“What scares the hell out of me is kids being tortured right this minute as we sit here and the only reason we don’t know about it is, because they’re not dead yet,” Senator Bill Diamond (D), Windham, said.
https://kutv.com/news/local/foster-parent-charged-with-aggravated-murder-of-2-year-old-boy-in-duchesne-county?fbclid=IwAR1l6Hd2tz80teaNXjcspH3YtTF9W-aJdQkLwT2UHoOMVaLaLj_oI4XaN08
(KUTV) — A trained nurse and foster parent in Duchesne County was charged with aggravated murder in connection with the death of a 2-year-old boy in August.
The boy died from injuries “consistent with child physical abuse,” that were “caused by inflicted blunt force trauma,” court documents state. A doctor told investigators injuries found on the boy were “directly connected to his death.”
Police in Duchesne County arrested Lisa Jo Vanderlinden for aggravated murder on Wednesday.
They say Vanderlinden is responsible for the death of the child, identified in court documents as “L.C.”
L.C. and his one-year-old sister were being fostered by Vanderlinden and her husband at the time of the boy’s death.
Vanderlinden was a foster mother to multiple children and the natural mother to others who lived with her and her husband. She and her husband had also adopted some foster children, Vanderlinden’s indictment states.
She is also a Licensed Practical Nurse who provided services at the Children’s Justice Center, which helps conduct child abuse investigations.
L.C. died on August 5, when deputies from the Duchesne County Sheriff’s Office were called to Vanderlinden’s home to investigate. The child was found deceased, with multiple bruises on his face, court documents state. Medical examiners who looked at L.C.’s body found bruises and abrasions on his scalp, arms, face, head, abdomen, back and legs, as well as “significant internal injuries that resulted in his death.”
http://poundpuplegacy.org/
Santa Clara: Woman faces murder charge in son’s bathtub drowning
SANTA CLARA — A Santa Clara woman faces a murder charge in the alleged bathtub drowning of her 12-year-old son earlier this month, a crime she initially claimed was an accident but later confessed to under police interrogation, authorities said.
Tara McNeill Palajac, 51, was arraigned Jan. 14 in the death of her adopted son at their home on Conner Place off Forest Avenue and Winchester Boulevard. She has not entered a plea and is expected to return to court Feb. 1. The boy’s Jan. 8 death and subsequent murder arrest were not publicised by Santa Clara police, appearing only in a nondescript arrest-log entry, and were first publicly acknowledged Tuesday in response to an inquiry by this newspaper. A police spokesman said the department cited the sensitivity of the case and the presence of a juvenile victim in explaining its decision not to issue a news release when the alleged crime occurred. [Author’s note: Notice the heading. Only later in the article is it mentioned that the child is adopted.]
http://www.thenewsenterprise.com/news/crime_and_courts/radcliff-foster-parent-charged-with-murder-in-death-of-/article_a22565e5-d516-5f41-84a7-8e6794fb2a07.html
Elizabethtown attorney Ron Hines, who is representing the Paytons, said Friday the children never should have been removed from their home in the first place. The three children, Hines said, had been in foster care since March 6 at the Radcliff home of Embry and his husband.
Hines said someone falsely reported to Child Protective Services there was drug use in the Payton home. He said the couple was given less than 24 hours to take a drug test or the children would be removed. He said they didn’t have the money to pay for a test and the next day, CPS removed the two boys and a girl. Hunter Payton, who died, was the youngest of the boys.
A person with the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services’ Protection and Permanency office in Elizabethtown said Friday afternoon no one from the office could comment. A number provided to seek comment went unanswered twice Friday afternoon.
http://www.gcnewsgazette.com/Content/Default/Latest-News/Article/Man-arrested-for-murder-of-Caneyville-child/-3/12/282
A Hardin County man, 33-year-old Billy P. Embry, of Radcliff, has been charged with the murder of Caneyville child Hunter Payton (4), who passed away in May of 2017 while in the man Embry and his husband’s foster care.
in April of 2017, Hunter’s mother, April Payton, who was given one hour per week visitation with her children, allegedly observed that her 2-year-old daughter had bruises on her cheek and jaw, and Hunter Payton had a black eye and bruising along his orbital socket and the ridge-line of his jaw.
Later, on May 9, 2017, April Payton reportedly received a call that Hunter Payton was in the Hardin Memorial Hospital Emergency Room with injuries, to which he succumbed at Norton Children’s Hospital the next day.
Hines alleges his office’s investigation determined that one or both of the foster parents housing Hunter Payton and his siblings, physically abused Hunter Payton and his younger sister.
