When Juan Gonzales and his wife were sent to prison they left their toddler daughter, Cyleste, and her four-year-old brother with a good friend of theirs, Sarah Sifuentes. But they trusted the wrong woman. Cyleste ended up in the hospital with blunt-force trauma to the stomach, bruising all over her body, and a broken arm. And because the 22-month-old girl didn't get medical attention early enough she died.
Sifuentes was found guilty of injury to a child and serious bodily injury by omission. Now it's her turn to go to prison. Gonzales later said, "We thought she was a nice friend. We trusted her, and I mean, obviously..." Obviously she was a horrifically incompetent care-giver, at the least! Was Gonzales too trusting? And didn't he and his wife have better options for their children?
I wonder why the Gonzaleses would leave their children with those friends, rather than with grandparents, or siblings, or at least more reliable friends. Maybe they don't have family they can rely on. Maybe they've always associated with people who just barely have their own shit together and can't handle more kids. They must have been desperate for someone, anyone to take their kids. And they must have thought even their friends' home would be better than a state foster home.
I know we're all supposed to have a living will with plans for what to do with our children in the event of our death -- or anything else that might happen to us. (I'm not planning to do anything that sends me to prison, anyway!) But it's hard to think about putting that burden on anyone else. Another mouth to feed, another child to raise. And it's even harder to decide who you really trust.
But this should make all parents think extra hard about who they can trust to care for their children in an emergency. You may think your friends are "nice" -- but are they loving, compassionate, patient, and emotionally strong? That's more important.
Do you know who you would leave your children with in an emergency?
Image via KENS5 News
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Comments 63
poor excuse of parents .. :-( sad
Considering the parents were sent to prison, it really makes you question their choice in friends. Sounds like this baby would have been better off in foster care. How sad.
alot of people seem to think that all foster care CPS homes are SAFER.. there are hundreds of reported cases a yr of children severely abused and / or killed in the homes of "safe foster care".
maybe these people grew up in fos.care themselves and hoped that a friend would be better than what they had gone through..
If anything were to happen to my husband and myself our kids will be going to his mother. The most responsible person out of both of our families.
When you engage in criminal activity, you put your children in danger whether you get caught and go to prison or not. Being a criminal means you have enemies...Bottom line, if you have kids, you will live an honest life if you care about them at all. These parents were scumbags, and it's no surprise that any associate of theirs is a scumbag too. This poor, innocent child did not deserve to be born into such a tragic life. May she rest in peace.