Michelle Fontanez (around age 6 or 7 years)
“Think how terrified that little girl must have been,” Fontanez said. “So many years with no one to tell who would protect her, and then when she finally tells people who could help her, they didn’t.”
(A quote from one of Michelle’s relatives, Michelle’s aunt and Migdalia’s sister, Carmen Fontanez of Madison, Wis.) From The News-Press.
**UPDATE 4.25.09 Michelle’s stepfather/killer/abuser was about to go on trial and suddenly took a plea deal for raping and suffocating Michelle in 2006. Alberto Fernandez escaped the death penalty and will spend the rest of his life behind bars for violating and killing Michelle. Michelle’s mother -who some say was aware of the abuse, of her child was never even charged in the case. **
Michelle’s Aunt Renea commented to the News-Press:
“So many people failed Michelle,” she said. “The state of Florida could have prevented all this from happening, if people did their jobs. Yes, they may have lost their jobs but in the long run, we lost a lot more.
“They can get other jobs. We can’t have Michelle back.”
(Protected to Death???)
Michelle Fontanez was a child with a beautiful smile, a bright child who liked school and being with her friends. But her behavior had started to change and 13-year-old Michelle hardly smiled at all anymore. She had started cutting herself on her arms and became more and more withdrawn and depressed. The source of her unhappiness was her cruel stepfather Alberto Hernandez.
One day Michelle got up the couraged to tell her counselors a secret she had been keeping: that her stepfather had raped her twice and had been molesting her since she was a Kindergartner. She was afraid of him being in their home. This disclosure of abuse was recorded in notes and on DCF video.
She told them that she had tried to tell her mother about Hernandez’s molestation and rapes, but when she did her mother Migdalia, simply called her a liar.
On February 9th 2006 a DCF investigator by the name of Erica Cesare was to look into the abuse complaints from Michelle. However, this case worker would later claim that Michelle’s complaints were “not her problem” according to child protection team notes. Instead of removing Michelle to foster care-Cesare decided to send Michelle home to her mother. By February 23rd-Michelle was dead. She fought for her life for 3 agonizing days before dying from injuries she sustained from her stepfather’s beating. She was supposed to be protected from her abuser-yet she is killed.
It is important to add that after Hernandez was ordered out of the family home and away from his stepdaughter-he moved…BUT ONLY DOWN THE STREET! And DCF never contested this at all. Because of their “protection” of Michelle-her stepfather entered the home where he found her all alone and proceeded to beat and rape this child savagely.
When she was found by her “mother” Migdalia, she was bruised, bleeding from the mouth, and hardly breathing.
The fingerpointing started and heads started to roll at DCF, but none so deserving as that Erica Cesare uncaring,half-ass social worker. I want to tell her that it is not MY problem she’s standing in the unemployment line along with all the others who ALLOWED this to happen to this girl.
UNsafe at Home 
January 25 ,2008 at 9:02 am
I found this article on Michelle, I wanted to share it here. RIP Michelle
___________________________________
Girl Left to the Mercy of a Wolf
Originally posted on February 13, 2007
Special to news-press.com
Michelle Fontanez need not have died. She could have been rescued.
The Florida Department of Children and Families, charged with protecting the Lehigh Acres 13-year-old, failed her abjectly, as detailed in a report Sunday in The News-Press.
But if nothing of value comes of this, if no reforms result and this girl’s death is in vain, we can blame ourselves, too. People outraged by the abuse and neglect that left Michelle raped and beaten to death must raise hell with our state leadership about DCF’s failures.
We are not sure exactly what all is needed. We feel like we’ve been here before with DCF. But one thing Michelle certainly needed was someone in the system with the eyes to recognize a desperate girl’s plight and the compassion and anger to demand her protection.
DCF case workers are decent people. They are overworked and underfunded. They are pressured not to take children out of their homes because there are so few good alternative places for them.
But with the red flags in this case, those excuses just won’t fly. There is simply no excuse for this girl being left (in three states, apparently) to the tender mercies of an abusive stepfather and the neglect of a mother with a drug problem. If Michelle Fontanez could not be removed from this ghastly family, no child can be removed.
Poor checking
Michelle told investigators in February that she had been sexually abused by her stepfather. The investigators were concerned that the mother could not protect her. But they questioned the girl’s credibility and rated her safety risk as “moderate to low.”
