Delaware County Daily Times - Oct 21, 1999 Article #1

Dad: ‘Katelyn is alive'

Delaware County Daily Times (Primos - Upper Darby, PA) - Thursday, October 21, 1999

Author: ROSE QUINN ; Of the Times Staff

CONCORD – Accused kidnapper Robert N. Rivera swears his missing toddler daughter is alive but refuses to reveal her whereabouts.

"Only me and God know where Katelyn is," Rivera said in an exclusive interview Tuesday night at the county prison.

His demeanor, often childishly shy, was adamant.

His dark brown eyes were blazing.

And the situation is going to stay that way, Rivera , 33, said without hesitation, "Until I'm ready."

Today marks the 73rd day since Katelyn Selena Rivera-Helton, who loves taking baths, trying on men's hats and playing with her grandmother's dogs, vanished. She was 20 months old.

When asked, "Did you hurt Katelyn ?" he quickly responded, "No."

He added, "I would swear on a Bible if you got one."

Eye contact varied with topic.

When it involved Katelyn , it was always direct, yet coldly distant.

Rivera failed to see any connection between his earlier statements involving giving Katelyn away, which he maintained, and his latest comment boasting earthly exclusivity regarding her location.

He doesn't care that some suspect murder. The recent discovery of a single sneaker and sock on a Delaware highway that Katelyn 's mother positively identified as Katelyn 's mean nothing.

"Let them think what they want," he said. "I know."

Rivera said the sneaker and sock are not his daughter's. He went as far as saying, "I'm being railroaded."

Michele Lupi, Rivera 's girlfriend whose car he was driving when he took his daughter, said earlier that Rivera told her he gave Katelyn 's clothes to the Goodwill in Delaware.

Still, the rhinestone-studded sneaker and yellow sock match an exact description he offered in a letter to the Daily Times regarding Katelyn 's outfit the day he barged into her day care and carried her away.

At the time, Rivera was restricted to supervised visits under a protection from abuse order previously sought by Katelyn 's mother and his ex-fiancée, Jennifer Helton.

Throughout the interview, he expressed fear of being separated from his daughter, at the hands of the court and Helton. Helton has denied any intention of interfering with supervised visits.

Lupi was present during the interview, as was self-appointed child advocate Jaci Morris.

Both said they would support Rivera until evidence proved him guilty of kidnapping or other charges.

At one point, Rivera said, "I'm sorry for what I did … taking Katelyn … But I know she's fine."

What he did Aug. 10, he said, "I did to protect Katelyn , not to hurt Jen."

Mostly, Rivera said he is sorry because his actions keep him from Katelyn .

Helton, 26, sought a protection from abuse order against Rivera following an assault that Rivera admitted happened in early August.

"I told them I did it, what more do they want," Rivera said.

Rivera , who said he can neither read nor write and is learning to do both in prison, said he relied on others to read court documents for him.

He said court papers made it sound as if he hit Katelyn , too. Rivera said he never did and never would.

Jennifer Helton declined comment last night.

Yesterday afternoon, Delaware County District Attorney Patrick Meehan's response was brief.

"The defendant's words are meaningless unless they lead to Katelyn ," said Meehan, whose detective division has been working with the F.B.I. in an exhaustive search in Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland.

The hour-long visit ranged from rolling eyes and flippant snickers to rolling tears and emotional appeals by Rivera for someone to listen to "why I did what I did."

Rivera simply said he was driven to it.

"You don't know what I went through," he said.

Rivera 's eyes quickly teared as he talked about his daughter, whom he recognized will turn 2 years old on Dec. 12.

He immediately lashed out how he wasn't allowed to spend Katelyn 's first birthday with her and the tears stopped like a spigot. He wouldn't say why.

His fists and teeth clenched when he talks about Jennifer Helton, and her parents, Frank and Olga Helton.

Rivera said he was merely cold.

Still, "Nobody cares for Katelyn the way I did," he asserted.