Hines also alleged that the Cabinet for Health and Family Services initially told the mother, April Payton, that her children’s injuries were the result of accidents.
33-year-old Billy P. Embry, of Radcliff, was arrested by the Radcliff Police Department on a warrant prepared by a Radcliff police detective on Thursday night, Jan. 11 and charged with murder, according to Radcliff Police Department Captain Mark Skees.
Hunter Payton suffered a head injury that recent test results from the State Medical Examiner’s Office have determined was inflicted upon him, Skees said.
http://www.fox5dc.com/news/baby-dies-in-foster-care-foster-dad-charged-with-murder
Marcussen and his wife began caring for Ka’ron Mason when the infant was placed in their home in July 2014. To neighbours, the family’s Fredericksburg house seemed like any other.
“He played with his kids. You know he was a normal parent. You wouldn’t think anything like this would happen,” said Mary Sobrilsky, who often saw the family outside.
The Stafford County Sheriff’s Office received a report in January that the boy, who was 11 months old at the time, had been brought to the hospital with burns to his face, torso and neck. The investigation found that the burns came from a bath Marcussen gave him. Ka’ron died February 1, after his first birthday.
The investigation was turned over to a grand jury. Friday, the 33-year old foster father was indicted on charges of felony murder, involuntary manslaughter, cruelty to children and child neglect.
No one at the family’s house answered the door on Wednesday. According to a statement from the Fredericksburg Department of Social Services, Ka’ron had been placed with the family “after the foster parents passed the stringent selection and training criteria required.”
https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/baby-murder-rocks-child-protection-system/news-story/436dc00a2c8222b89c52b6b0eb9e0141
A WOMAN accused of murdering a 20-month-old foster boy in the latest case to rock the embattled child protection system has been denied bail.
The Daily Telegraph discovered the Aboriginal child had a broken femur and multiple bruises on his face at the time of his death.
His biological mother said she was “desperate for answers” and had been “left in the dark” by the government and the foster care provider — Uniting.
“We don’t know anything,” she said. “We haven’t been told anything.
“We didn’t even get to see him until three weeks after he died.” The mother said she was the victim of an abusive partner and reached out for temporary help until she could provide a safe home for her son. Two months later he was dead.
http://wgntv.com/2017/05/06/toddlers-death-in-foster-care-leaves-her-mother-pleading-for-answers/
According to police, officers responded to a call on May 4 and found the 20-month-old girl, Emma, unresponsive. She was pronounced dead on the scene by the Lake County Coroner’s office. Her foster mother, 32-year-old Jamila S. Hodge, was charged with murder and multiple felonies including aggravated battery after a toddler in her care died. Hodge is now in custody.
Angela Salinas, the child’s mother, said her daughter Emma was, “full of joy”. She just started talking, she said ‘mamma and dada,’” Salinas said.“It’s the worst feeling in the world to lose a baby, to never hold her and kiss her; it’s very hard,” Salinas said. “She was always playing with her brothers and sisters, and now I don’t have anything – just pictures.”
Salinas said she moved Emma and her other three children from California back home to Chicago a year and a half ago. She says she spent a weekend with her father in Hammond, IN, and during that time the two had an argument that ended with police arresting her.
“The cops were involved and they took me away for a minute; I proved everything wrong, and they had taken my kids away and made a case out of nothing,” Salinas said.
She says Lake County Chid Services placed the children in the foster home in Gary, IN while she worked out her legal issues. Salinas says she visited the children the day before Emma died – and Emma appeared to have a fever, and showed some bruises and scratches.
“Something very bad happened, and they’re not giving me any answers to my questions,” Salinas said.
http://cbs4indy.com/2017/05/09/police-foster-mother-in-northern-indiana-suffocated-toddler/
Foster parent Jamilia Hodge, 32, told officers she placed a hand over the mouth of Emma Salinas (1) and held it there until she stopped breathing, according to a probable cause affidavit obtained by the Northwest Indiana Times. She then rolled the girl onto her stomach and left the room.
http://www.wtsp.com/news/local/foster-parent-charged-in-death-of-17-month-old/416259782
A foster parent is in jail tonight charged with the murder of a 17-month-old boy.
Aedyn Agminalis was taken off life support in December — just days after being rushed to the hospital. His foster mom, 43-year-old Latamara Flythe, is now in facing a murder charge and being held without bond.
Scouring through a personnel file of more than 100 pages, on paper, Flythe looked to be a fit person to become a foster parent in 2016. Aedyn, 17 months old, was placed in her care.
