text: When she stayed at her grandparents home after school, 6-year-old Alessandra Perez saw the two adoptive children who lived there locked in a bathroom, a shower curtain taped to the walls to trap them in the bathtub. 
   
   Other times, she saw the children forced to stand in garbage bins. 
   
   Alessandra was told to keep what she saw a secret. But she couldnt hide it anymore. 
   
   Alessandra told a therapist what she saw, sparking a short-lived child welfare investigation and an unfolding drama that culminated Monday when Alessandras grandfather, Jorge Barahona, was found inside a red pickup truck along Interstate 95 in West Palm Beach, with one dead child, a girl, doused in chemicals in the back of the truck and a boy, in the cab, near death next to him. 
   
   On Wednesday, state Department of Children & Families administrators confirmed the worst about Victor and Nubia Doctor, 10-year-old twins adopted by Jorge and Carmen Barahona. 
   
   All evidence indicates that Nubia is deceased, said Mark Riordan, a DCF spokesman. 
   
   And Victor was clinging to life at Jackson Memorial Hospitals burn unit, where he was transferred with chemical burns that were spreading across his body. Doctors were confounded by their inability to identify the chemicals. 
   
   Late Wednesday, DCFs Riordan said Victor was receiving intensive treatment from burn unit specialists. Victor remained in bed but was able to interact and move when he was awake, Riordan said. 
   
   Earlier in the day, Dr. Walter Lambert, who heads the states Child Protection Team in Miami, said the chemical burns on Victors body were progressing, and that doctors were seeing signs that the boys kidneys may be failing. Appearing Wednesday afternoon before a child welfare judge, Lambert said the boy was slipping in and out of consciousness. 
   
   West Palm Beach Police said doctors discovered additional horrors as they treated Victor: His body showed signs of prior injuries, including a fractured clavicle and arm, scarring to his buttocks and lower abdomen  and telltale ligature marks on both wrists. 
   
   Barahona, who also remained hospitalized, told police he was so distraught over Nubias death that he intended to kill himself as he sat inside the truck on a grassy shoulder of I-95. It was not clear late Wednesday how, when or where Nubia died. 
   
   He gave Victor a handful of sleeping pills and told him to take them so he could sleep, according to police records. Barahona told investigators he poured gasoline over his head and planned to ignite himself, but had second thoughts because Victors head was resting on his lap. 
   
   Police have formally charged Barahona with aggravated child abuse in Victors case. Charges are pending in Nubias death. 
   
   In a crowded courtroom Wednesday, Circuit Judge Cindy Lederman ordered two other adoptive children  a 7-year-old girl and an 11-year-old boy  formally removed from the Barahonas home to a therapeutic foster home. 
   
   Carmen Barahona shielded her face with a sheet of white paper when she entered the courtroom. Through a lawyer, she asked for the children to be sent to live with a family friend. 
   
   Lederman refused her request. 
   
   I dont want anyone who had any knowledge of what was going on in that home to have any visits or any contact with these children, she said. ||||| J Pat Carter, AP 
   