They returned the girl to her mother and told the stepfather to get out of the house. He may merely have moved across the street. Michelle had told the agency she had attempted suicide three times, once in Massachusetts after she was raped. She also deliberately cut her arms frequently, a classic cry for help.
Reporters for The News-Press readily established what DCF did not know until the girl was on her death bed, that records indicated abuse and neglect of Michelle in Massachusetts and possibly in Wisconsin. The girl’s mother was accused of fraud and used crack cocaine. Massachusetts took her three children from her for a year. The children, one disabled, remain in her care.
Let’s act
Urge our leaders in Tallahassee to call DCF to account for this case, and urge Congress to create an interstate system for tracking problem families.
If it takes more money to beef up DCF and provide more alternative refuges for children in dangerous families, and that money will save lives, spend it. But we suspect more is needed here than money.
We want to hear from you about what can be done to save children from the fate of Michelle Fontanez.
If we can’t build a system that performs better than DCF did in Michelle’s case, we’re not a civilized people.
February 16 ,2008 at 7:48 am
OH MY GOD…how did this happen? I am sorry, a child does not make up a story about sexual assault. They are usually ashamed and embarrassed. If a child tells someone that has happened, something needs to be done. removal, investigation, and if they are allowed to return home then numerous surprise visits must occur. This poor young girl didnt need to die, this needs to stop.
March 2 ,2008 at 4:41 pm
We knew Michelle, she was a beautiful girl, who was always sweet. My mom knew something was wrong with Beto, thats his nickname everybody used to call him. He would always stare at me and my sisters! Their was one time our neighbor had bought a pool for her kids, and she invited us over and Michelle. Guess who was in the pool too! Beto. Isnt that nice a pool full of kids and one guy in there. How sick! We miss you Michelle, sorry we didnt know. R.I.P.
February 27 ,2012 at 6:11 pm
Debra, i remember yu . yu and yur sister had those kittens in cambridge. me, yu, michelle, and katia and katiana used to always play toqether, We had no idea about wat was qoinq on, yu would never kno. michelle was so happy when she played outside. but she would never wanna go back in , i wish i couldve done somethinq and notcied but i was young… RIP Michelle
March 4 ,2008 at 9:27 am
Thanks for posting,
I am so sad that these children are forced to live with monsters who want nothing more than to hurt them and destroy their lives or take their lives. Alberto Hernandez is a monster, who is wasting air and space on our earth. I am not surprised that “Beto” invited himself in the pool with all the other children. I was told that (when she was still alive) he didn’t allow poor Michelle out of his sight, and needed to know her every move, like he was obsessed with her or something.
I am glad that Michelle had known you and the neighbor and I believe she is eternally resting in peace now without any fear of that monster or her sorry excuse of a mother.
March 6 ,2008 at 10:22 am
Criminal charges need to be brought against these ‘social workers’ who ignore obvious abuse bc “it’s not my problem.” I know they are underpaid and over loaded. I don’t know what to do about that except use our tax money differently and protect our children.
I tried in Baltimore County MD to report a 6 month old baby who was abused and neglected by his drug and alcohol addicted mother. CPS was very, very nasty to me and refused to do anything about it telling me not to call there again.
I have reported it 4 more times bc the mother is mentally unstable and so is the grandmother and there are no other relatives. I saw alll of this first hand bc the grandmother asked me to take the mother and baby in and I did.
The baby lived for a while with a wonderful couple who adored him and cared for him very well but the ‘mother’ came and took him to a rehab bc the grandmother had kicked her out again. The rehab wanted the baby to come too. More federal money for two than for one. So the poor little one is now in rehab where the mother went ‘to get a roof over my head’ She won’t give him up bc she gets money from welfare bc she has him. Meaning she does not have to work.
We’ll be reading about his death soon. There is nothing else anyone can do. CPS doesn’t want to hear it and she has ‘custody’ of this innocent baby.
How DARE these arrogant, ignorant state ‘social workers’ take the easy way out.! How DARE they tell me not to call back!!! How DARE they place this baby with a mentally disturbed, retarded ‘mother’ who will not work and uses him for money she spends on drugs and then they look the other way and get offended if someone tries to report it!!!
Maybe fire all of them and start over. Privatize the whole thing and get ‘qualified’ people to do the job. It doesn’t seem that social workers are up to it
This may sound mean but if they resent being underpaid and over loaded, quit. Let someone who cares take the job.