Rivera talked about Katelyn 's bedroom, which was decorated in Tweety Bird.

He said he paid for everything. There was nothing he wouldn't buy her, he said.

Then he got quiet.

Dressed in a green uniform to signify protective custody, Rivera 's so-called celebrity among inmates is not lost on him. He's offended if included in the child molester or murder category.

At one point, he reduced conversation to a whisper so other inmates with visitors in the gymnasium couldn't hear him talking about Katelyn . "They read the paper, they know who I am," Rivera said.

Rivera 's list of complaints against Helton was harsh and long.

Yet, in a letter to the Daily Times, he said she "did take good care of Katelyn … she kept Katelyn clean and well-dressed."

See KATELYN : Page 14

Continues from PAGE 3

Tuesday night, he said, "I still love her. I think about her all the time."

Warming his hands with hers, Lupi sat there listening, tears falling down her cheeks.

Rivera paused and then laughed out loud, "I guess I need counseling, huh?"

Rivera said he sought counseling from District Justice Rocco Gaspari before problems with Helton heightened.

"He never came to me," responded Gaspari yesterday.

Rivera maintained his initial account to police that he gave his daughter to a man and woman in the parking lot of Longwood Gardens that night.

He admitted that his initial description of the couple was a lie.

"They ain't from Maryland," he said.

"I didn't just give her away to anybody… I didn't give her to white trash or anything,'' Rivera added.

Rivera alluded to previous contact with the couple but wouldn't elaborate.

He said he had their telephone number in his pocket that day when he decided to call them. Things were not working out the way he had wanted them to with Helton, he said.

Rivera said it was the couple's idea to meet at Longwood Gardens.

Having never been there before, he said they gave him directions to the park.

"Look for the firehouse but if you pass the Dairy Queen you went too far," he recalled the directions.

Rivera said he pulled into the third parking space near a tree in the lot he'll never forget.

When the couple appeared, they went inside the garden for about 20 minutes.

When they came out, he gave Katelyn to them.

When asked what he said to his daughter when the moment came "to turn Katelyn over," he said, "That's private."

Later, Rivera said he told Katelyn , "Don't worry, I'll be strong."

Rivera was insulted when asked if he received any money in return.

When the couple pulled off, Rivera said he sat in the parking lot about 20 minutes.

He called Helton, as he had done several times that day, but he didn't tell her what he had just done because a detective answered her phone.

Rivera mentioned wanting to give Katelyn to Helton numerous times that day but, according to him, she refused to get her.

Helton has previously denied the accusation.

When asked why he was willing to return Katelyn to her mother on Aug. 10 but not now, Rivera seemed stumped.

"Good question," he said.

He never answered it.

Rivera said when he left Longwood Gardens about 9:30 p.m. he returned to a gas station at Route 1 and 100.

When he was there at 7:15 and purchased $2 worth a gas, Katelyn was with him, he said. An attendant later confirmed that information.

On his second visit, Rivera said he traded a $160 watch for $10 in gas. Katelyn wasn't with him, he said.

"It was the same attendant," Rivera said.

Rivera said he then went to the Cecil County, Md.

He declined to say his route and discuss a shovel the couple he visited noticed was missing when he left the next morning.

All he would say is that the couple, former neighbors in Upper Chichester, were lying.

"I might not be able to read or write … but I'm not stupid," he said.

Rivera , who is in 20-hour lockup, said he is constantly afraid.

He said he's not sleeping well.

He said he thinks only about Katelyn .

Rivera said he has no one to talk to.

His only confidant, he said, is "God."

Meanwhile, the search continues under lead investigators Special Agent Donna Kibbie of the F.B.I. and Lt. David C. Peifer of the Delaware County Criminal Investigation Division, with a $12,000 reward for Katelyn 's return.

Anyone with information is asked to call Upper Chichester police at (610) 485-8400; county detectives at (610) 891-4700; the F.B.I. at (215) 418-4000; or Cecil County, Md., authorities at (410) 996-5547.