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   A Florida pest exterminator has confessed to putting his dead daughter in the back of his truck before a botched suicide attempt that left him and his adopted son hospitalized in critical condition, police said. Jorge Barahona , 53, is charged with felony aggravated child abuse for an alleged attack on his 10-year-old adopted son, identified in local media reports as Victor Vocter.According to a probable cause affidavit filed by West Palm Beach police , Barahona told officers he placed the body of his deceased daughter -- identified by local media as Victor's twin, Nubia -- in the back of his pest-control vehicle early Monday and then drove north on Interstate 95 from his home in Miami to West Palm Beach."Jorge told us he was distraught over the death of his daughter and intended to commit suicide," the affidavit says. "Jorge said he pulled over onto a grassy area of the expressway where he would easily be found. He gave [Victor] a handful of sleeping pills and told him to take them so he could sleep."Barahona allegedly told police he took a five-gallon gas can he had inside the truck and poured gasoline over his head. His son was beside him in the truck, with his head on Barahona's lap."Jorge intended to ignite a lighter to set himself on fire, but he could not do it because [Victor] was present," the affidavit says.The police report does not detail how the girl died and does not mention whether Barahona discussed her death with police.The bizarre case began to unfold early Monday , when a Florida Department of Transportation employee discovered Barahona's pickup truck parked on the side of I-95, not far from the Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard exit. When he looked inside the truck, the employee saw Victor seated next to a gas can. The boy was soaked in chemicals and suffering from respiratory distress. An unresponsive Barahona was found on the ground outside the truck.Florida Highway Patrol spokesman Lt. Tim Frith said the occupants had been "exposed to some type of spilled chemical," which investigators have since determined to be an acid-based metal-cleaning solution.A hazardous materials crew was called in to manage the cleanup of the truck. The crew was in the process of moving containers out of the vehicle when they found the young girl's body covered in acid and wrapped in a plastic bag, police said.Barahona remains hospitalized at Columbia Hospital. Victor is hospitalized in the intensive care unit at St. Mary's Medical Center.The boy is suffering from severe burns to his abdomen, upper thighs and buttocks. During an examination, medical staff also discovered prior injuries, including a fractured clavicle, a fractured arm, scarring to his buttocks and lower abdomen, and ligature markings to both wrists, police said.Police said Victor's injuries are not consistent with Barahona's story."Jorge incurred no obvious burns to his person unlike injuries suffered by [Victor]," the affidavit states. "When confronted about the severity of [Victor's] injuries, Jorge explained some of the gasoline must have splattered on [Victor]. Jorge's account of events is inconsistent with [Victor's] injuries."The boy is being kept in a hyperbaric chamber. According to The Associated Press , he has stopped urinating and doctors are having a difficult time treating him because they do not know what kind of chemical agent caused his injuries.Meanwhile, child welfare officials are investigating Barahona and his wife, Carmen Barahona."We are in the preliminary stages of a very tragic, complex case, and DCF will be working with all our community partners," Florida Department of Children and Families spokesman Mark Riordan told the AP.The Barahonas married in 1996 and reportedly operated CJ's Pest Exterminator Inc. out of their home. Records obtained by The Palm Beach Post show neither had a criminal record in Florida. They reportedly adopted four children, ages 7 to 11, with special needs from foster care.DCF has investigated the Barahonas on three other occasions in the past several years. The previous cases were closed with "some or no indicators of abuse or neglect," the AP reported. According to The Miami Herald , the most recent investigation began on Thursday, four days before Barahona was found on the side of the interstate. The agency reportedly received information from a teacher that Nubia and Victor were being bound by their hands and feet and made to stand in the bathtub, the newspaper reported.Investigators tried to locate the children, but Carmen Barahona told them that she was separated from her husband and that he had custody of them. A report issued later, however, "implicated" Carmen Barahona in Nubia's disappearance, the Herald reported.DCF took custody of the two other children on Tuesday. A hearing will be held sometime today to determine whether they will be sent to foster care. ||||| (CNN) -- A Florida exterminator and father of four children adopted from Florida's foster care system has told police that a body found in the pest-control truck he was driving is one of them -- his 10-year-old daughter, authorities said Wednesday. 
   
   Jorge Barahona, 53, already faces a charge of aggravated child abuse for injuries to the dead girl's twin, Victor, who was also found in the truck, which was parked on the side of I-95 near West Palm Beach, Florida, officials said. 
   
   According to a probable-cause affidavit filed by the West Palm Beach Police Department, a roadside assistance ranger with the Florida Department of Transportation stopped to check the red Toyota pickup Monday around 5:30 a.m. and found the 10-year-old boy inside next to an open gas can. 
   
   The boy "appeared to be in respiratory distress and (was) trembling" and his clothing "was soaked with an unknown chemical," the affidavit said. 
   
   The ranger then found Barahona on the ground beside the truck and called for help. 
   
