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A Different View By David Kidwell and Tere Figueras (Miami Herald) |
They pick tangerines by moonlight.
They soak buckets of almonds overnight to remove all of the tannic acid -- a substance that tints river water brown -- before beginning their frequent ritual of making almond milk with a complex brew of ground almonds, flax, coconut water and sunflower seeds.
They spend hours every day shopping or searching fields for the right foods, cleaning them and preparing them with the single-minded notion that nothing impure -- no chemicals, no processed sugar, no animal fat -- should enter the bodies of their children.
''It takes work to live a life like that, hard work,'' said Kristi Doyne-Bailey, 40, of Homestead, a close friend. ``These people are the most dedicated people I have ever met when it comes to their children. That's what makes this nightmare so hard to believe.''
On June 6, Joseph, 34, and Lamoy, 27, were jailed on charges of aggravated manslaughter of a child -- defined as child neglect or abuse that causes death -- and four counts of neglect. They face up to 30 years in prison on the manslaughter charge.
Prosecutors and police say the Andressohns' misguided dedication to a diet of raw fruits, vegetables and other organic foods deprived their children of important nutrients.
Authorities contend the Andressohns watched their daughter, Woyah, wither away in their Homestead apartment and that when they finally called for an ambulance, it was too late. When she died May 15 at just 5 months old, she weighed 7 pounds, less than half the weight of the average girl her age.
Their four other children -- Yahshwa, 6; Mykahya, 4; Behyah, 3; and Rahyah, 1 12 -- were also malnourished and underweight, authorities say. The state placed them in foster care and does not want them going back to their parents.
Friends of the family say this is more than they can fathom. Of all people, they believe, the two who could never be considered bad parents are Joe and Lamoy Andressohn. In their minds, Joe and Lamoy are guilty only of caring too much.
More than a dozen people interviewed with ties to the Andressohns -- former landlords, co-workers, close friends, minor acquaintances, even neighbors (who anonymously reported them to the Florida Department of Children & Families more than once) -- portray the couple as dedicated parents. Some spoke to The Herald on condition they not be named because the Andressohns did not want them speaking publicly.
''I'm not saying no mistakes were made. They should have had a raw-foods doctor a lot sooner,'' one friend said. ``But until the end, that baby was alert and happy, and they just didn't see it coming. We are all convinced there was something else wrong. To blame this on their diet is just not right.''
INFANT'S LIFE
Prosecutors say they took into account the Andressohns' apparent dedication to their family but that the life of an infant is worth too much to overlook their negligence.
''To forgive the starvation of a child as if it's nothing more than a petty traffic violation is very difficult to fathom,'' said Ed Griffith, spokesman for the Miami-Dade County state attorney's office. ``The fact a 5-month-old child starved to death in the custody of her parents is a sad comment about parental concern.''
Despite what authorities say, friends contend the children were bright and healthy, and a lawyer advising the Andressohns has said they want an independent autopsy. They believe some other condition must have killed their child.
Joe and Lamoy married in March 1995. He was 26. She was 19. He was born and raised in Miami by Puerto Rican parents. Lamoy was born in Jamaica and came to the United States with her family. Joe has been paying child support for a 12-year-old daughter from a previous relationship.
Life was a financial struggle from the beginning. Both had entry-level retail jobs, often in health-food stores and markets.
For several years in the late 1990s, Joe worked at a booth at an Opa-locka flea market, selling trinkets, incense and vitamins at a store called The Mushroom. He made $300 per week.
Their first son, Yahshwa, was born Sept. 21, 1996. Within a year, the couple were living in the backyard apartment of a longtime friend of Joe's parents, Emilio Abreu.
''They showed up one day with nowhere to go,'' Abreu recalled. ``I've known his father since we were knee high, back in Puerto Rico. Joe was always a good boy, so I let him stay.''
The Andressohns left in 2000. They now had three children. For a time, according to employees of Wild Oats, the family lived out of their van. Joe lost his job at the Miami Beach branch of Wild Oats because of chronic tardiness, according to Sonja Tuitele, a Wild Oats spokeswoman.
INTO LIFESTYLE
By then, the family was into the natural-foods lifestyle full tilt.
''Joe mentioned once that he was really overweight, 250 pounds, and had a lot of complications,'' said Annette Larkins, a raw-food enthusiast who befriended the Andressohns when they came to one of her seminars. ``They tried a living-food diet, and things immediately started getting better.''
The deeper they delved into eating only uncooked and vegetarian foods, the better they felt, friends said.
