Istwa yon restavek Ozetazini.

A Haitian woman reported missing in Mansfield Township when she was 15 turns up in Kentucky after years of servitude

Wednesday, January 14, 2009
By TOM QUIGLEY
The Express-Times
MANSFIELD TWP. |

Police said Tuesday they closed the case on a nearly nine-year-old missing persons report after learning a Haitian immigrant was living in Kentucky.

The surrogate grandmother of the then-15-year-old called Mansfield Township police in July 2000 to report the teen had run away from home.

Police arrived that summer day to find the girl, then known as Jocelyn Cemervil, sitting on the curb near the elderly woman's home.

Early the next month, then-73-year old Jeanine Baptiste called police again to say the girl ran away from home. This time, police found no one sitting on the curb, and the girl's disappearance remained unsolved until Thursday, when the FBI contacted township police.

Now 23 and known by her real name, Jaceline Somerville turned up in the care of a Catholic Charities agency in Louisville, Ky.

An FBI supervisor in Kentucky had given a recent talk about human trafficking, and one of his listeners told him about Somerville. The supervisor assigned the case to Louisville-based FBI Agent Mark Hamrock, Mansfield Township Detective Sgt. Robert Emery said.

Emery recounted that the Baptiste family -- also originally from Haiti -- arranged to have the girl moved to the home of Jeanine Baptiste's brother in Connecticut to prevent her deportation back to Haiti.

On Tuesday, a photograph and description of the girl still remained on a New Jersey State Police missing persons list.
Somerville arrived in New Jersey from Haiti on July 8, 2000, with her surrogate family, Emery said during an interview at the time of the girl's so-called disappearance.

Jeanine Baptiste, now 83 and living in 700 block of Allen Road in Mansfield Township, said Tuesday that Somerville did run away.
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She said if she ended up living with her brother in Connecticut, she did not know about it.

Somerville worked as a maid for the Baptiste family in Connecticut, Florida, Newark and Kentucky during the ensuing years, Emery said. She was sometimes forbidden to speak with anyone outside the family and often worked for no pay, he said.






"She was a slave to them," Emery said. "She was handed from family member to family member."

The detective said she is trying to get her United States citizenship,

He said the U.S. Attorney's office in Louisville took a look at the case and determined there was no evidence to support a human-trafficking charge.

Emery said township police will not file a charge of making a false report to police against Jeanine Baptiste because of her age.

Jeanine Baptiste said she did not know Somerville had been living in Kentucky.

"Thank God she's still alive," she said. "I'm really happy to hear that because I liked her as if she were one of my own kids."


Reporter Tom Quigley can be reached at 610-258-7171, ext. 3574, or by e-mail at tquigley@express-times.com.

Afè restavèk saa avèk zonbi se pi gwo wont ki lan figi ayisyen.

Ki lè nap konbat krim sayo pou nou kapab leve tèt nou?

Si mwen komprann depi 2000 moun ki gen restavek sa yo pa janm bali citizenship? ki jan yo fè leu li malad?

Nickie,
Mèsi pou komantè saa ke w fè sou sitiyasyon restavèk la.
Pwoblèm saa gwo anpil e ondire majorite ayisyen pa vle li chanje.
Pwoblèm saa reflete menm lan Fowomayiti: chak fwa sijè saa parèt,
se youn ou de patisipan ki reaji.
Rès la fèmen je yo.

Sasaye, ou konn sam remaké, gen de sijè moun fowôm nan palé de yo paské yo santi yo pa konsèné. Poutan, sitiyasyon ayisyen parèy nou ta dwé entépélé nou tout, nan brasé lidé, petèt nou ta fini pa jwen ou solisyon. De plus, zafè restavèk la tèlman ranjé kozé anpil moun, yo pa desidé palé de li. depi lèm tap viv Ayiti, sa te toujou deranjem poum wè jan ou seri de jèn tifi ap pasé mizè kôm restavèk, poutan li la pou édé. É sé menm Ayisyen sa yo ki toujou bezwen moun pou yo maltrété ki kontinyé ap fè sa menm nan peyi blan.

Sa tris anpil Sasaye e nou pa konn ki lè sa va sispann. kôm mwen te di deja, sé ou priz de konsyans ki pou pèmèt nou chanjé
fôk nou aprann wè frè ak sè nou yo menm jan ak nou. fôk timoun ki ap édé nou pa konsidéré kôm mwen ké ryen. Paské lè nap
gadé sitiyasyon Ayiti, le pli souvan, timoun yo konsidéré kôm domestik yo, ki fè tout travay nan kay, yo konn fè manjé pi byen
pasé pitit madanm ak mesyé

Sasaye, mwen gen yon pwoblem nan fason ou di afe zonbi se pi gwo ront.
Kisa ki zonbi ya? Koman li fe se you wont?