March 13 ,2008 at 7:51 pm
hey well my name is shayla and iam from cambridge me and michelle was in 6 7 grad etogether she would of been a aprt of my 9th gratution class of 06 .. but as i see she is . .i miss her so mych.. i wish she would have said somethign to me or our friend .. but they had a chance to help her and the didnt .. im so mad.. i love u michell it been 2 years since u been gone and it feel like forever .. r.i.p miss u n love u so much …
May 22 ,2008 at 9:13 am
This is just another sickening example of the people in our world. I am founder of Justice For Children which is demanding harsher sentencing for child abuser and child murderers, they should not be allowed to walk in society again, they should never be around children and they should never have the opportunity.
We could save so many children by implenting the Jared’s Law, please see my site on how you can help by just signing the petition.
Its disgusts me that it cost us money for a hearing to decide if they should be tried for death or not! Stop questioning it! If they murder a child and are found guilty this should an automatic sentence, same with child abusers, life without parole should be a mandatory sentence, no one wants there children to be around these people and why she we employ parole officers to watch them which cost more money!
I just hope that they do not fail Michelle again and that this evil man it sentenced to death.
May 23 ,2008 at 7:17 am
Hernandez should get death for what he done to Michelle, she was a sweet and beautiful girl and he would not stop until he took her away forever! Nothing but death should be offered to this monster for killing this child,nothing. All these perverts need to get death for what they do to children.
July 5 ,2008 at 7:41 pm
hey my name is niki. i knew michelle. i met her before and hhung out with her when she lived in cambridge. and i know how hard it is to loose someone like when i lost my brother i was only 8 and me and michelle use to talk about how we would never stop being friends than she moved. i hadnt talked to her for a while and when my mother seen on the news that she had past. my mother didnt know what to tell me she didnt know how i would take it. once she told me i broke down but i am happier now that she can rest in peace without having to worry about beto. ew! hes a creep! i hate to cry because i know she wouldnt want any of her friends or family to cry of sorrow because now she is in peace watching over us!! i love you so much michelle you dont even know! i miss you like crazy! save me a spot up there. & tell my brother bobby i said hi. and i miss him and love him too. and keep making sure im safe. ill try and succeed in your dreams! im doing this for you! iloveyou bye!!!
July 5 ,2008 at 7:44 pm
i had to add this. all michelle was was a young girl trying to live life as a normal 13 year old child. she was always smiling as a young girl and before she moved i began to notice her emotions all the sad and bad ones she wouldnt ever smile she bearley talked and never laughed! i knew something was wrong and whenever i asked her she looked at me and changed the subject! i cant stop thinking about how close we still could be! you was my friend. iloveyou!
August 29 ,2008 at 10:29 pm
We are from Puerto Rico. We are Michelle’s family fromPR. We never knew her, because her mother always lived away with her “family” and her drugs. We know that Michelle is in Heaven but its hard to understand that her mother(if somebody coul call her Mother”) shoul be in jail. She is guilty of Michelles death. Alberto should be death and Migdalia too. Migdalia you’re nothing. No vales nada, mala madre, muerete!!!Entregate a las autoridades porque tu sabias todo. Culpable. pena de muerte para los dos. Drogadicta, maldita!!!
September 3 ,2008 at 7:59 pm
I agree, the mother of Michelle should have done time for child neglect or something. Didn’t the daughter Michelle tell her mother about the stepdad’s abusing her, but the mother didn’t believe her. The worst thing to do is to call your child a liar when they are abused. She should have done time.
January 6 ,2009 at 1:20 am
Dead Children: Sent Legally and Officially to Die
Dead children: How many are battered, bruised, heartbroken and neglected to death before all who order their housing and ignore them to death are made accountable?
Check this partial listing of names and pictures ( http://suncanaa.com ). In January, look for a more complete list of known Unnecessary Angels for 2008.
America offers a single avenue for abused or neglected children: the child protection agency of that child’s state. Names vary from Child Protective Services, Department of Child and Family Services, Department of Human Resources and several other titles.
If abuse and neglect reporters, many anonymous and also non-accountable, make an error in sharing suspicions it can be the beginning of the end for that child.