But documents from the Department of Children and Families show shortly after that in investigation was opened at her home from a choking incident that occurred on Dec. 4.
Aedyn was released from the hospital after a few days and then was rushed right back where doctors presumed him to be brain dead and he passed away on Dec. 9.
Now Eckerd Kids — the company contracted to run the county’s child welfare system — says the foster mother Flythe passed all the background checks, screening, and rigorous evaluations.
United We Stand Against Child Abuse December 3, 2014 ·
KAYLA YVONNE ALLEN 7YRS (11-10-1995 TO 8-24-2003) April 7th – 16th – The Family of Kayla Yvonne Allen have worked for five years to seek justice for their murdered little girl. All evidence pointed to the only person who was in the home on the morning Kayla died, Carolyn Futrell. As teachers cried, explaining they had reported abuse of Kayla (who begged them not to tell Futrell), therapist reported Kayla had a black eye and the response from Futrell did not make sense, but each time the abuse was reported, Kayla remained in the home with Futrell and she recanted at ages 3yrs, 4yrs, 6yrs, and 7yrs. How many times does a child have to be abused before NC DSS actually gets involved?
When a child has a black eye and the response does not make sense, who cares enough to find the truth?
When a 6yr old is covered with bruises and the explanation for the bruises that are in various stages of healing are obviously not from roller skating, who cares enough to investigate? When a child (previously reported to DSS for abuse) begs their teacher not to tell their caregiver the tike has misbehaved at school, because she was obviously terrified of what would happen when “Mommy Dearest” learns the 49 lb., 6yrs old misbehaved at school, who will get involved?
When all the information is put together, why would NC DSS ignore the repeated reports of visible abuse of Kayla Yvonne Allen?
All RED Flags were ignored by NC DSS. NC Department of Social Services was the gatekeeper to Kayla’s safety. No one could protect Kayla without going through NC DSS. Age 18months – Futrell slapped Kayla in the mouth for back-talking her, although Futrell testified that Kayla did not talk at 18months.
Age 2yrs – Black Eye Report: Age 4yrs – Black Eye Report: Age 5yrs – School reports abuse: Age 6yrs – Taylor MI Police Report of Abuse: Age 6yrs – When asked by the therapist to write all the good things and all the bad things about Mommy Dearest, and the child will not state one negative word about Mommy Dearest, HELLO!! (Every child has at least one thing they do not like about their parents!): Age 7yrs – School Report: Futrell slammed Kayla into the door-frame for asking for lunch money (“Please don’t tell ‘Mom.'”)
The most horrendous testimony described Kayla’s last hour of life…Atroban is not a knock-out drug, so she had to live after consuming over 50 ml (amount found in stomach content). Kayla had time to cry out for help. Her throat was too swollen for EMS to get the trachea tube down her throat. Her mouth and throat were “on fire” from the hydrocarbons in Atroban. She experienced extreme pain in her stomach. She threw up in her bed, she threw up in two places in the hallway. Futrell testified that during this time, Futrell was doing laundry, eating popcorn, watching TV, and taking a shower before going to church at 11 AM.! The 911 call was made at 11:14 AM. No one, except for Carolyn Futrell, knows when Kayla actually died.
Futrell testified that she left her friend with Kayla’s lifeless body lying in the doorway and drove to the church to ask the pianist to help her. The pianist testified that when she arrived, Kayla was lying in the doorway to her bedroom; Charless was on the phone, and Carolyn was standing beside Charless; and Kayla’s body was cold. DSS did not put the poison in Carolyn Futrell’s hands but they repeatedly did not protect Kayla.
