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March 29, 2005
Cold cases
Foster care tragedies remain mysteries
In the wake of the traumatic death of a 4-year-old boy placed in foster care in
Dorchester, Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino is asking police to revisit the
decade-old unsolved murders of two children, both in foster care.
Michelle Walton, 9, was killed in October 1994 and Gage Guillen, 3, in September
1995. A Boston Herald report notes that no arrests or charges have been brought
in either case.
Boston’s unsolved cases concerning children entrusted to foster care are by no
means unique.
In Worcester, an even more perplexing case remains unsolved, and largely
forgotten, six-plus years after the fact.
On Nov. 5, 1998, 5-month-old Marlon Devine Santos disappeared from the Worcester
foster home in which he had been placed. To this day, it is unknown what fate
befell the infant.
The investigation has been controversial from the beginning. The adults
responsible for Baby Marlon’s well-being, including his foster parents, Jose M.
and Yolanda Castillo, and his mother, Dina Santos, showed little interest in
cooperating with authorities.
Investigators were unable to determine even whether the boy was dead or alive,
and the case all-too-quickly went cold. The investigation appeared to be heating
up when District Attorney John J. Conte led a high-profile search, shortly
before the first anniversary of Baby Marlon’s disappearance, of woods along
Route 70 near Wachusett Reservoir. The search and subsequent inquiries by a
special grand jury were to no avail.
Compounding the tragedy, authorities later learned that the foster father had a
criminal record in Puerto Rico, including assault, armed robbery and other
serious crimes — a chilling revelation given that between 1992 and 1998, the
state Department of Social Services had placed 52 foster children in the
Castillo home.
More than six years after his unexplained disappearance, Baby Marlon’s case is
heart-rending still. We urge Mr. Conte to take a cue from Boston and revisit
this disturbing case.
