VANESSA MARTINEZ - 6 Months - ACCUSED: Olivia Page Martinez and Jonathan Niles Kesterson - Tucson AZ

Missing baby in Pima child abuse case found

Posted: Apr 24, 2012 7:54 AM
Updated: Apr 24, 2012 7:57 AM

TUCSON - The baby at the center of a Pima County child abuse death has been found in Pinal County.

Pima County Sheriff's Homicide Detectives recently became aware of a child abuse case that ended in the murder of Vanessa Martinez, born last October. Detectives beleive the mother, Olivia Paige Martinez and father Jonathan Niles Kesterson are responsible for the child's death.

This morning, Pima County Sheriff's found the body of the infant in Pinal County.

http://www.kvoa.com/news/missing-baby-in-pima-child-abuse-case-found/

Pima County parents arrested in death of baby girl
AP

Posted: 04/23/2012 06:21:34 PM PDT
Updated: 04/23/2012 06:21:34 PM PDT

TUCSON, Ariz.—Authorities in Tucson say the parents of a baby girl are in custody in connection with her death.

The Pima County Sheriff's Department says 20-year-old Olivia Paige Martinez and 26-year-old Jonathan Niles Kesterson were arrested in San Diego in the death of Vanessa Martinez.

The girl was born last October but it's unclear when she died.

Authorities say the investigation began when Kesterson was arrested April 12 on unrelated charges in San Diego.

While in the custody of the San Diego County Jail, authorities say Kesterson made comments to corrections officers regarding the death.

Pima County sheriff's detectives flew to San Diego to interview Kesterson and arrest warrants were issued for the parents.

They say Olivia Martinez was returned to Pima County on Friday and Kesterson was brought back Monday.

http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_20463732/pima-county-parents-arrested-death-baby-girl

Missing infant's remains found north of Tucson

Kimberly Matas, Arizona Daily Star | Posted: Tuesday, April 24, 2012 9:30 am

The remains of an infant, believed to be those of missing Tucson girl Vanessa Martinez, were found in a shallow desert grave early Tuesday morning.

Search dogs found the body about 6:20 a.m. in a remote desert area northwest of Toltec Road and Interstate 10, north of Tucson.

Pima County Sheriff’s detectives and members of Southern Arizona Rescue Dogs began searching the area about 5 a.m. today.

The infant’s parents, Olivia Paige Martinez, 20, and Jonathan Niles Kesterson, 26, were arrested in San Diego in connection with the death of their daughter, the Pima County Sheriff's Department said Monday.

The Tucson investigation began when Kesterson was arrested April 12 on unrelated charges in California. While in custody in San Diego, Kesterson made comments to corrections officers regarding the death, according to the Pima sheriff’s department.

Pima County sheriff's detectives flew to San Diego to interview Kesterson, and based on the initial interview, arrest warrants were issued for the parents.

Olivia Martinez was returned to Pima County Friday. Kesterson was brought back Monday. Both were being held in the Pima County jail.

No details were released about the cause of the baby’s death. Vanessa was born in October, according to the Sheriff's Department.

Read more: http://azstarnet.com/news/local/crime/missing-infant-s-remains-found-north-of-tucson/article_d50230ca-8e2a-11e1-9cfd-001a4bcf887a.html#ixzz1syhuuxGX

Foster parents of dead baby speak out

Posted: Apr 24, 2012 10:40 PM
Updated: Apr 24, 2012 10:58 PM

VIDEO REPORT: http://www.kvoa.com/videoplayer/?video_id=9959&categories=2

Tucson - The 3-month old baby, buried in a shallow grave outside Eloy, was once in Child Protective custody.

Removed from her parents' care when she was born, Vanessa Martinez and her 2-year-old sister, Dominique, were placed with foster parents, Kristy and Joey Martin. For about two-and-a-half months the Martins cared for both girls, while their mother dealt with her drug problem. Then, about two-and-a-half weeks after they left the Martin's care, Pima County detectives believe Vanessa was dead.