Jamie Sullivan March 7 at 7:08 PM
This ugly bitch is the one that murdered my beautiful daughter in 6 days in foster care. After which she tried to sue ME for emotional trauma. ME. After she left Delonna Sullivan alone and dead for hours without even noticing. Doesn’t she look traumatized? Also like to add she posted she was “working on her tan” in Mexico while I was attending my daughters funeral. Here she is again in 2015. Hmmmmn. Also makes me wonder how much money social services paid her to ignore, abuse and kill other people’s babies.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/delonna-sullivan-inquiry-conflicting-accounts-from-rcmp-social-worker-1.3124087 Delonna Sullivan was removed from her mother in April 2011 by a rare emergency order, which meant the four-month-old could be placed in provincial care without a judge’s order. The girl was placed with a foster mother. Six days later, she was found dead in her playpen. An emergency order is only used if a child is thought to be in “imminent danger.” The social worker said the house was messy and poorly maintained. She also had concerns about possible drug and alcohol abuse [no evidence] by Delonna’s mother. Sullivan denied the allegations, saying that Delonna was in no danger. Monday heard testimony from the support worker who dealt with the foster mother who took in Delonna. He testified that the girl had to sleep in the playpen because the home lacked a crib, although he was assured this was a temporary issue. At one point, she was left in the playpen for five hours without anyone checking on her. The worker admitted that he did not visit the [foster] home [at all], nor see the playpen, either before placing Delonna in the home or after she had arrived. However, Sullivan (mother) is skeptical an inquiry will do anything to stop other children from dying. “It’s to create policies and procedures to protect children, but the policies and procedures were all already in place but none of them were followed,” she said. “What are they going to do, make more policies they’re not going to follow?” To coincide with the start of the inquiry, a candlelight vigil was held to protest the deaths of the children in Alberta’s foster care system.
http://www.readingeagle.com/news/article/upper-tulpehocken-woman-charged-in-childs-death
An Upper Tulpehocken Township foster woman, Shawna M. Moore, 31, of the first block of Hipple Lane was charged Friday with third-degree murder and endangering the welfare of children in the April 2015 death of 2-year-old Camron Michael.
EMTs were dispatched to Moore’s home the morning of April 7, 2015, for the report of an unresponsive child who had fallen down the stairs.
Michael was pronounced dead from his injuries on April 14, 2015, at Hershey Medical Centre. Dr. Wayne Ross listed the cause of death as traumatic brain injury.
Tests determined that the only way the child could have suffered his injuries was from whiplash and a blunt strike to the head, not from falling down stairs.
http://okcfox.com/news/local/murder-charge-filed-against-foster-parent-accused-of-killing-2-month-old
OKLAHOMA CITY (KOKH) — A foster parent has been charged with murder in connection to the death of a 2-month-old.
Oklahoma County court records show that Austin Davis, 24, has been charged with first degree murder. Davis was originally arrested Oct. 12 on a complaint of child abuse after 2-month-old Jacob Thomas was transported to the hospital in critical condition with injuries consistent to child abuse. Thomas died Oct. 13.
Doctors told police that it appeared Thomas had injuries consistent with shaken baby syndrome.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-42673244
Sherin Mathews, an adopted three-year-old girl, was first reported missing from her Texas adoptive home in October, triggering a large search operation.
Her adoptive father, Wesley Mathews, originally said she disappeared after he put her outside as a punishment.
After the girl’s body was found two weeks later in a drain entrance, he said she had accidentally choked.
Mr Mathews also faces charges of tampering with evidence, causing felony injury to a child and abandoning or endangering a child.
His wife, Sini Mathews, was also indicted with an abandonment charge.
Arrest warrant documents allege the couple left her alone the night before her disappearance.
In November ,a paediatric doctor confirmed at a custody hearing that she had contacted Child Protective Services in March 2017 over concerns with bone fractures she found on three-year-old Sherin.
Earlier this month, the Indian government formally suspended Holt International, the adoption agency the Mathews used to adopt Sherin, accusing it of “negligence” in their assessment of the couple.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Fiesel
Marcus Fiesel was an American foster care child murder victim. On February 21, 2007 his foster parent Liz Carroll – a former homecoming queen – was convicted of murdering him. On February 26, 2007, it was announced attorneys for his foster father, David Carroll had reached a plea agreement.
Fiesel spent the first three years of his life with his mother Donna Trevino (née Fiesel) and his two siblings, Michael and Peaches, inMiddletown, Ohio. He was described by a neighbour as “an awesome little guy” who loved flowers, Bob the Builder, and bubbles. According to friends, he was autistic and attended a school for special needs children.
Fiesel was a very active child, and his mother found it difficult to cope with him. A neighbour said she occasionally saw Trevino weeping with exhaustion. Trevino was also suffering from domestic violence at the hands of her boyfriend, which led to frequent calls to the police. During these visits, police officers noticed that the home was infested with fleas and reeked of feces.
On September 29, 2005, police observed severe bruising on Fiesel’s left buttock. The family was also being investigated by child welfare workers, who had received complaints of abuse.
In January 2006, Fiesel crawled out of his second-story window and fell off the roof, resulting in a cut to his chin that required stitches.
In April 2006, Fiesel was found wandering the streets and was almost hit by a car. Trevino told police that “she didn’t know if she could care for her children any more and that it was getting to be too much for her.” She handed them over to Butler County.
