After deputies say couple tries to hide child's broken legs, ribs, they're looking for similar cases

OKEECHOBEE, Fla. - After authorities say an Okeechobee couple tried to bring in healthy children to hide abused ones from a Department of Children and Families worker, two agencies are teaming up to try and look for similar cases. 

Okeechobee couple, Dionicio Rodriguez and his girlfriend, Carla Camargo, sit behind bars charged with child abuse involving Camargo's two children, a five-year-old girl and a two-year-old boy.

Before they were caught though, investigators say they were looking for a healthy child to have around so they could present an image that all was well when the Department of Children and Families came to the house.

Their trailer off Highway 98 is where authorities say the two-year-old boy suffered a broken leg and 10 rib fractures on six different ribs.

The Okeechobee County Sheriff's Office said Camargo and Rodriguez tried to hide the injuries from DCF.

"I repeatedly told her to just tell DCF the truth," a woman who allegedly reported the abuse to DCF said.

This woman who lives nearby, but would like to remain unnamed said the couple lied the first time DCF came to check the home for possible child abuse.

"They introduced two spanish kids and they were running around playing healthy," the woman said. "It was a friend of theirs (kids) and they told us they had just found two spanish kids to use and they could only use them one time because that family was moving out of state."

In 25 years of public service, Okeechobee County Undersheriff Noel Stephen says he's never seen anything like this, where a couple allegedly tried to get healthy kids to hide abused ones.

"It definitely leaves investigators to be concerned," he said.

Now they're addressing those concerns by teaming up with DCF and going into child abuse investigations looking for similar cases.

"Law enforcement needs to do their due diligence and the Department of Children and Families needs to do their due diligence to make sure that the child we are looking at is in fact that child," Undersheriff Stephen said.

With the two agencies teaming up, they hope they prevent injuries like what allegedly happened to the two-year-old little boy.

"I look at myself as maybe his angel or his savior," the woman who reported the alleged abuse said. "But I also feel guilty for not reporting it earlier before all the bones were broken."

The Undersheriff says they are looking at different scenarios because they can't look at social security numbers and dates of birth. He says taking pictures of the children each visit could be an option to make sure no one is trying to hide anything.