Delaware County Daily Times - Mar 23, 2000 Article #1

Now, Katelyn's father faces murder charges

Delaware County Daily Times (Primos - Upper Darby, PA) - Thursday, March 23, 2000

Author: MARLENE DiGIACOMO ; Of the Times Staff

MEDIA COURTHOUSE – Twenty-month-old Katelyn Selena Rivera -Helton barely lived long enough to say "daddy.'' Yesterday her father, Robert Rivera , was charged with her murder.

Rivera , 33, of the 2800 block of Chichester Avenue, Boothwyn, saw his kidnapping case upgraded to first-degree murder in the child's disappearance and apparent slaying.

His arrest follows nine months of intensive investigation in which the FBI, county police and other authorities combed five states and Puerto Rico, utilizing everything from helicopters to cadaver-sniffing dogs.

But they've come up empty.

The only traces they've found of the girl have been a dirty diaper, a yellow sock and a rhinestone-studded shoe discovered last October on a Delaware highway.

The strongest circumstantial evidence against Rivera came from his own mouth, including statements to two different people that "the child is dead," according to the criminal complaint. Pennsylvania law does not require a body for a homicide conviction.

County District Attorney Patrick Meehan stood before a crush of reporters yesterday and announced that his office has arrived at the conclusion that Katelyn died at her father's hands.

"After an extensive and comprehensive investigation and search involving hundreds of people in numerous states and Puerto Rico, that search has not produced one single bit of credible information to come to the conclusion that Katelyn Rivera -Helton is alive," said Meehan.

The child has not been seen since Aug. 10, 1999, when Rivera barged into the home of Katelyn 's day care provider in Upper Chichester and carried the child away -- violating a protection from abuse order that had been obtained by Jennifer Helton, the child's mother.

Authorities have obtained information the tot was last seen alive standing on the back seat of her father's car, innocently staring out the window, at 7:17 p.m. that date by an attendant at a Sunoco station on Baltimore Pike in Chadds Ford. Rivera purchased $2 in gas and left.

Rivera returned to the same gas station about two hours later, this time without Katelyn . He used the rest room and then bartered $10 worth of gas by leaving his wristwatch with the attendant, said Meehan.

Those circumstances have led police to believe that he harmed the youngster during that two-hour period, said Meehan.

Rivera first told authorities he gave the baby away to a couple at Longwood Gardens. He has since backed off from that claim after investigators couldn't find a scintilla of corroborating evidence.

According to the affidavit, investigators used tracking dogs to search the area but it failed to find her.

"I'm not surprised he's been charged," said Capt. Ronald Plummer of the Cecil County Sheriff's office in Elkton, Md., whose department combed 300 acres and five miles of shoreline with cadaver dogs, human volunteers and helicopters with special heat-detecting equipment for Katelyn 's body.

"We went through a lengthy search down here looking for this child," he said. "We really don't have a clue where she is. We thought perhaps that she had met her demise somewhere in the area and he had buried her somewhere down here. But, we didn't find anything."

Rivera 's conflicting statements concerning the child's whereabouts have long frustrated police.

Rivera once claimed that his wife knew where the child was. But in an earlier statement to Helton, at the time of the baby's disappearance, he proclaimed that she "should consider Katelyn dead."

Defense attorney G. Guy Smith said his client was "shocked" by the latest developments in the case. "He ( Rivera ) continues to say Katelyn is not dead and he is not going to say anything more than that until he is ready."

If Rivera 's not ready soon, he may find himself facing a death sentence since the killing of a child is among the aggravating circumstances that can be cited under Pennsylvania law to have a murder case certified as a capital crime.

Angel Reyes of Chester is on death row in the May 25, 1993, drowning of his 4-year-old daughter, Marcia. He tossed her into the Chester Creek after a fight with the girl's mother.

Meehan said it is too soon to address whether death will be sought.

Under state law, the D.A.'s office has until the time of arraignment in county court -- which is tentatively set for April 28 -- before announcing that decision.

During the press conference, Meehan detailed other statements from Rivera , including one to Daily Times reporter Rose Quinn that only "me and God know where Katelyn is.''

Riviera was also quoted as making a comment on Nov. 23, 1999, which authorities point to as incriminating, to Lt. David Peifer of the county Criminal Investigation Division.

"Where is Katelyn ?'' the affidavit states Peifer asked.

"If I told you, I would spend the rest of my life in jail,'' Rivera is quoted as replying.