Delaware County Daily Times - Aug 18, 1999 Article

After a week, no sign of baby

Delaware County Daily Times (Primos - Upper Darby, PA) - Wednesday, August 18, 1999

Author: SETH AGULNICKOf the Times Staff

UPPER CHICHESTER -- A week has passed and there's still no trace of 20-month-old Katelyn Rivera-Helton.

Local police and the FBI continued to press their search yesterday for the toddler, who authorities say was kidnapped by her father Aug. 10.

Her father, Robert N. Rivera , turned himself in to police the next day, telling investigators he had given his daughter to a couple he met at Longwood Gardens.

No one has been able to corroborate that story, authorities said, even though Rivera claims to have approached numerous people before finding someone to take the baby.

Several tips about Katelyn 's whereabouts have come to police in recent days, including one from a Pennsylvania Turnpike officer who said he saw a baby fitting her description -- but none of the information has panned out, police said yesterday.

The only report police have been able to authenticate is from a gas station attendant in Chadds Ford who said he saw father and daughter around 7:30 p.m. the night Katelyn was taken.

""We're all deeply concerned that there's been no confirmed sighting of Katelyn since (last) Tuesday,'' said Upper Chichester Police Chief William Robinson.

A preliminary hearing for Rivera on the kidnapping charges was continued yesterday at the request of prosecutors. No new date has been set.

Rivera , 33, of Upper Chichester, is also charged in that case with assault.

Police say he attacked his estranged girlfriend -- Katelyn 's mother -- in a Wawa parking lot just minutes before snatching his daughter from her babysitter's house.

The parking lot confrontation came just a short while after Rivera had appeared in district court, waiving his hearing on charges that he assaulted his ex-girlfriend on July 30.

Days after Rivera was charged in that initial assault, his girlfriend, Jennifer Helton, sought a protection from abuse order. On Aug. 5, Helton and Rivera signed an agreement giving the father supervised visits with his daughter, but requiring him to stay away from Helton's home and work and Katelyn 's babysitter's house.

The babysitter, Sheila Clendening, said she cares for six children, including Katelyn, at her Second Avenue home in Upper Chichester. She declined comment on the case yesterday, saying police had asked her not to discuss it.

Meanwhile, the search for Katelyn goes on, a coordinated effort between Upper Chichester police, county detectives and the FBI.

Investigators have continued talking with Rivera -- who remains in Delaware County prison -- but he has not changed his story that he gave his daughter away to strangers, Robinson said.

""We still have some active leads we're following up on,'' Robinson said. ""Until those leads run dry, that will be our game plan, to interview as many people as possible.''

District Attorney Patrick L. Meehan was out of town yesterday. His office released a statement that said the investigation was continuing and any developments would be disclosed ""at the appropriate time.''

Staff Writer Catherine Donaldson-Evans contributed to this report