a current and past
relationship in the small peach home that was surrounded by traffic
barricades and yellow police tape Thursday night.

Margaret Gissone, 22, who said she is the sister of Beauchamp's
ex-girlfriend, said it's been terrible waiting for police to identify
the children, and wondering whether they are her niece and nephew.

The wide canal where the bodies were found flows east to west through
this Oceanside town southeast of West Palm Beach. The water is bordered
by modest homes, tiny wooden docks and small motor boats, and dotted on
either side with the lush green of palms and other trees.

Debbie Duarte, who lives along the canal, said the neighborhood is
usually quiet. Before now, she said, the most surprising thing to turn
up in the waterway was a bag of marijuana.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/04/AR2011030400656.html

Poster's Note: Could the children's Mother be a third victim?

Police are back at the home of 37-year-old Clem Beauchamp. He's
being questioned in the deaths of two children found dead in a canal
Wednesday. Police say after Delray Beach detectives were finished
speaking with Beauchamp he was taken into custody by federal agents on
unrelated federal charges. In a criminal complaint filed in U.S.
District Court a special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco,
Firearms and Explosives revealed that there was probable cause to arrest
Beauchamp "for making and possession of an unregistered silencer
without a serial number." Police say they are searching for
evidence where Beauchamp lived at 105 Southwest 7th Avenue, but would
not specify what evidence they were looking for. They denied they were
digging in his backyard. They also said they do not think there is a
third victim. A Delray Beach police spokesperson could not say if Beauchamp
was cooperating. So far authorities have not stated whether Beauchamp was
related to the victims or not. At a Friday morning news conference police say
it does appear children were living in Beauchamp's house. They
say they are still actively looking for the mother of the children. "We
haven't been able to confirm where the mother is at this point, that's
concerning us. But, we're still actively looking for the mother," said
Sgt. Nicole Guerriero, a spokesperson for Delray Beach Police.
Beauchamp does have an arrest record for domestic violence and
violating an order pertaining to custody of a child. "I
know that our detectives are very determined in building a very good
case. We always work our cases to the fullest. We want to make sure
everything we do is correct, so I know that our detectives are working
diligently to bring this case to a close and they want to do it the right way," said Sgt. Guerriero.

http://www.wptv.com/dpp/news/region_s_palm_beach_county/delray_beach/canal-deaths-suspect-facing-fed-charges-

A woman whose decomposed body was found in August at the county Solid Waste
Authority was tentatively identified Friday as the mother of two children
found in bags in a Delray Beach canal this week.

While the identities were not confirmed, Delray Beach police spokeswoman
Nicole Guerriero said officials believe the dead are Jermaine McNeil, 10;
his sister Ju’Tyra Allen, 6; and their mother, Felicia Brown, 25.


Felicia Brown

Guerriero said the only suspect in the killings is Clem Beauchamp, 34, who was
arrested Thursday on unrelated federal charges.

The children were living in Beauchamp’s house on Southwest Seventh Avenue with
Michelle Dent and her three children, two of whom are Beauchamp’s, officials
said. For years, Beauchamp had on-again, off-again relationships with both
Brown and Dent that led to vicious fights between the women. During one
encounter in 2008, Dent threatened to kill Brown, records show.

Guerriero said Dent, 29, was not a suspect in the murders. At a court hearing
on Friday, an investigator for the Florida Department of Children and
Families described Dent as “a person of interest” in a double, possibly
triple, homicide.

“It’s the beginning of a very intense criminal investigation,” investigator
Michele Fuhrman testified.

Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Ron Alvarez stripped Dent of custody of her
children — Demetrius Beauchamp, 15; Keayana Beauchamp, 10; and Karchelle
Washington, 3 — until the criminal investigation is complete.

Dent’s older children denied knowing about the disappearances, Fuhrman said.
But, she added, it appeared they had been coached about what to say.

Fuhrman told the judge that she believed Delray police were reviewing Walmart
security tapes to determine whether weights — presumably to sink the
children’s bodies, which were discovered Wednesday — may have been purchased
there.

