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THE FOSTER SISTER of Daniel Aruebose has told The Journal that her family have been left devastated by the news that skeletal remains were found in Donabate, but that they now hope to be part of him having a “proper burial”.
The woman, now in her early 20s, lived with Daniel for the year her family fostered him. She also helped care for him when he visited on a respite basis over the following six months. Speaking today, she said that she saw him “as a brother” and that he “became a part of the family quickly”.
The family had already fostered multiple children when Daniel was placed in their care, from birth, in December 2017.
“He was with us for just under a year,” she said. “We got him the first day he was born and we had to give him back the day before his first birthday, when he went back to live with his biological family.
“Then he would come for a few days a week not long after that, he’d go back and forth, for about six months.”
The young woman said that she last saw Daniel, who she refers to as Danny or Baby Danny, in the summer of 2019.
“He was the sweetest little baby ever, we were all absolutely beside ourselves [when we got him]. He was so cute. We always joked that every child we fostered looked like part of the family, but obviously Danny didn’t, and people had questions, they were just curious about him,” she said.
Tusla has previously said it engaged with the boy from 2017 at the request of his biological family but that its services ceased in 2020, when he was two years old.
Earlier this month, Children’s Minister Norma Foley said that the biological parents originally wanted to give their child up for adoption but through their interactions with Tusla, the fostering arrangement was established. Months after the couple decided to have the child returned to them, Tusla’s engagement ceased.
Danny’s foster sister explained that her mother and the rest of the family were experienced in looking after foster children.
“I’d help my mum a lot with the kids, I am the eldest. We had other babies come to live with us after Danny, but I found it difficult to connect since having to give him back,” she explained.
She said that her mother went to the hospital to meet Danny and his parents on the day he was born, and that she met the pair on multiple occasions too.
Remembering Danny, she said: “He was so clever. I obviously might be a little biased, but he already had a strong personality, he loved dancing, he loved laughing, and he loved showing off that he understood you. Like we’d go ‘where’s the light?’ and he’d know from only a few months old, he’d point up at the light. He was just a very clever baby.”
When the news broke that a child – who was last seen alive at the age of around three and a half in Donabate – was missing, the family was informed it was Danny.
A social worker contacted them to let them know and members of the family have since spoken to gardaí.
They were devastated by the statement today that gardaí believe his remains have been discovered.
“I don’t live at home any more but I am very close with my mother, she talks to me a lot. She rang me and asked where I was, and she was sobbing. She said “our baby is dead”. I thought something else was going on at first and she said no, it’s Danny, our baby, Danny. Then it hit me and kind of registered. It took me a few seconds to understand what she was saying. I think we’re more angry than anything.
“How could this happen?” his foster sister said.
“We didn’t want him to go [out of our care],” she added.
The picture shared by gardaí today, she said, did not reflect the smiley child who brightened every room he entered. She said that he had many “happy times” with his foster family, and that he was loved dearly by everyone who knew him at that time in his life.
- With additional reporting from Niall O’Connor.
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