Burial, reunion, trial: Phoenix mom helping family heal after daughter’s bones were found in attic

PERRY VANDELL   | Arizona Republic

As the reunion date approached, she feared how her children would react.

Would they hate her for the abuse police said they endured at the hands of their adoptive parents for years? Would they hug her the way they did so many years ago? Would they even remember who she was?

Priscilla Marquez lost parental rights forher six children in 2012 as she battled a methamphetamine addiction. Family members took custody of two while the remaining four went into foster care.

Three of her children — whom she knew as Charisma, Angelina and Joseph — were adopted by Rafael and Maribel Loera, whom police say repeatedly abused the three children while under their care.

Marquezwas ruminating on these questions over and over again when, a couple of days before the reunion, she realized that Charisma wouldn’t be there.

“It hit me that it wasn’t going to be all three,” Priscilla told The Arizona Republic. “It was only going to be two because Charisma wasn’t going to be there. That’s when it hit me harder that my baby girl is not here anymore.”

Charisma Marquez's remains were found in the Loeras' attic last year. It was a vicious and painful discovery, one she knew her surviving children had suffered with for even longer.

She was nervous as she walked into the Peter Piper Pizza where her uncle had broughtthe kids to meet her. The questions and fears that haunted Priscilla washed away when Angelina and Joseph — now 10 and 12 years old, respectively — returned her embrace.

“It was sad, happy, exciting, hurt,” Marquez said. “It was so much mixed emotions. I didn’t want to cry because I didn’t want them to cry. But I cried and I didn’t want to let them go when I was hugging them. I didn’t want to scare them when I hugged them tight. But they hugged me back tight.”

Estevaun Lauro, Marquez's 22-year-old son, said he never imagined he would get to see his younger siblings so soon, and said his family is extremely fortunate that the kids' foster mother is letting them reconnect after so many years apart. 

It was a moment of healing after years of pain.

Over a year since girl's bones were discovered in Phoenix attic after fire

It has been more than a year since the bones of Charisma Marquez, also known as Ana Loera, were found in the attic of a home in west Phoenix.

Authorities first learned of the abuse when Angelina, who was 11 at the time, called the police to report she was home alone and scared on Jan. 20, 2020.

The girl was removed from the home, but no other children were there, police said at the time. The Arizona Department of Child Safety later removed Joseph, who was 9 at the time, and a then-4-year-old girl not related to Marquez on Jan. 28, 2020.

Police said in court documents that Rafael Loera told them he attempted to kill himself by burning down their west Phoenix home shortly after the kids were removed, though firefighters were able to extinguish the blaze before it engulfed the structure.

Firefighters inspecting the home found what appeared to be skeletal remains in the attic.

Police arrested Rafael and Maribel Loera. The former told detectives that the bones belonged to Charisma, whose name had been changed to Ana Loera, and that she had been dead since 2017.

Court documents show Rafael Loera told investigators Ana had fallen ill and that he waited several days before deciding to take her to Phoenix Children’s Hospital.

It would be too late.

Ana Loera began to vomit and convulse in the car moments before she died when Marquez said she was 10 but police say she was 11. 

Fearing her death would mean losing custody of the other children, Rafael told police he decided to wrap Ana’s body in a sheet and hide it in the attic where it decomposed into mere bones over two years.

Priscilla says she still doesn’t know why or how her daughter was dead for so long with no one seeming to notice or care.

Darren Daronco, a DCS spokesperson, provided a written statement to The Republic on Jan. 28 as to why the agency hadn’t checked in on the children.

“The Loera’s were adoptive parents and their last adoption was finalized in 2016,” DaRonco said, while authorities say Charisma died in 2017. “The Department had no cause or statutory authority to visit the home after their last adoption was finalized. After an adoption is finalized, DCS is no longer involved with the family. This means that DCS caseworkers had not been conducting visits with the Loera’s between 2016 and up until  the Jan. 20, 2020, report was received.”

DaRonco later clarified that DCS had not received any reports on the Loeras since their final adoption in 2016 until the Jan. 20 report.

Two reunions, each eight years in the making

After learning of her daughter’s death, one of Priscilla’s immediate concerns involved obtaining her remains to give her a proper service.

“I was calling the medical examiner’s office to find out if I would be able to get her remains,” Priscilla said. “That way I can give her a service that she needed and that she deserved instead of just being left in an attic.”

Priscilla said the agency initially told her that, because she wasn’t the child’s legal guardian, she wasn’t entitled to the remains and that the state would perform a service. She said the news broke her heart, as the last thing she could do for her daughter was lay her to rest.

But her spirits rose when the agency called her again in May asking if she was still interested in holding a service for her daughter. 

