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Darlyn Cristabel Cordova-Valle died in September in Nebraska after spending months in the care of the Department of Health and Human Services, but her death was only announced last week.
The concrete grave of the girl lies on a hill surrounded by trees, with a turquoise cross that bears her name and the date on which she was buried in silver letters.
His father was laying white and green paper flowers on the grave on the day of CNN's visit. He remembered the last time he saw his daughter alive: he was talking to her by video chat while she was at the Nebraska Hospital.
The Border Patrol met Darlyn on March 1, 2018, a few kilometers west of Hidalgo, Texas. She complained of chest pains and three days later she was transferred to HHS custody, where she stayed for about seven months. Darlyn has been treated for a congenital heart defect in various hospitals, including San Antonio, Texas, and Phoenix, Arizona.
HHS spokesman Mark Weber told CNN that Darlyn had had surgical complications that left him in a comatose state. She was taken to a nursing home in Phoenix and then to the Children's Hospital of Omaha, Nebraska, where she died on September 29th from fever and respiratory problems.
As Valle was on the phone with her daughter at the time, he was desperate for a sign of life.
"Give me a signal, I want to know you can hear, I want to know you see me," he told Darlyn.
"She made an effort four times and tried to talk," he said. "And that was it."
"I could have asked him to stay"
The girl traveled to the United States to find her mother, who had left El Salvador to work and provide for her three daughters.
Darlyn stayed at home with her aunt, but nine years later, Darlyn, like so many Central American children currently flocking to the southern border of the United States, embarked on the journey to find her mother in the United States. .
The girl traveled with acquaintances by car for four days between El Salvador and the border, her mother said.
Her mother, now living in Omaha, Nebraska, told CNN that Darlyn had just been one year old when she left her with her aunt, Jesus Valle. Both live in a modest house on a lush hill, in a town not far from the cemetery where the child was put to rest.
"She was like a girl for me," said Jesus Valle. "I loved him so much."
Surrounded by Darlyn's clothes and toys, her aunt wonders what could have been if Darlyn had stayed in El Salvador.
"When she left, I could have asked her to stay, but her mother was recovering her, and I did not want to prevent her from having the right to stay with her mother," said Jesus. Valle.
Jamie Ehrlich, Kate Sullivan, Madeline Holcombe and Dianne Gallagher from CNN contributed to this report.
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