|
TRONALAGUA, EL SALVADOR -- As a mother of 12, Carmen Adilia Quinteros has spent many years worried, especially when it came to her second-oldest child, Deysi Benitez. That may never end. Benitez, 25, has been missing since March 18. Her four children and her husband were found dead in their Frederick home on March 26. Quinteros' anxiety for her daughter began shortly after she was born in the mountains outside Sensuntepeque, El Salvador. When Deysi was a child, convulsions would often rock her body, Quinteros said Saturday. Terrified because she didn't know how to help her little girl, she once walked more than two hours on rubble roads with her child to Sensuntepeque, about 60 miles from the capital, San Salvador, to seek medical help. Benitez eventually outgrew the convulsions, much to her mother's relief. But it wasn't long before Quinteros had another reason to fear for her daughter's life.-- Benitez emigrated to the United States nearly six years ago, when she was about 20 years old. She wanted to reunite with her fiancŽ, Pedro Rodriguez, who immigrated to America in the late 1990s. Benitez often cried for Rodriguez after he left, Quinteros said. She never had planned to move to the United States before meeting Rodriguez. While she didn't have legal authorization to emigrate, Benitez followed him, crossing through Guatemala and Mexico. She entered the United States illegally despite the risks. Quinteros was terrified for her daughter's safety. Other people have been raped, injured or have died on the same journey. Benitez had another obstacle as well. She wanted to travel with her young daughter, Elsa. Quinteros tried to convince Deysi to leave the toddler behind, but Benitez said she couldn't bear to part with Elsa. Quinteros said she prayed every day to the Virgin Mary to watch over her daughter and granddaughter on their journey. Benitez arrived in California in 2001. After earthquakes decimated El Salvador that same year, Benitez, Rodriguez and their child received temporary protected status, which gave them legal authorization to remain in the United States. Still, Quinteros' worries weren't over. Always curious as to how her daughter was doing, she would use a prepaid phone card to call Frederick each Friday to speak with her. When she called in mid-March, Elsa answered the phone and told her Rodriguez didn't have a job. He received notice March 15 that the Frederick door manufacturing company where he worked would close in July. Before Quinteros could learn more, Elsa asked her to call back at 11 p.m. because Benitez couldn't talk until later. That was the last time Quinteros heard her granddaughter's voice. Elsa, 9, and her three younger siblings Vanessa Rodriguez, 4, Angel, 3, and Carena, 1, were found dead in their Frederick townhouse two days later. Rodriguez, 28, hanged himself in the house. The three girls died of suffocation and their brother died of blunt force trauma, according to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Baltimore. Now, Quinteros and her husband, Miguel Angel Benitez, grieve for their grandchildren and son-in-law and worry about their daughter's fate. Saturday afternoon, Quinteros lit the candles that surrounded a small shrine in her house filled with flowers and a picture of the Virgin Mary. A large photo of Rodriguez sits in the middle; a smaller photo of Angel is placed below. Benitez's photo was not on the alter -- her parents don't know if she is alive or dead. What could have happened to her, Quinteros asked. "I just don't know," she said.
|