When a report is mistaken or malicious, the child is traumatized. In those worst cases a child’s life may be totally needlessly changed. In those non-cases taxpayers have paid exorbitant expenses and have been defrauded. When is anyone involved prosecuted?
Too often, when a child is truly in danger, real abuse may be ignored u ntil the child is dead or brain-damaged. Parents who cannot or should not have children at home must be monitored or children moved. When they are not who answers when the child is killed?
Decades ago the child protection system was dubbed “the child abuse industry” because so many people profited. All supposedly cared about children and put their expertise on the line: from guardians ad litem and mental health evaluators and counselors to nurses and doctors, prosecutors and the ultimate person approving and immunizing the plan and planners by ordering where a child will live and with whom. That is the judge.
Constitutional safeguards—for children, parents or caretakers—are purposely lacking in most family courts as well as CPS agency process. Yet, children are removed, adopted to strangers or returned to dangerous living arrangements and the child deaths persist.
How high must that pile of dead child bodies become to get the attention it has begged for decades? If many children vanished in railroad cars instead of one or a couple of children from various places in county cars, would that make a difference?
Read the site mentioned above and weep. In tight financial times, with more stress and poverty, children cannot afford more mistakes minus basic accountability that everyone else operates under.
Concerned professionals and media may learn more at http://www.falseallegation.org or by calling NCADRC at 419-865-0513.
February 14 ,2009 at 8:01 pm
I was Michelle’s best friend back in 7th and part of 8th grade before she moved to Florida. She had one of the kindest hearts a person could ever have. She was truely one of my best friends and I miss her so much, and the three year mark is around the corner and it still kills me to this very day. She’d always make comments on how her Stepfather wouldnt let her leave the house or sleep over someone elses or anything of that sort, and the mother seemed to be this big sweetheart. I only wish I knew these things…I mean Michellle always said how she was unhappy and she did start to become depressed and I wish she would of only told me or someone, I wish it wasnt too late, because then she could still be alive today. But I know she’s where she wanted to be and as much as it stinks she’s in a better place. I just wish there was something I could of done or known, anything. RIP Michelle you truely were one of a kind and I hope to see you again when that time comes, and I wish you were still around to talk to. I love you always! <33
August 31 ,2011 at 7:15 am
I also remember Michelle. We werent as close as her and Sam Fox or Ashley Dutton but I still knew her. She was extremely sweet. Not a bad person at all. I do not wish this on anyone. I pray that you’re in a better place. Years have passed and your memory lives on till this day. Rest in peace Michelle! ❤ You are truely missed!
March 11 ,2009 at 4:56 pm
Michelle I miss you soooo much. I wish everyday that there was something that I could have done to save you. We were so close but yet so far. I just wish I knew anything so that I could have taken you away from that monster and never looked back. You are an Angel and did not deserve what happened.
Micky and Alberto will get the justice they deserve, don’t worry about that. You were a beautiful little girl whose life got cut short but at least you are no longer suffering. The trial starts March 31st, 2009 and me and my mom will do everything in our power to make sure he does not live to see another day.
As for Micky, you deserve to die as well for not helping your child, the person you gave life to. You let her die and that makes you just as responsible as him if not more since she was your blood. I look at the picture above and i remember taking that, we had so much fun that day.
We went to the mall and spent the day together, worry free and now you are gone. I should have ran away with you then, I just had no idea I wish you would have told me. Michelle I know you are up there watching over us and I promise you will never be forgotten for as long as I live. May God bless you and take care of you as you deserve.
As for the Child Protective Services who did not do their job correctly, you will reap what you sow in time.
June 17 ,2009 at 1:19 pm
I was friends with michelle in my 8th grade year in middle school. I had only known her that year and although it wasn’t long i trully cared about her. We hung out together every morning in our school cafeteria before school started she always sat next to me or across from me. She was so funny and even if her smile wasn’t real she always smiled and seemed to always make me and her other friends smile. I remember one morning we were all in such a bad mood because school bell rang and we locked arms and walked to our class like the wizard of oz. i cherish that EVERYDAY. A true angel Michelle was! A day does not go by that i wish i could change the past and fought for her because i would with no question. I am so thankful that God brought her into my life, although it was a short period of time. Michelle you will forever be missed and you are always with our thoughts! You are my angel and i will always love you!!!!! Wait fir me in heaven mama in peace may you rest! (Peanut butter was our insider- she had the biggest crush on this one guy named Jared and we nicknamed him Peanut butter just days before her demise- i just wanted to share something i cherish with all those who loved and cared for Michelle) God Bless!
