Couple Charged With Child Endangerment

Couple Charged With Child Endangerment

Police Investigating 2-Year-Old's Death

POSTED: 3:18 pm CDT June 3, 2008

NEW ALBANY, Miss. -- Union County authorities said additional charges are possible in a case that began with the death of a 2-year-old Guatemalan girl.

Enna Isabel Barreto died May 19 at a Memphis hospital. Family members claimed the girl suffered head injuries in a fall from a shopping cart.

Sheriff Tommie Wilhite said after the child's death, investigators went to the home of Ramon Barreto and Janet Killough Barreto, described as the child's adoptive parents, and found conditions that led to the filing of seven counts of child endangerment.

Authorities said the Barretos are also the parents of Janet Barreto's 17-year-old daughter, a young child of their own and six other adopted children from kindergarten-age to 2.

Wilhite said the conditions inside the Barreto home were filthy.

He said 185 maltreated dogs, possibly part of a puppy mill operation, were found outside the home. The animals were turned over to the Tupelo-Lee Humane Society.

The couple's attorney, Tony Farese of Ashland, said his clients had nothing to do with the child's death.Wilhite said the other children are in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Human Services.