The Andressohns also adopted a religion that supported their choice, friends said. They became Hebrew Israelites, a faith that preaches blacks are God's chosen people and espouses natural eating.
TAKEN EVERYWHERE
The couple would take the children everywhere they went -- shopping, picking fruit and vegetables, everywhere. The time they had and what little money they made was consumed supporting their diet, although neighbors said they took an April trip to Disney World.
Lamoy's third and fourth children were born while she was working behind the juice bar at Wild Oats in Pinecrest. She left after the birth of her first daughter, Rahyah, on Oct. 25, 2001.
Doyne-Bailey, a former co-worker of Lamoy's, ran into the whole family at Wild Oats recently. They got into a long discussion about home schooling.
''She knew that I do it, and she and Joe were asking me all kinds of questions,'' Doyne-Bailey said. ``She really wanted to do it right. She wanted a program, a curriculum, and she wanted it to be something the school district would support.''
Less than a year ago, the family moved to a Homestead apartment complex.
Neighbors described Lamoy as soft-spoken and reserved but a mother who liked things regimented.
EXERCISE PROGRAM
Besides home schooling, the family also followed a regimen of daily sprints through the small courtyard, push-ups and jumping jacks.
''You would see her running around, too, right up until the baby was born,'' neighbor Lorette Miller said.
All five Andressohn children were born at home, the first three with the help of a midwife. Joseph delivered Rahyah and, on Nov. 26, Woyah.
None of the children was vaccinated. Friends said the Andressohns saw doctors as good for healing wounds or broken bones but nothing more.
Miller, a devout Christian, said she often tried to discuss religion with Lamoy -- but met stormy resistance from Joe.
''We got into it one day outside,'' Miller said. ``He told me Jesus was a lie, my religion was a lie.''
Miller said she disagreed with the Andressohns' lifestyle -- the diet, the religion, the aversity to doctors -- but acknowledged the Andressohns seemed like good parents.
PARENTAL PRESENCE
Joe worked odd jobs and would relieve his wife after coming home from work.
''Their electricity was paid for, their kids were never left alone. How many parents around here can say that?'' Miller said.
Still, neighbors reported the Andressohns to the child welfare agency more than once. Complaints about the children's eating habits came in February and March. During a March visit to the home, when a DCF investigator asked what Woyah was fed, Lamoy produced a baby bottle with wheat-grass juice, according to DCF records.
The accepted wisdom is that breast milk -- or formula derived from milk or soy -- should be the primary food for an infant's first year. Despite this, the investigator concluded there were no signs of neglect.
The administrator who ran the DCF's Miami district at the time called this ``a critical lapse.''
On May 11, the DCF got another call.
DOCTOR ORDERED
''They are very thin and their stomachs look bloated,'' the report said about the children. The next day, a DCF investigator told Lamoy to take the children to a doctor. The investigator said she needed to see Woyah, who at the time was out of the home with her father. But no one from the DCF saw the baby from then on.
Woyah died three days later.
That day, her siblings were taken by the DCF and put into foster care, where they have stayed on a vegetarian diet but have begun to eat cooked and processed food. They are slowly gaining weight, authorities say.
The Andressohns have contended in court that their children's health is suffering because of the new diet.
Their friends say the Andressohns have been made a scapegoat for the DCF, which has been under constant criticism since it lost track of 5-year-old foster child Rilya Wilson more than a year ago. Wilson has not been found.
'It's really convenient for them to be saying that it's all the parents' fault now,'' one close friend said. ``But if these kids were so starved and emaciated, why didn't DCF see it in February and March, when the neighbors were calling?''
The DCF has fired the investigator who visited the home May 12, as well as her supervisor.
The agency has declined to talk about the case because it has not completed its investigation.
Joe and Lamoy remain in jail, unable to post $100,000 bond each.
On June 7, while passing the hours before a court hearing, they sang with friends in the courthouse lobby. They sang This Land Is Your Land, but with the word ''fruit'' instead of ``land.''
No matter how Woyah died, friends say, the Andressohns should not be in jail.
One friend, Susan Miller, cried when she was told of their arrest.
''I remember the last time I was with them as a family,'' Miller said. ``I saw the baby. She was happy and alert, and I know that my human instincts would have alerted me if something was wrong.
''We all went out to pick tangerines by moonlight, because that was as soon as Joe could get off work,'' Miller said. ``Everyone was happy and having a great time.''
Herald staff writer Sofia Santana contributed to this report.