Carthage residents react to baby’s death

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February 7, 2010

Anonymous The Joplin Globe Sun Feb 07, 2010, 07:37 PM CST

By Emily Younker

eyounker@joplinglobe.com

CARTHAGE, Mo. — Gilda Vargas said she doesn’t know Yadira Aguilar, the mother of an 8-month-old boy who disappeared Thursday and was found dead two days later.

But Vargas, who has an 8-month-old daughter, said Sunday that her heart goes out to Aguilar.

“I feel so sad,” said Vargas, co-pastor at Iglesia Cristiana Hispano-Americana in Carthage. “I think she is going to suffer for plenty of time.”

The baby boy’s father, Eddie Salazar, phoned police late Thursday night and reported that the boy had been kidnapped. Police said Salazar told them that one or two masked men entered the home while he was asleep, knocked him unconscious, and took the baby, also named Eddie.

Salazar was arrested Friday on a charge of filing a false police report after reportedly implicating someone who was later found to be innocent in the child’s disappearance. Salazar remained in custody Sunday on $100,000 bond, and police have said he is the only suspect in the case.

The body of a boy thought to be baby Eddie was found Saturday afternoon in Spring River near a bridge on County Road 85, east of Carthage. The location is about a 10-minute drive from Salazar’s home at 227 E. Mound St. Carthage police Chief Greg Dagnan has said information obtained during the investigation led authorities to give priority to that area during their search for the baby.

An autopsy is scheduled for this morning in Columbia. Authorities say the autopsy will provide them with positive identification of the body and information that could come into play in any additional charges against Salazar. Carthage police said they had no new developments in the case to disclose as of Sunday night.

The Rev. Steven Wilson of Grace Episcopal Church, which has about 100 Hispanic members, said Sunday that he thought Carthage residents were still in shock.

“I don’t think the community has had enough time to digest the situation,” he said. “(We) ask ourselves how this can happen in a town we think is very Norman Rockwell.”

Wilson said he sees an immediate need in the community for prayer, but beyond that he has no plan yet for how to help people deal with the boy’s death.

“I think at this point, we don’t know what the need is,” he said. “In terms of what to do, sometimes it is best to wait and see what the needs are.”

Wilson said people need to remember that “evil and tragedy are not the exclusive” elements of any particular social or ethnic group.

“We need to be quick to offer prayers and slow to offer opinions,” he said.

That people might stereotype the Hispanic community based on the case worries Francisco Bonilla, senior pastor at Iglesia Cristiana Hispano-Americana.

He said he doesn’t want Hispanics to be labeled as violent or criminal as a result of the case. Salazar has a history that includes convictions for robbery, property damage and stalking.

“I am deeply sad for what happened,” Bonilla said. “We do our best to help the community, but the need is too great.”

Bonilla said he does not know the Salazar family. He said he is part of an evangelistic movement led by local pastors and ministry leaders called Four-State Awakening.

“We are praying for an awakening from God,” he said. “People are far away from God. This (the Salazar case) just shows there is a great need.”

Moises Marquez, pastor of Hispanic ministries at the First Nazarene Church of Carthage, said the community is still searching for answers about what happened to baby Eddie and why it happened.

“We are sad, very sad,” said Marquez, who said he doesn’t know the Salazar family. “We pray for them, cry for them. The whole Hispanic community is very sad.”

Other family

Police say baby Eddie’s mother is not a suspect in the case, and that his older brother, a toddler, is “safe and with family members.”