Lifeway for Youth, a private agency contracted by the state foster care system, placed Fiesel in the care of foster parents Liz and David Carroll. Liz Carroll reported that Fiesel had gone missing on August 15, 2006. She said that she had been at Juilf’s Park in Anderson Township with four children (a child she had with David Carroll, another foster child, a toddler she was babysitting, and Fiesel) when she blacked out due to low blood pressure. She said when she regained consciousness, Fiesel was missing.
She said, “I need help from the public to help my son, Marcus is my son. I know people think foster care is temporary, but please return him to a hospital. […] Waking up every morning and not having him run to me is very difficult. I am closer than his birth mother to him.”
Fiesel’s incinerated remains were discovered on an 88-acre (360,000 m2) estate owned by Mike Cales in Brown County, Ohio. Police said that Liz and David Carroll had left Fiesel locked in a closet, bound with a blanket and packing tape,[7]while they attended a family reunion in Williamstown, Kentucky on August 4–6, 2006. This was confirmed by Liz Carroll in testimony before a grand jury on August 28, 2006; she claimed, “I didn’t have any intentions of hurting him.”[8] Fiesel was left without food or water, but authorities believed he was killed by heat rather than dehydration or starvation, as temperatures in the closet may have reached 105–110 °F (41–43 °C). They found him dead when they returned home. Authorities believed it was David Carroll and Amy Baker who incinerated Fiesel’s body. Amy Baker was granted immunity in Ohio in return for testimony, but is currently facing extradition from Ohio to Kentucky for a tampering with evidence charge brought against her by Mason County, Kentucky. Amy Baker confessed to helping to dispose of the body in the Ohio River. The charges against her have now been dropped.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/foster-parent-charged-with-murder-in-death-of-manitoba-infant/article1146539/
A northern Manitoba man has been charged with second-degree murder in the death of a foster child.
RCMP have charged Roderick Tobie Blacksmith, 29, in the death last November of 13-month-old Cameron Ouskan.
Cameron was taken to hospital in Gillam, Man., on Nov. 12 in life-threatening condition and was later transported to Thompson General Hospital, where he died.
https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/crime-and-courts/2017/10/04/sabrina-ray-parents-charged-first-degree-murder-dad-charged-sexual-abuse/733577001/
Misty Ray, 40, and her husband, Marc Ray, 41, took in Sabrina as a foster child in 2011 and adopted her in 2013. They are charged in her death and face multiple felonies after the malnourished 16-year-old was found unresponsive 12 May 2017 at their home in Perry, according to Perry police.
Justin Ray, 21, their biological son, has been charged with two counts of child endangerment and two counts of wilful injury after “drop-kicking” Sabrina down a basement staircase sometime between April 15 and May 1, police have said.
Additionally, Marc Ray was charged with two counts of sexual abuse — third degree, according to court records. The abuse allegedly occurred in January 2009 and December 2016 with a child under 12.
Sabrina’s adoptive grandmother, Carla Bousman, was charged with first-degree kidnapping, child endangerment causing death and obstructing prosecution or defence for allegedly altering evidence at the crime scene and providing false evidence.
Josie Bousman, 20, adoptive cousin, has been charged after she allegedly admitted she helped injure Sabrina, helped keep her confined and denied her food and water, according to the complaint.
Marc and Misty Ray also operated a daycare outside of their home called “Ray of sunshine”. Parents who brought their kids to the daycare said Sabrina Ray was so small, they believed she was only 8. At the time of her death, she weighed 56 pounds, according to an autopsy report.
KCCI EXCLUSIVE: Teen who lived with Sabrina Ray details horrific abuse [1:49]
https://eu.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/crime-and-courts/2017/03/15/teen-who-starved-death-found-diaper-linoleum-floor-court-documents-reveal/99213932/
Natalie Finn, the West Des Moines teenager who starved to death in October, was wearing an adult diaper and lying on the linoleum floor of her bare bedroom when police and medics discovered her, according to newly unsealed court documents.
The 16-year-old “appeared to have been laying on the floor … in her own waste for some time,” West Des Moines police Det. Chris Morgan wrote in an affidavit. She died a short time later at a hospital.
The home reeked of both human and animal waste. Blankets that were “heavily soaked” in what officers believed was urine covered the floor of the room Natalie shared with two of her siblings, according to the documents. The room had no beds or furniture.