Priscilla had her daughter cremated and held a celebration of life on May 23, 2020, in Casa Grande. She and other family members released 14 balloons in Papago Park to commemorate what would have been her 14th birthday.

She last saw Charisma was she was 4 years old, a happy, spontaneous girl full of spunk who loved bracelets and purses.

For years, she had daydreamed about reuniting with Charisma when she turned 18, hoping that as an adult she would try to find her biological mother. While the celebration of life wasn't the reunion she imagined, she cherished it for what it was.

Lauro, Marquez's son, told The Republic his mom encouraged him to speak at the ceremony, but the pictures and videos reminding him of the half-sister he last saw as a young teen he lost made it too difficult to come up with the words.

"I just broke down crying because it was just, like, the last memories, pictures I had of her," Lauro said.

Priscilla got sober shortly after losing her kids. Because of how she lost them, she's not eligible to get them back. Her relatives attempted to adopt Angelina and Joseph back into the family after they were removed from the Loeras, but Priscilla said a foster mom they had already been placed with plans on adopting them.

Priscilla said her uncle, Fred Marquez, had visitation rights to the children after they were placed in foster care and told them that their biological mother was doing well and lived in Phoenix. DCS eventually agreed to allow Priscilla to see her children under supervision. 

They reunited in the Peter Piper Pizza in October. She asked the kids if she could call them by the names she gave them at birth instead of the new names they had been given, the third in their lives so far.

They told her she could.

A week later, Priscilla was able to take the children trick-or-treating.

She said she’s grateful to her children’s foster mother, whom she says has been very supportive of her reentering her children’s lives. Instead of calling Angelina and Joseph “her children,” she calls them “our children.”

“She keeps me involved,” Priscilla said. “She keeps me updated. She sends me pictures. I see (Angelina and Joseph) once a month. We go and have ice cream with each other. She’s a very nice lady. They’re very happy and they’re very well taken care of.”

Priscilla said the woman has invited her to her home once the adoption process is complete. She also said the foster mother has declined to speak with The Republic until the adoption is finalized and the trial is over.

Loeras' trial scheduled for April

Rafael and Maribel Loera are scheduled to go to trial on April 27 in Maricopa County Superior Court.

Each face four counts of child abuse and one count of concealing a dead body. Rafael has also been charged with arson of an occupied structure.

Although the Maricopa County Medical Examiner lists Ana Loera’s death as a homicide, neither parent faces murder or manslaughter charges as of Thursday.

Jennifer Liewer, a spokesperson for the Maricopa County Attorney's Office, said the Phoenix Police Department submitted first-degree murder charges for both parents on Jan. 26, 2021. 

"Because these submittals are currently under review, we are unable to provide further comment at this time," Liewer said.

Their next scheduled court date is on April 13.

Priscilla said she plans on asking the prosecutor to not offer either of them a plea bargain and ensure they get the maximum length of prison time.

“I want them to be able to live their life knowing that they affected little children that were innocent,” Priscilla said. “That they didn’t deserve what they put them through.”

Priscilla said she’s legally barred from talking to her children about what they experienced and other details regarding the criminal case while it remains active, but hopes her children will open up to her about what happened and how they feel when they’re ready.

And although Priscilla said she doesn’t want her children to have to relive their experiences by testifying, she feels it’s worth it if it means the Loeras spend more time in prison if convicted.

“I want my children to understand that the justice system is there to help them,” Priscilla said. “I want them to be heard on what happened. I want these people to see the pain that they put my children through. That way, these people can get what they deserve.”

'I don’t want what happened to her to happen to other children'

During one of their visits, Priscilla gave Angelina a ring containing some of Charisma’s ashes after her daughter confided in how she missed her sister.

Charisma’s death remains a devastating loss, with some days being better than others.

“I’m all over the place about it,” Priscilla said. “There’s days where I’m OK and everything. And then there’s days where I’m just, like — I’m not OK. But I smile to cover it up and I hide it.”

Lauro said he's upset by how little has changed since his sister's remains were discovered. State lawmakers who promised his family change have gone silent and news coverage ceased shortly after the initial discovery.

"Me and my little sister, we've kind of lost hope," Lauro said, referencing the other sibling who went into family care. "It's sad to say, because so many people have promised so many things. And it's just, like, I don't know. We just feel like nothing will ever be — justice won't be served because nobody really cares if it's going to be served or not."

Priscilla said she too is frustrated and heartbroken that nothing seems to have changed since her daughter’s remains were discovered. She wants DCS to show more empathy, to have the state offer better support for those struggling with addiction and not take their children.

“I do talk to her and I tell her I’m sorry,” Priscilla said with a quavering voice. “I don’t want her to be forgotten. I don’t want what happened to her to happen to other children.”

Reach the reporter Perry Vandell at 602-444-2474 or perry.vandell@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @PerryVandell.