November 4 ,2009 at 10:17 pm
I have just finished reading about this precious girl and I am truly grateful for a loving father in heaven. I am a step-mother of three beautiful, bright, and loving children. There is no way in hell that I would ever let a man harm my children, whether he is their father, step-father, or whatever he may be to them. It seems like all that Michelle’s mother cared about was her next high. She may not have to pay on this earth but she will pay come judgement day.
January 26 ,2011 at 11:08 am
I miss you and love you always. Our family is still incomplete without you.
April 22 ,2011 at 2:01 pm
Wow, years later and I can read this and still cry as if this happened yesterday. Michelle was my cousin and one of my best friends, one of the most lively, fun, and energetic people I had ever met. I can not believe he did not suffer like you did, justice is NOT served. We will never get you back, you did not deserve this. I really hate that as long as I can remember knowing you – way back to Kindergarten – I never knew what was really happening at home. I know it wont change now, nothing will. But I wish somebody knew so this isnt how it ended up for you, or any of us. We miss you dearly. I got a pretty picture of you and Millie(R.I.P. as well) hanging in my dorm. I love you, Rest In Peace pretty girl ❤
August 25 ,2011 at 10:00 pm
I was on the Grand Jury who indicted this monster and am still haunted by the photos we were required to look at in order to be fully informed. We tried to get the state’s attorney to also go after Michelle’s joke of a mother to no avail. Unfortunately his hands were tied and he was just as sad that he had no legal recourse to put her sorry ass away for years too. I think of Michelle quite often and I am quite sad to think how awful her short life must have been, but I know she is in a much better place. Her stepfather will hopefully get “his” in prison but will definitely burn in hell with her witch of a mother
August 31 ,2011 at 7:38 am
For a while now I have been diliberating on what I’d like to major in. I cant seem to figure it out. But today someone asked me “why dont you major in social work?” I imediatly replied “no!” I would never want to work for such a corrupt agency with many people who do not care for children. But then Michelle Fontanez came to mind and I thought that if maybe Michelle had worked with a good social worker she just might have been removed from her abusive home. Which means she could have been saved and she would have been part of the 2010 graduating class and possibly in her second year of college. Michelle as tragic as your situation was, it makes me want to change my mind and decide to be a social worker so that I can take kids away from dangerous situations. I think I may have a major. Rest in peace my love. You are thought of. Never forgotten. I promise that if I do become a social worker or anything in the legal field, I will make sure I PROTECT children and keep them as far away from harm and their abusers as possible. ❤ Love u girl! ❤
January 16 ,2013 at 2:33 pm
Its been almost 7 years….I remember kianni perez and Michelle and another girl in the cafeteria laughing like a bunch of girls and had just about everyone staring at them. I remember chasing Michelle down in the walkway after class because she left her notebook. I remember leaving art at the end of the day and always seeing her with her head down. Id be going to the rec center and i always seen her. And i remember being in the bathroom with kianni after school…that’s when we found out this beautiful angel didn’t make it. I think a shadow covered our school and the town for a very long time. Its such a sad thing. But she is in a better place and she remains in the hearts of soo many people who cared about and loved her. Some of us may not have known you for very long but in the time that we did, you left a mark. And it will never be forgotten. You are truly missed and loved by so many!! RIP babygirl…
March 22 ,2022 at 7:51 pm
It’s hard to believe it’s been nearly 15 years. Someone tell me, what happened to this girl’s horrible mother? Hopefully, she was hit by a bus.
April 18 ,2022 at 12:17 pm
I am the paramedic that responded to care for Michelle. I think of her often and will never forget her. May she continue to R.I.P.
December 7 ,2023 at 7:48 pm
I never knew her but she went to my school years ago and when I heard her story it made me sad and mad. Sad because she was only 13 she didn’t deserve to die and she was too young to go through something so traumatic and mad because she told people most people going through what she’s going through are scared to tell people and those “trusted adults” that everyone says to tell when you need help didn’t help her one bit I’m the same age as her and I don’t want anybody to go through what she went through R.I.P Michelle you are loved by your school and by people who love and appreciate your presence 1994-2006
December 9 ,2023 at 9:37 pm
Sorry she was born on 1992 not 1994