The search warrant application filed by Morgan describes investigators’ interviews with three surviving Finn children, two of whom were found to be underweight and suffering from bedsores after medics took their sister to a hospital. Nicole Finn faced a judge at the Polk County Jail Monday Jan. 23, 2017. Nicole Finn is charged with murder, kidnapping, and child endangerment resulting in death. Joseph Finn is charged with kidnapping, abandonment, and neglect causing serious injury. Their daughter, 16-year-old Natalie Finn, died from cardiac arrest in October of 2016.
Natalie’s siblings, a 15-year-old boy and a 14-year-old sister. All three children were adopted.
http://www.news.com.au/national/queensland/crime/the-foster-father-charged-over-tiahleigh-palmers-murder/news-story/c1359f1eb41eeef07cadb6fdc1b06501
THE foster family at the centre of allegations into the death of Tiahleigh Palmer buried the Brisbane schoolgirl in a heartfelt ceremony attended by more than 600 people last November – 10 months ago.
Back then, Rick Thorburn, 56, Tia’s foster father and now accused killer, appeared to hold back tears as he solemnly carried her child-sized coffin, acting as a pallbearer.
He blended in to the crowd of purple, Tia’s favourite colour, which mourners had chosen to wear to pay tribute to the young girl. The colour also became a symbol of commitment to the desperate search for answers over what had happened to her.
His shirt read “in love memory of Tiahleigh R.I.P.” At the service, he comforted her grieving mother.
The truck driver, Rich Thorburn, turned food van proprietor and his wife, Junlene Thorburn, had taken in Tiahleigh as a foster child while her biological mother, Cyndi Palmer, worked to get her life on track after struggling as a teen mum and spending time in the prison system. Tiahleigh lived with the couple and their two adult sons in their Chambers Flat home where Thorburn’s wife Julene, 54, also ran a home daycare service.
The eldest of the two boys, Josh, 20 and the younger son, Trent, 19. Following police interviews Rick was yesterday formally charged with Tia’s murder. Trent, the youngest of Tia’s foster brothers, has been charged with incest.
Julene and Josh have been charged with one count each of perjury and perverting the course of justice.
Less than a month after Tia’s death, the foster father, Tick Thorburn, published a post on Facebook saying the family had accommodation for one or two people in their “happy home environment on acreage”.
He described their residence as “a clean and safe home”.
http://www.texomashomepage.com/news/local-news/mother-outraged-after-son-is-allegedly-killed-by-foster-parent/147570700
Lawton, Oklahoma – (KFOR) COMANCHE COUNTY, Okla. — A Comanche County foster parent, Heather Adams, 24, faces one first degree murder charge after her two year old foster son died Sunday evening.
The victim’s birth mother, Andrea Lowell, met with KFOR, and claims the Department of Human Services (DHS) let her down.
“They gave my child to somebody who killed him,” said Andrea Lowell.
Bryson and his seven-month-old brother had been in the care of Heather and Tyler Adams since October. After they were placed by DHS, allegedly because health officials found evidence of child abuse with the infant son. “He had a hematoma on the back of his head…they said that was shaken baby [syndrome],” said Andrea. “DHS said the foster parents that they placed the children with, they seemed like good people.” “He’s gone, all because the state said that she was suitable…and she’s not,” said Andrea. “I want my other son before he ends up dead too.”
The news of foster child Bryson Lowell’s death broke Sunday evening, but his birth mother says she didn’t find out until Thursday.
According to court records, on Sunday, a non responsive Bryson was found by Tyler Adams a little after 7:30 p.m. in their home.
Heather Adams later told investigators, she hit the juvenile ‘with a closed fist’. Sheriff Stradley says the boy had knuckle imprints on his forehead and his death was caused by blunt force trauma to the head.
Sheriff Stradley says the foster children had only been in Adams custody for seven months.
Bryson’s infant sibling was removed from the home, and remains in DHS custody despite the mother Andrea’s concerns.
https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/Sara-Packer-Grace-Packer-Adoption-Foster-Children-Missing-Rape-Murder-Pennsylvania-423711533.html
The search continues for the foster kids of a foster woman who was charged in the rape and murder of her adopted daughter.
Sara Packer, along with her boyfriend Jacob Sullivan, were arrested and charged in the rape, murder and dismemberment of her 14-year-old adopted daughter Grace Packer in July, 2016. While Sara Packer remains in custody with a trial date not yet set, the state is looking for the 30 foster children who she cared for within the last decade. Officials say about a dozen of those children are now supposed to be adults and are unaccounted for.
Packer fostered the children over the course of a decade in addition to formally adopting Grace and Grace’s younger brother in Berks County.