Joey Martin says, the family was reunited too quickly. He tells News4 Tucson, in an exclusive interview, "They (CPS) just tried to get their parents back with their kids and move on to the next kids, and hope it works out."

Instead, Pima County detectives would comb the desert, for Vanessa's body. Investigators say, both parents confessed to burying Vanessa, but Olivia Martinez says Vanessa died in Jonathan Kesterson's care. Jonathan says, Vanessa died with Olivia. Either way, detectives think she was removed from her parents, reunited with Mom and Dad and murdered... all by the age of 3-months.

According to Pima County's search warrant affidavit, there was never a missing person's report made. That means, either the case was closed very fast, the CPS worker never followed-up, or CPS failed to notify authorities that they couldn't find the kids. News 4 asked CPS for comment.

They denied our request.

http://www.kvoa.com/news/foster-parents-of-dead-baby-speak-out/#!prettyPhoto/0/

It was five days before Christmas. Vanessa Martinez was moving in with her mom for the first time. She was 2 months old.

Three months later, investigators pulled her from a shallow desert
grave off Interstate 10 near Eloy. She'd been there for two months.
Nobody had reported her missing.

Vanessa was born on Oct. 21, 2011. At that time, doctors found traces
of cocaine and methamphetamine in her body. They found enough cocaine
in her mother, 20-year-old Olivia Martinez, and father, Jonathan
Kesterson, 26, to suggest regular use.




Arizona's Child Protective Services placed Vanessa and her older
sister in foster care. Martinez and Kesterson agreed to go to therapy, a
parenting class and drug counseling and to take drug tests. Throughout
November, the couple visited the girls twice a week.

Vanessa was quiet, slept a lot and was slow to respond to
stimulation. But doctors were sure she had no signs of withdrawal from
the drugs her mom had passed to her in the womb. She was healthy, and
the visits went well. At times, she was "clingy" to her parents.
Caseworkers noted a good bond with her sister and a caring, loving
relationship among the entire family.

But there were warning signs, too.

CPS records document the couple's personal struggles. They also document shifting, sometimes conflicting stories.

Both parents had fled bad situations in New Mexico. Both grew up with alcoholic parents.

Martinez had been abused and forced to take meth as a child. She got
pregnant, didn't tell her boyfriend and faked an abortion. She worked at
a strip club and made good money, but cocaine and meth were available
every night. She wanted to shake the habit, but couldn't.

Kesterson was a former heroin dealer and gang member. He got
occasional jobs hanging drywall or pruning palms. They moved in to a
trailer together in the Tucson area. He signed the birth certificates of
both girls, becoming their legal father.

After Vanessa's birth, Kesterson and Martinez told CPS of their
plans, which kept changing. At one point, CPS reports describe Kesterson
as the breadwinner, at other times Martinez.

For two months they passed drug tests and routinely attended church.
Caseworkers described Kesterson as a hard worker and someone who wanted
to be a good dad.

By early December, the state discussed reuniting the family by Christmas, and it donated presents when the couple asked.

As Christmas approached, the pair complained that the group therapy
wasn't much help. They were eager to get the family back together
because they wanted to move back to New Mexico.

The kids came home on Dec. 20. The next day, Kesterson asked CPS to
close the case, and the state complied -- 30 days earlier than planned.
After a meeting the next day, the state never heard from them again.

"It is unfortunate that her CPS caseworker moved so fast that this
writer was advised of services ending without being able to have closure
with this client," the drug counselor at Arizona Families FIRST wrote
in a Jan. 12 report.

By then, Vanessa was already dead.

On April 12, San Diego sheriff's deputies arrested Kesterson on
unrelated charges and learned that he'd made comments about Vanessa's
death in January.

Kesterson told Pima County investigators he went jogging on Jan. 8
and came back to find Vanessa dead. Martinez told them she was working
at a club that night when Kesterson told her the baby was having a hard
time breathing.

Martinez later changed her story, saying her boyfriend squeezed
Vanessa's ribs, then beat her after her fussiness had kept him awake.
He'd beaten her before, she said.

Kesterson stuck to his original account.

The pair said they didn't report Vanessa's death because they didn't
want to lose the older girl. She's now in foster care again.

