Delaware County Daily Times - Oct 16, 1999 Article

Rivera wouldn't hurt Katelyn

Delaware County Daily Times (Primos - Upper Darby, PA) - Saturday, October 16, 1999

Author: ROSE QUINN ; Of the Times Staff

CHESTER - No more than seven hours after her father kidnapped her from day care, little Katelyn Selena Rivera-Helton was described as happy, healthy, clutching her dad's hand and eating her favorite McDonald's french fries.

The 22-month-old toddler was not injured or bleeding, the woman whose car Robert Rivera borrowed and spent time with the pair that fateful Aug. 10 afternoon told the Daily Times yesterday.

What Michele Lupi cannot say for sure is whether or not Katelyn was wearing both shoes and both socks at the time.

I've been thinking about it all day," she said. "I think I can remember her wearing them. I'm pretty sure I remember her playing with the laces I remember her pulling off her sock and I kept putting it back on."

A dirty yellow sock and a laceless rhinestone-studded sneaker her mother positively identified as Katelyn 's were recovered by investigators along busy Route 202 in Delaware.

Authorities called the items a link in solving the high-profile investigation that has included massive searches in Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland.

Lupi refuted statements by Katelyn 's day care provider who told police that the toddler hit and cut her head against the door jamb when Rivera , 33, burst in her Upper Chichester home and carried her away."

She was beautiful. She was fine," Lupi asserted yesterday of Katelyn, who has now been missing for 68 days.

Lupi, who remains supportive of Rivera and last visited the accused kidnapper at the county prison Tuesday, said he "is sticking with his story" that he gave his daughter away to a couple he met but did not know at Longwood Gardens.

That's the story Rivera gave police when he was arrested Aug. 11 outside the home of Helton's parents on Sharpless Avenue in Upper Chichester.

Rivera was formally arraigned Thursday on kidnapping and related offenses, with a pretrial hearing set for Nov. 15 before Judge Robert C. Wright.

When she last saw Rivera and his daughter together between 5:30 and 6 p.m. the day of the 11 a.m. alleged kidnapping, Lupi believed he was on his way to return Katelyn to her mother at the Kmart in the Tri-State Mall in Claymont, Del. "

I don't want to think he could hurt her," she said. "He told me he regretted everything he did that day a hundred percent."

Whenever he talked about it, Lupi said, he "cried his eyes out."

Lupi, 22, had known Rivera about two weeks when they started a relationship. She never saw any display of violence.

"He was a gentleman he opened doors," she said, noting that she experienced violent boyfriends in the past and Rivera wasn't one of them.

Rivera and Helton, 26, were amid what Helton has described as their final breakup. They were together nearly four years when she sought a protection from abuse order that restricted his visits with Katelyn . The order was signed Aug. 5.

Just minutes before the kidnapping, Rivera confronted Helton at a convenience store and, according to district court testimony, grabbed her by the throat and dragged her by the hair around the parking lot.

From there, Rivera went to get Katelyn.

Helton called police.

Lupi knew Rivera had a court date that morning. Charges involved an alleged previous assault on Helton as she moved items from their apartment."

I picked him up to drop him off at court" in Linwood, Lupi said.

Since it was only 8:15 a.m. and he wasn't due in court for another hour, she said Rivera asked to borrow the car.

Lupi then drove to her job in Essington and gave Rivera the car. She expected to see him again at lunchtime. There was less than a quarter tank of gas in the car.

But Rivera didn't return in the red 1995 Ford Escort until about 5:20 p.m.

Lupi didn't see Katelyn at first because she was so small, but the baby was in the front seat, Lupi said. There was no child car seat in her car, she said.

Lupi already knew something was wrong. A police officer called her at work that afternoon to alert her that her car had been involved in an incident."

He was very nervous," Lupi said of Rivera that afternoon."

He yelled at me to get in the car,' I said okay'," Lupi said.

At one point, Lupi said Rivera was weaving in and out of lanes."

He scared the hell out of me," she admitted.

He drove to a pay phone at a Wawa along Naaman's Road, near Ridge Road, where Rivera called Helton at her parent's home.

Helton and her daughter, who will turn 2 years old on Dec. 12, were staying with her parents since the split with Rivera.

Though their split was bitter, Helton has repeatedly said she had no intentions of interfering with their father-daughter relationship. She previously told the Daily Times that plans were arranged for her mother to meet him with Katelyn Aug. 12 - two days after Rivera 's court date on assault charges.

Lupi said Rivera told Helton to meet him at Kmart.

Instead, she said, Rivera "started wigging out" and drove off.

They wound up outside the Helton residence.

Lupi said Rivera never left the car and Helton ran between the house and the car."

He kept telling her to come get Katelyn ," Lupi said. "She wouldn't."

Lupi said Rivera thought Helton was calling the police."

He bolted out of there," she said.

Lupi said Rivera then dropped her off on Jones Drive, about 5:30 or 6 p.m.

When they parted, she thought he was on his way to Kmart to return Katelyn to her mother.

Lupi said Rivera was very protective of Katelyn . When he got out of the car to use the phone, he told Lupi to stay with the child because she would get scared.

Katelyn was shy of her, Lupi said."

I would touch her head and she would look at me," Lupi said. "She happy, really content. She was holding on to her dad's hand real tight."

Lupi said Rivera told her that they spent the afternoon at the Philadelphia Zoo, a museum and had lunch at McDonald's."

Rob had some money," she said.

Katelyn was still eating her fries when they arrived at her work.

Lupi said she saw a map of the zoo in the car."

I haven't been to the zoo," she said.

Lupi, noting there had been some question to the whereabouts of a tire iron she had thought was missing from her car, said she's "almost positive" she threw it out when she cleaned her car.

She's at a loss to explain why Rivera turned up at a Blair Shore trailer home along the Elk River in Cecil County, Md., without Katelyn , about 10-10:30 p.m. the night of the kidnapping.

The couple he visited that night later said they asked him to leave the next day because of the odd way he acted.

When he left the community located about 40 miles from Helton's Upper Chichester residence, they noticed a shovel missing from the property.

It was recovered Aug. 23 at a construction site along Route 40 in Elkton, Md.

An attendant at a gas station at routes 1 and 100 in Delaware County, not far from Longwood Gardens along Route 1 in Chester County, told authorities he saw Katelyn with Rivera about 8 p.m. that night.

Katelyn was fine, standing the back seat and looking out the window, the attendant said.

Rivera has boasted exclusive knowledge involving the whereabouts of his daughter in one of two letters he sent to the Daily Times."

I am the only one who knows the true story I know where my daughter ( Katelyn ) is located," he wrote in one letter.

In another, he described in detail the outfit Katelyn was wearing "the day I removed her from day care."

In addition to "a yellow top with white flowers about her neck, yellow pants with white flowers going around each leg,' she wore yellow socks and little white sneakers.

The sneakers, he noted, were adorned "with three different colored rhinestones."

Rivera wrote that he blamed Helton and her parents "for taking everything from me, including Katelyn ."

The Heltons had repeatedly denied the accusation.

Authorities have since verified that Rivera , who is illiterate, had a fellow inmate write the letters.

His signature on the first letter was verified by Jennifer Helton.

Both letters were voluntarily turned over by the newspaper to lead investigators, Lt. David C. Peifer of the Delaware County Criminal Investigation Division and Special Agent Donna A. Kibbie of the F.B.I.

A $12,000 reward has been offered for the return of Katelyn .

Anyone with information can call Upper Chichester police at (610) 485-8400 county detectives at (610) 891-4700 the F.B.I. at (215) 418-400 or Cecil County authorities at (410) 996-5547.