   The boy was hospitalized in intensive care with severe burns to his abdomen, upper thighs and buttocks, the affidavit said. While examining the boy, doctors noted he had sustained previous injuries, including a broken collarbone, a broken arm, scarring to his buttocks and lower abdomen, and ligature marks on both wrists, police said. 
   
   After Barahona and his son were taken to a hospital, a worker decontaminating the truck discovered the body of the girl, wrapped in a plastic bag, the document said. 
   
   Barahona told police he was distraught over the death of his daughter, and had intended to commit suicide by dousing himself with gasoline and setting himself afire, the affidavit said. Barahona said he didn't go through with his suicide plan because his son was with him, the document added. 
   
   "Basically, to paraphrase, he was stating that he placed his daughter in a plastic bag being distraught over her death," West Palm Beach Police Spokesman Chase Scott told reporters. "He drove here from South Florida accompanied by his son, Victor. He then pulled off to the side of the road saying that he poured gas on his self, intending to light himself on fire. His son's head was in his lap and he decided, after giving his son some sleeping pills, that he wasn't going to do that." 
   
   Barahona told police that he doused himself with gasoline and inadvertently got some on the boy, Police Capt. Mary Olsen said. 
   
   But, she added, the man's story doesn't add up -- there was no gasoline on the boy. Instead, he was covered with another chemical whose composition had yet to be determined. "That's why we're still treating this as a hazmat (hazardous materials case)," she said. 
   
   Scott said the chemicals were so potent that staff caring for the boy at the hospital became ill as well, he said. 
   
   Victor, who was transferred Wednesday morning to a specialized burn unit at Miami's Jackson Memorial Hospital, has not been able to talk to investigators because he is on a breathing tube, she said. 
   
   Olsen said police would decide how to charge Barahona further once the autopsy on his daughter determines her cause of death. 
   
   Asked whether Barahona has expressed remorse, she said, "He feels remorse, but we're not getting consistent statements with what we're seeing in our evidence." She added, "It's a complex case." 
   
   At a hearing Wednesday in Miami attended by Barahona's wife, Carmen, a judge ordered that the remaining two children in the home be placed in foster care. 
   
   Florida's Department of Children and Families had opened a child protection investigation within the past few days to look into a complaint involving the Barahona family, and it wasn't the first such complaint, spokesman Mark Riordan said. 
   
   Reporters in the courtroom Wednesday heard tales of abuse, mainly concerning the twins, from state officials and experts. The caller to the child protection hotline in the latest case reported that the twins were routinely locked in a bathroom for long periods of time and had been bound with tape, the court heard. The story was corroborated by interviews with the other two children in the home, officials said in court. 
   
   An investigator told the court that she had showed up last Friday night at the family's home but had not seen the children. Instead, she said, she had left the family's house after speaking with Carmen Barahona, planning to return on Monday. Asked why she had not planned to return sooner, she said, "I'm not allowed to do investigations on a weekend." 
   
   However, a spokesman for the department, John Harrell, said it is the job of investigators to follow through immediately or refer to someone else in the department to follow through when a matter is urgent. 
   
   CNN's Kim Segal, Shawn Nottingham and John Zarrella contributed to this report
target: – It's one of the more horrific allegations of a child abuse to come along for some time: Florida police found the corpse of a 10-year-old girl, covered in acid, in the back of her adopted father's truck. Her twin brother was in the front seat, nearly overcome by toxic fumes, and is recovering in intensive care from previous injuries including a broken arm and collar bone. Their adopted father, 53-year-old Jorge Barahona, was found outside the truck and has been charged with aggravated child abuse for now, reports CNN. The story coming together suggests the twins were adopted by Jorge and his wife and subjected to systemic abuse, including being bound by their hands and feet and forced to stay in the bathroom, reports the Miami Herald. State authorities had two previous reports of something amiss, including one on Feb. 10, but took no action against the parents. A heart-wrenching detail from the Herald: An investigation finally began when the couple's biological granddaughter told her therapist she wanted to break open her piggy bank to help the twins escape. Click for more.