Pilar Rodriguez endured physical and sexual abuse before a fatal blow to the head lead to her death in Punta Gorda in 1999, according to an arrest affidavit from the Charlotte County Sheriff's Department obtained Friday.
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According to the arrest report, Harding-Jones told investigators in 2009 that Wilson was abusive during their relationship. He would beat, choke and forcibly have sex with her. She broke up with him, moved in with her mother in Hollywood and started baby-sitting Pilar.
Her relationship with Wilson resumed. Harding-Jones spent some weekends with him and on Jan. 31, 1999, she had permission from Marco Rodriguez, Pilar's father, to take his daughter on a two-week vacation to Punta Gorda.
Once they arrived, Harding-Jones told Wilson that Rodriguez had made sexual advances toward her. That made Wilson angry and that's when the abuse started, Harding-Jones told detectives.
Wilson did not want Pilar in his home. When she wasn't forced to stay awake all night by standing up, she slept in a closet. Wilson made Pilar wear a dog collar and tied the leash to the bed frame. He would make her take cold showers, then air dry; he cut her hair short to make her look more like a boy, the arrest report stated.
Harding-Jones told detectives Wilson had intercourse with Pilar a few days before the child's death. She said that on Feb. 12 or 13, 1999, an angry Wilson hit Pilar, causing her to fall and hit her head on the floor. The child complained of head and stomach pains and had diarrhea. She died the next day, Harding-Jones said.
Wilson came home from work and decided to dispose of the body. His stepfather, Jesse Clapham, told investigators that he saw a rolled-up pink blanket in the trunk of Wilson's car. He saw a child's foot, the skin turned purple, sticking out. He said he asked Wilson if it was Pilar. Wilson said it was and that she had suffocated, the report stated.
The search began after Marco Rodriguez reported his daughter missing on Feb 22, 1999.
The report says cadaver dogs reacted to a scent on Wilson's sofa, on the floor of his home and in the trunk of his car. Detectives found traces of blood on the floor near the bathroom that were comparable to the blood of Pilar's parents.