Las Vegas toddler memorialized as questions about her death continue

With white roses in their hands and some with tears in their eyes, family and friends on Wednesday said their final goodbyes to Michell Momox-Caselis, the 16-month-old victim of an apparent murder-suicide involving her foster father Oct. 12.

Dozens gathered to remember Michell, who lived with two foster families after being taken from her biological parents during her short life.

Her first foster family remembered happy moments with the little girl.

Nicolasa Robledo-Hernandez, 60, and Jose De Jesus Hernandez, 50, received Michell into their home in August 2013, but she was removed from their care on June 19, after an allegation of abuse involving another child. The couple has since adopted that child. The couple has three adopted children.

“Michell was a little girl who always woke up with a smile on her face,” said Daniela Hernandez-Robledo, 13, who is Michell’s former foster sister. The toddler would yell “‘Mama’ to let us know it was time to eat.”

But even as she was laid to rest, her family and W. West Allen, the court-appointed Children’s Attorney Project lawyer who represented Michell and her six siblings, pledged to continue pressing for all questions around the toddler’s death to be answered.

Allen said he’ll be working diligently to make sure a review of the girl’s death is conducted by the Nevada Division of Child and Family Services.

“I think that needs to happen and I think that from that we’ll learn what improvements we need to make,” he said Wednesday.

Michell’s funeral service took place at the Davis Funeral Homes and Memorial Park, 6200 S. Eastern Ave. Among attendees were her six biological siblings — who are in the custody of Clark County’s child welfare system — Family Court Judge Bill Gonzalez, Barbara Buckley, former assembly speaker and executive director for the Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada, and at least one Clark County Department of Family Services employee.

After four of Michell’s siblings arrived, they joined their parents Sergio Momox, 41, and Maria De Jesus Caselis Toxtle, 42, and walked up to the girl’s casket. The other two siblings arrived minutes later.

Michell’s second foster father, Joaquin Juarez-Paez, 37, of Las Vegas, was found dead in his car in front of the Oasis Vinings apartment complex at 6100 Carmen Blvd., near North Jones Boulevard and Vegas Drive, shortly after 8 a.m. Oct. 12, according to Las Vegas police.

When officers arrived at the apartment and sent Juarez-Paez’s wife inside for the car keys, she found Michell dead in her crib. A second foster child, a 9-month-old baby, was found unharmed, police say. The infant was not related to Michell.

Momox said during the month the couple had the girl just after her birth, he would hug her and she would begin to giggle.

But she won’t smile anymore.

“I still need to fight for my other children that I have, and I just want justice,” Momox said in tears Wednesday. The couple will be getting an apartment on Saturday, he said, in their efforts to get their other children back.

The toddler was fine during the time she was with the Hernandez couple, the father said, adding that he still doesn’t understand why she was removed from their home.

“I love my baby with all my heart,” Michell’s former foster mother, Robledo-Hernandez said crying, after thanking everyone for attending the funeral.

She also thanked a group of women who work cleaning rooms at the Bellagio for sending the white flowers that were distributed among the attendees.

“She was a very happy girl,” she said.

Wednesday was a “tragic day for our community,” Buckley said.

Allen said he hopes officials will make changes after Michell’s death review is completed. Officials need to try to make sure that every child is placed with families “who truly care for them,” he said.

“We (need) to examine the caliber of the people who are donating their time to be foster parents and make sure that they have the ability to do that,” he said.

Nevada Supreme Court Justice Nancy Saitta through an assistant on Wednesday said the Blue Ribbon committee she appointed to examine shortcomings in Clark County’s child welfare system, “will be looking at reform at all levels of the system.”

Contact Yesenia Amaro at yamaro@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0440. Find her on Twitter: @YeseniaAmaro.