Janet Killough Barreto, one of only 12 women to ever make the U.S. Marshals’ 15 Most Wanted List, was arrested in Oregon on Tuesday after five years on the run and will face charges for manslaughter and child abuse.
Also arrested was her husband, Ramon Barreto. Both failed to show for a Mississippi trial in 2008 regarding the death of their adopted child and were added to the most-wanted list in 2013.
Urgent: Do You Approve Or Disapprove of President Obama's Job Performance? Vote Now in Urgent Poll
The couple managed to stay just ahead of authorities, changing their appearance and their names. A baby, about 1 month old, was taken into
protective custody when the Barettos were arrested, the New York Daily News reported.
The Barretos came into the media spotlight when one of seven children, a 2-year-old named whom they adopted from Guatemala, died in 2010. The couple’s biological daughter, Marainna Torres, is serving a prison term for throwing Ena onto a plywood bed and killing her.
The Daily Journal obtained a transcript detailing Torres’ description of life with the Barretos, including beatings and other physical abuse, malnourishment and being forced to sleep in plywood beds.
“I knew not to tell anybody,” the Daily News quoted Torres from the transcript. “I was scared. I was scared of her.”
Torres told investigators, the Daily News said, that her parents went to Guatemala and bought children from adoption agencies, paying between $615 and $25,000.
Roger Garner, a Union County, Massachusetts, investigator,
told The Clarion-Ledger that he was relieved to hear the Barretos had been caught.
“I am absolutely overjoyed that they have been caught, and I had confidence that they would be," he said. "We had so many people and agencies that were assisting us. In the light of what happened to those children and that first little girl that died, we have always held that justice would be done. It took a little while but we never let up."
The Clarion-Ledger said the couple was located after the Marshals received a tip.
Garner told the Clarion-Ledger that the other Guatemalan children the Barretos adopted were adopted to loving homes.
Urgent: Assess Your Heart Attack Risk in Minutes. Click Here.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.