Much remains unclear about the Packers’ fostering and adoptions, which involved Children, Youth and Family agencies in at least two counties. Officials in several counties across eastern Pennsylvania have declined to provide details about the Packers.
Sara Packer worked as a case manager for Northampton County Children, Youth and Family before she was fired two months before then-husband David Packer was charged with sexually assaulting one of the couple’s foster children and Grace Packer in 2010. The foster child testified that Sara packer was aware of the sexual abuse.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/woman-charged-daughter-rape-death-foster-mom-30-kids-article-1.2946111
In 2010 Sara Packer was investigated but not charged. Sara Packer was allowed to keep the two children she had adopted — Grace and her biological younger brother. Sara Packer watched as her boyfriend Jacob Sullivan raped Grace on July 8, 2016, then went out to buy Tylenol PM used to sedate her adoptive daughter before they left her to die, bound and gagged, in a sweltering attic, the affidavit said. Jacob Sullivan strangled her when they found Grace still alive the next day, police said. They packed her body in cat litter and hid the body in the house for several months before they disposed of it in the woods. The Packers had adopted Grace and her brother when she was 3, after a Berks County judge removed them from a home where they had been sexually abused by adults living with their parents.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/12/14/mom-convicted-murder-teen-daughters-starvation-death/954204001/
DES MOINES — An Iowa foster mother who rescued animals but tortured three teens adopted from foster care was convicted Thursday of murder and kidnapping.
Nicole Finn, 43, of West Des Moines could spend the rest of her life in prison for confining the three adoptive teens in a bedroom without furniture or regular access to food or a restroom for months. Natalie Finn, one of four adoptive teens in the house died suffering cardiac arrest Oct. 24, 2016, weighing 81 pounds when the average weight for a teen her age and height was 125. Siblings Mikayla and Jaden, who medical experts said were at risk of starving to death as well, spent months recovering. The three teens who survived testified that Nicole Finn began requiring Natalie, Jaden and Mikayla to ask permission to leave their room, which she then equipped with an alarm.
Medical experts testified in the case that all the Finn children now had diagnoses ranging from oppositional defiant disorder to attachment disorder to attention deficit disorder.
Nicole Finn showed no emotion while Judge Karen Romano read the verdict.
But she didn’t cry — not even when a prosecutor pointed straight at her, saying she carried out a plan to kill and torment three children she adopted.
The bizarre child-abuse case made national news, and prompted outraged Iowans to question how an adoptive mother could get away with torturing three kids for so long. School officials and neighbours raised numerous red flags before Mikayla and Natalie were removed from public school by the accused last spring.
In the summer of 2016, Nicole Finn thwarted efforts by a social worker and West Des Moines police to check on the children.
When a social worker and police obtained a court order and finally entered the home in August 2016, Nicole was notified, prepared and instructed the teens to shower and clean up. Beth Avery, the supervisor who oversaw the handling of the child abuse case for the Department of Human Services, resisted testifying. But Amy Sacco, the child-protective worker also fired, told jurors she offered the accused adoptive parent Finn “voluntary post-adoptive services” on that August visit.
http://www.albanyherald.com/news/local/lee-county-foster-mother-arrested-in–year-old-child/article_50bfe1ca-e79c-5849-bbd3-4b721e769f23.html
Lee County foster mother, Leshia Green has been charged with two felony counts of first degree cruelty to a child in the death of a 4-year-old foster child placed in her care.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXTwTq9U97Q&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR01wUtuY5ZeY27N_nKjAd3ZVfU4rbJXeEUPqaPaWKUXDcoS9xitX0l3DtI
What happened to Samantha? [3:53]
http://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/crime/article161513993.html
In September 2010 Fresno police contended Mikayla was a victim of shaken-baby syndrome, a condition associated with brain damage from violent shaking. But foster parent Jovannee Reynolds testified she never hurt the child. At most, she told police, she patted the week old Mikayla on the back when the infant had trouble breathing. In essence, her use of force in patting the child was more than a reasonable person would do.
Mikayla was born Aug. 25, 2010, and arrived at Reynolds’ home four or five days after birth after her biological mother, who had a long history of drug abuse, tested positive for methamphetamine.
Jovannee Reynolds and her husband were new to the foster care system, receiving their license in July 1010. Their first foster child, a 3-year-old boy, was placed with them Aug. 9, 2010, county records show. Another child was placed with the couple Aug. 20, 2010, but returned to family members a few days later.
