ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Eleven years ago, Anamarie Regino was taken from her parents in what would become a controversial international case.
Her parents have now been taken from her.
Regino's father, 65-year-old Miguel Regino, died in mid-August. Her mother, Adela Martinez-Regino, died last week. She was 43.
A relative said both parents died of natural causes.
The family gained international attention in 2000, when the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department took custody of 3-year-old Anamarie, blaming her parents for her severe obesity.
Adela Martinez-Regino, remember last week as a loving and dedicated mother who would do anything for her family, adamantly denied she had contributed to her daughter's weight issues. She said Anamarie had a genetic condition that doctors had not been able to pin down.
But CYFD and doctors contended the girl was overfed. Anamarie, then 3, was 3 1/2-feet tall and weighed about 120 pounds. Doctors called her weight life-threatening, and she was taken into state custody for more than two months.
"How is it good to take a 3-year-old away from her family? How is it good to take her from her mother?" Martinez-Regino asked in a February 2001 interview with the Journal, when Anamarie was back with her parents.
Martinez-Regino and her family had tenaciously fought CYFD, appearing on national shows such as "Today," ''Good Morning America" and the Spanish language variety program "Sabado Gigante" to defend themselves and get help for Anamarie.
The CYFD case was dismissed in January 2001.
The spotlight on Anamarie faded over the years, but the Journal profiled her in February 2010. At the time, Anamarie was a seventh-grader who loved math and did well in middle school. She played for her school's basketball team, her mother cheering on the sidelines.
Now a ninth-grader at The Media Arts Collaborative Charter School, Anamarie still struggles with her weight but is an otherwise normal teen — her Twitter handle reveals an affinity for tween star Joe Jonas, of the Jonas Brothers. In the 2010 profile, she told the Journal she had learned to sew and wanted to go to fashion school after high school.
At her mother's funeral last Friday, Anamarie, with purple streaks in her hair, was calm and collected as friends and relatives offered condolences. The young girl will now live with her maternal grandparents.
Her uncle, Dennis Martinez, said the girl was coping with the loss of her parents as best as she could. Martinez-Regino was the oldest of four children, Dennis Martinez said. He said his sister was known for being kind, giving and extremely close with family members, all of whom live within walking distance of each other.
"The best thing to describe her as is loving and caring," Martinez said. "She just went out of her way."
Martinez said even when his older sister was struggling with money, she always found a way to help someone else out.
Martinez-Regino, who had worked for an airline company for several years, also liked to travel. But her priority was always taking care of her family, especially after Anamarie was taken away temporarily.
"It's taken a lot out of everyone," Dennis Martinez said. "(Martinez-Regino) took it hard."
Angelica Regino, Martinez-Regino's stepdaughter, said Martinez-Regino was a devoted wife who cared for her husband until his death on Aug. 15.
"She was always there when we needed her. She had the biggest heart," Angelica Regino said.
"She was a great friend, a great mom, a great aunt or a great 'tia,' as our kids called her."