Guerriero said she had no information about any security tapes. She said that
while DCF may consider Dent a “person of interest,” police did not.

In fact, police showed little interest in Dent when they responded to a call
around noon Friday about a domestic dispute at a house where Dent was
staying. Neighbors said they heard an argument involving children in the 600
block of Northeast Third Avenue. Police left without taking anyone into
custody.

Dent also accompanied Beauchamp to the Delray Beach police station Thursday
when he was first interviewed in connection with the death of the two
children. She was allowed to leave.

Beauchamp was arrested by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and
Explosives. He appeared in federal court Friday on a charge of possession of
a silenced firearm and was later taken to the Palm Beach County Jail.

He has been arrested a half-dozen times on charges including robbery and
possession of marijuana.

Court records paint a combative picture of his alternating girlfriends. At a
hearing in 2008, when Dent and Beauchamp were fighting for custody of their
two children, Brown told the judge that Dent stormed into Beauchamp’s house
in 2005.

“She broke his screen out of his window, climbed through his room window,
threw a garbage pail at me,” Brown said. “(She) proceeded to assault me in
his house.”

That testimony enraged Dent, Brown later told police. In March 2008, Brown
told Boynton Beach police that Dent pushed her way into Brown’s house, put a
knife to Brown’s throat and said, “I will kill you if you don’t stay out of
my business.” Brown said she escaped and left Dent outside, banging on the
window and screaming, “Come out and fight!”

Brown told police she opened the door because she saw Dent and Beauchamp’s
then-7-year-old daughter standing on the doorstep. Dent was charged with
burglary, aggravated assault and contributing to the delinquency of a minor,
records show. She also has been charged with crimes including larceny and
car theft.

Court records, and those who knew her, said Brown had troubles of her own.

Her mother, Susie Flint, called West Palm Beach police in 2005 when she
suspected that Brown stole her car. Flint suspected Brown was using cocaine
and smoking marijuana. Brown was ultimately charged with grand theft auto,
one of more than a dozen times she was arrested on charges ranging from
shoplifting to battery to burglary.

“It’s not that she was a bad person,” said Judy Allen, whose son Curtis is
Ju’Tyra’s father. “She never had a positive role model.”

Allen’s son, Curtis, had a contentious relationship with Brown, court records
show. In 2004, when she was seven months pregnant with Ju’Tyra, Brown got a
temporary restraining order against Curtis Allen, claiming he attacked her
with a tire iron even though she showed no marks. He countered that she
attacked him with a knife. Brown ultimately recanted and allowed the
restraining order to expire.

Shortly after Ju’Tyra was born, her grandmother, Judy Allen, a teacher at
Congress Middle School, was awarded custody. By then, Brown had given up her
oldest daughter for adoption, Allen said. DCF also temporarily took Jermaine
away from Brown, Allen said.

Allen raised Ju’Tyra for three years. DCF officials then determined Brown was
ready to be a parent. While Allen objected, they allowed both Ju’Tyra and
Jermaine to be reunited with Brown.

Allen said she and Curtis were devastated by Ju’Tyra’s death. Curtis said he
last saw his daughter on Thanksgiving when Brown allowed his sister to pick
up Ju’Tyra at Beauchamp’s house. He said he didn’t go to the house because
of ongoing animosity between him and Brown. He said he used his sister as a
go-between.

Allen said she last saw her granddaughter in June when Ju’Tyra went on an
annual family outing to Disney World.

“I knew something bad was going to happen,” she said. “If you knew her
lifestyle, (Brown) just went from man to man to man.”

But no one reported her missing for nearly seven months.

Publicly, at least, Brown loved her children. Their names were tattooed on her
left calf. Those tattoos ultimately served an important purpose: They
allowed police to link her to the small children found dead in the canal.


http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/crime/body-found-in-west-palm-in-august-identified-1297344.html?viewAsSinglePage=true

A medical examiner's report has confirmed the identity of a little girl found in a South Florida canal.Delray Beach police said Saturday that 6-year-old Ju'tyra Allen was positively identified through dental records.She had been tentatively identified by police a day earlier.


