FLAGLER COUNTY, FLORIDA: A man from Florida has finally been caught after two months of a manhunt by authorities. Gared Wayne Canales allegedly provoked his teenage daughter to kill herself. The victim was pregnant when Canales asked her to take her life and also cursed her on her 13th birthday.
Citing court documents, the Daily Mail reported that the 13-year-old daughter of the 34-year-old man called him in April when he told her she was “worthless.” He also instigated the teen to “kill yourself, just don’t say it,” which resulted in the girl trying to claim her life thrice. But, fortunately, she was saved.
Canales' whereabouts were unknown for two months before he was arrested over the weekend in New England. He was then taken to Flagler County, Florida, to face child abuse charges. This happened after an arrest warrant was released against him on April 14 after his daughter filed a case.
‘You’re not worth it’
The official papers stated that the suspect talked to his child over the phone on April 7 and told her, “You’re not worth it. I choose my girlfriend over you anyway, and go kill yourself.” On April 8, the teenager attempted suicide by cutting her wrist but nothing major happened.
The next night, she used a piece of glass to cut herself again and on April 10, the girl swallowed 14 Benadryl pills while being in a car with her mother. She was immediately taken to Halifax Hospital in Daytona Beach, where doctors saved her life by pumping her stomach. Now, her father has been housed at the Flagler County jail on a $10,000 bond for felony child abuse. Canales has also been ordered not to contact his daughter.
Who is Gared Canales?
Canales reportedly has a history with authorities. He was arrested numerous times earlier also on different charges. Besides, Canales’s cousin, Jonathan, is a convicted criminal, who was found guilty of the attempted murder of his then-girlfriend and mother of his children in 2014. He was awarded life imprisonment in 2018.
At the time, Jonathan told the court, "There's a lot here that I really couldn’t go into because I don’t believe it and I don’t expect you to, because there’s a lot of weird things that happened in my life," before adding that he’ll “always feel bad about the situation I’m in now, and I feel a lot of remorse for what happened to Tiffany, but I’m not going to say I’m guilty because I don’t believe that I am.”