Martinez and Kesterson face charges of first-degree murder, child
abuse and concealing a body. They are in jail awaiting trial in Tucson.

Pima County cadaver dogs found Vanessa under 2 feet of soil beneath a mesquite tree.


Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2012/05/27/20120527arizona-child-welfare-warning-signs.html#ixzz1wAKs9wHO

Why did CPS abandon Baby Vanessa?

(Column published May 30, 2012, The Arizona Republic)

As parents go, they were, at best, a bad risk.

Mom, age 20, used methamphetamine and cocaine through her second pregnancy then returned to her job as a stripper where she was surrounded by illegal drugs.

Dad – who like Mom had an “extensive” history of drug abuse – was 26 and unemployed but had a resume packed with previous experience: gangbanger, car thief, heroin dealer.

They were new to town, with no support. Their relationship was “historically unstable”. And they wanted their baby back.

So Child Protective Services handed over two-month-old Vanessa Martinez and walked away. “There are no safety concerns that would require CPS to keep the case open,” the caseworker wrote.

Seventeen days later, Vanessa was dead.

At 11 weeks old, she is the third child to slip through CPS’s fingers and into an early grave this year – all of them in Pima County.

Department of Economic Security Director Clarence Carter has vowed to get to the bottom of what happened here, as he did with Za’Naya Flores, who starved to death in January. (Four people are reportedly on the chopping block in Za’Naya’s case.)

“What’s clear to me in Za’Naya’s case is there was simply just flat out lazy-(inappropriate term) casework on that and supervisory work,” Carter said. “Laurie, this just feels different to me than just laziness because why, under these circumstances, would the decisions that were made, why would they be made?”

There’s no obvious answer.

Vanessa was born Oct. 21, having been exposed to meth and cocaine. Her parents, Olivia Martinez and Jonathan Kesterson, were drug addicts who had recently moved to Tucson, having fled New Mexico.

The parents agreed to turn over Vanessa and her older sister to foster care for 90 days while they cleaned up their act.

“Act” evidently being the operative word.

The question is, why was CPS so quick to accept that this couple had not only seen the light but could walk toward it without an escort? This was a veteran caseworker, yet he seemed to buy into the notion that hard-core drug addicts could suddenly turn around their lives in a matter of mere weeks.

He wrote that the father “has job skills and a strong work ethic.” Yet Kesterson was an unemployed former heroin dealer who lived off of his stripper girlfriend.

He wrote that “both parents have the support of their families”. Yet they fled New Mexico to escape one bad setup and came to Tucson, where she reported growing up in an abusive family full of drug addicts.

He wrote that they were preparing to attend Pima Community College. Yet they asked for their kids back on Dec. 18 so they could return to New Mexico.

He wrote that the parents are “motivated and cooperative”. But the parents asked CPS to close the case on Dec. 21, the day after their kids were returned to them, and they never again went to drug treatment or therapy.

CPS closed the case anyway and never looked back.

Not even three weeks after Vanessa was handed to her parents, she was dropped into a shallow grave under a mesquite tree, in the desert near Eloy.

She might never have been found but for Kesterson’s arrest in April and admission that they’d buried a child in the Arizona desert before beating a path to San Diego. Both parents have been charged with first-degree murder and child abuse.

Which brings us to the most crucial question of all: What the heck is going on in Pima County?

The most outrageous CPS cases seem to ooze out of that office. Think Ariana and Tyler Payne. Think Brandon Williams. Think the caseworker who was dating an abusive father she was supposed to be investigating —and was promoted when found out. Think every Arizona child who has died this year while CPS was supposed to be watching.

That hasn’t escaped notice of CPS brass, which is trying to fix what ails the agency.

“We have a very bright spotlight on Tucson right now and I have to be honest with you, I don’t feel like the intensity of the change has yet permeated Tucson … ,” Carter said. “I have the sense that there is the need for structural change there.”

I don’t know about structural change. But a mop, a bucket and one very large broom applied to the boss’ office would be a good place to start.

http://www.azcentral.com/members/Blog/LaurieRoberts/163253