The girl was found in a canal Wednesday about a half-mile from
where her 10-year-old brother Jermaine McNeil turned up later in the
day. Both were stuffed into luggage.The body of the mother of the two children, Felicia Brown, is believed to have been found in the trash last summer.Police
say 34-year-old Clem Beauchamp is their only suspect in the deaths,
though he hasn't been charged. He's being held on an unrelated gun
charge.
Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/03/05/2099588/id-of-girl-found-in-fla-canal.html#ixzz1FpJslFio

DCF investigated allegations of abuse regarding kids found dead in canal

In the years before two children were killed, stuffed into bags and dumped in a Delray Beach canal, state social welfare workers investigated allegations that the kids were abused or neglected, officials said Monday.

The Florida Department of Children and Families "had prior involvement" with the family of Jermaine McNeil, 10, and Ju'Tyra Allen, 6, but hasn't been called to investigate a complaint about their treatment since 2005, said Elisa Cramer, a department spokeswoman.

At that point, the children's mother, Felicia Brown, had just begun seeing Clem Beauchamp, now a suspect in the deaths of Brown and her children, according to court documents and police reports.

On Wednesday, Jermaine and Ju'Tyra were found floating in the C-15 canal between Delray Beach and Boca Raton. Although medical examiners have conducted autopsies, detectives have not made public the details about what caused the children's deaths.

Homicide detectives believe the decomposing body of Brown, 25, was found last August in a county garbage dump, but West Palm Beach investigators have yet to confirm that through science.

Brown's short life was turbulent and marked by flashes of violence, according to interviews and sheriff's reports. She had three children by the time she was 19 and gave up her middle child, Jasmine, for adoption, said Judy Allen, Ju'Tyra's grandmother.

In November 2004, DCF investigators visited Brown's apartment after marijuana was found within reach of Jermaine, who was 4 at the time, according to a Palm Beach County sheriff's report. Details about the outcome of that or other DCF investigations weren't available Monday, Cramer said. She said state officials were working to release that information "as quickly as possible."

Neighbors in Delray Beach said Brown, who was living with a 34-year-old felon, Beauchamp, disappeared last summer. They said Beauchamp was looking after her kids in her absence.

He is a suspect in the children's deaths, but detectives haven't charged him, police said. On Monday, he was in federal custody, held on a federal charge that was filed a day after the bodies were found.

On Friday, Beauchamp's on-again, off-again girlfriend, Michelle S. Dent, lost custody of her three children after a DCF investigator testified that she was a person of interest in a double or triple homicide. Police said Friday that she was not a suspect in the canal case.

Dent often was violently at odds with Brown during Brown's relationship with Beauchamp, police and court records show.

As homicide detectives investigate, grief counselors were on hand Monday at Pine Grove Elementary School in Delray Beach, where Jermaine and Ju'Tyra were students.

The victims' family was planning a memorial at St. John's Missionary Baptist Church at 900 N. Seacrest Blvd. A public service will begin at 7 p.m. Friday, said Allen, Ju'Tyra's grandmother.

The children and their mother will be buried together.

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/03/08/2103599/dcf-investigated-allegations-of.html#ixzz1G3OInQfa

Poster's note: Why do girls choose to be with violent men? They should have their kids taken away immediately, not after something awful happens and family members should step in to protect the children and DCF need to get their act together IMO

"Margaret Gissone, 22, who said she is the sister of Beauchamp's
ex-girlfriend, said it's been terrible waiting for police to identify
the children, and wondering whether they are her niece and nephew."

All these different last names are confusing to me. Is Margaret Gissone the sister of Felicia Brown then? She says she is wondering about her "neice and nephew" - if so, hasn't she wondered about her sister?

How sad to be so unloved that no one even notices you are missing for seven months.