Only Woman on US Marshals' Most-Wanted List Is Busted

Janet Killough Barreto was on lam for 5 years
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 14, 2014 9:33 AM CDT
Only Woman on US Marshals' Most-Wanted List Is Busted
Janet Killough Barreto   (US Marshals)

Janet Killough Barreto, who apparently adopted multiple kids from Central America in the mid-2000s, was ultimately accused of abusing one of them to death and released on bond, reports the Columbian. But she was a no-show at her 2009 trial to face charges of manslaughter, child abuse and neglect, and tampering with a witness, and authorities have been looking for her ever since—until now. The only woman on the US Marshals' "Most Wanted" list was arrested in Portland, Ore., on Tuesday with her husband, notes CNN, and officials say the pair may have been holed up in Vancouver, British Columbia, for at least the past year.

Barreto and husband Ramon Barreto allegedly bought several children from a Guatemalan adoption agency in 2005 and 2006, but once they got the kids home, what transpired was "nothing short of horrendous and despicable," the sheriff of Union County, Miss.—where the crimes reportedly took place—tells CNN. The children weren't properly fed and suffered physical abuse that was said to include having their heads pushed underwater, punches to the stomach, and being duct-taped to hard-bottomed beds. In 2008, their 2-year-old daughter died, reportedly as a result of abuse, but the Barretos skipped town before the trial. The couple was arrested Tuesday after someone spotted them outside a Portland Burlington Coat Factory with an 11-month-old baby. The baby was placed with CPS. (More Vancouver stories.)

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