Jovannee Reynolds took the infant to the hospital, where she remained for about two weeks before she died on Sept. 20, 2010. The case took seven years because it turned into a battle of medical experts – one who said Mikayla died of shaken-baby syndrome and two who suggested she suffered her shaken-baby injury in her mother’s womb.
http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/foster_dad_is_charged_with_first-degree_murder_in_childs_hot-car_death/
A foster father in Kansas is facing a felony murder case after his 10-month-old foster daughter died when he forgot to take her out of the car after arriving at their Wichita home, reports the Wichita Eagle. The girl was in the car in the 90-degree day for up to 2½ hours. Seth Michael Jackson, 29, and his partner had planned to adopt the baby, one of six children they were caring for.
The predicate felony is aggravated child endangerment “under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life.” If convicted, Jackson could get life in prison.
An additional second-degree murder charge in the Sedgwick County case accuses Jackson of recklessly causing the baby’s death “under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life.”
http://www.kansas.com/news/local/crime/article4158422.html
Prosecutors say that Jackson and another foster parent were smoking marijuana on July 24. Jackson then took a 5-year-old to a drug dealer’s house to get more marijuana. He told police he picked up the 10-month-old from a babysitter. Jackson told police that he’d left the 10-month- old in the car after he drove up and carried pizza into his home. A 5-year-old under his care got out of the car, while the baby stayed strapped in her car seat in the back seat of a Dodge Charger parked outside their home. Jackson returned home and went inside to smoke more pot.
https://medicalkidnap.com/2019/10/08/4-month-old-arizona-baby-dies-after-being-taken-from-mother-and-put-into-home-with-two-foster-dads-who-adopted-15-kids/?fbclid=IwAR0EjPfnxWypkhBrPDKMPKBx-LUysLGsHFFCHjyYJ5kaPEzUoncx66uedHw In all the years I have been covering medical kidnapping stories out of Arizona, I don’t recall another case where a child died in foster care and the local media decided to write positive articles about the foster parents who had custody of the child and neglected to keep the child safe. The mother claims the baby was taken away because the baby allegedly tested positive for drugs, even though she herself tested negative for any drugs. And like many other medical kidnapping stories we have covered, this mother had other children in the foster care system that had also been removed from her home, and she was allegedly told that because of this fact, this little baby would be taken away from her also. The 4-month-old girl who died after being forgotten in a hot vehicle by her foster parent had a name. Her mother wants people to remember: Samora Lesley Cousin.
https://www.fox10phoenix.com/news/3-year-old-twin-girls-found-dead-in-hot-car HINESVILLE, Ga. – An investigation is underway after twin 3-year-old girls were found dead in a hot car on Sunday in Georgia. The girls, Raelynn and Payton, were found in a car located in the backyard of a Hinesville home that wasn’t where the girls lived, according to Fox 5. They were reportedly last seen when a caregiver put them to bed. It’s not known how they ended up in the car. Before their deaths, the girls had been living in a foster home for over a year with their foster parents.
Dianna M. Náñez Arizona Republic Published 3:26 PM EDT Oct 3, 2019 The 4-month-old girl who died after being left in a vehicle outside a Phoenix school district building Tuesday was in the care of a foster parent who forgot her in the backseat after an appointment, according to police.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VMd1YZ1kGA&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR1B5UWQGwsGmoy8zbxLTn521e6AG9okG73TTiIuX3lmxu5e5x0iPHwCil4 San Diego County sued for wrongful death of foster child (3:55)
http://jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/090701/met_7219872.html#.WmH6XiMwjFw
One of their four foster children, 17-month-old Latiana Hamilton, died of blunt trauma to the head and drowning July 18, police said. Lena Cumberbatch, 36, was arrested July 27. Keith Cumberbatch wasn’t charged.
History:
September 1992: Lena and Keith Cumberbatch issued foster care license in Michigan.
June 1993: Michigan child welfare workers investigate the home after a complaint about a foster child being malnourished and in need of medical care. The complaint is unsubstantiated, but a caseworker recommends the couple attend training on the effects of child abuse and neglect on child development and that their license be decreased from three to two foster children.
March 1994: Michigan child welfare workers investigate complaint of improper discipline being imposed on foster children in the home. The complaint is substantiated, and the Cumberbatches are ordered to attend training on discipline and parenting special needs children.
December 1995: The couple voluntarily surrender their Michigan foster care license. No explanation is given.
June 1997: The couple move to Jacksonville with their four children.
November 2000: The couple apply for a Florida foster care license.
December: Florida Department of Children and Families counsellor asks for initial home study and training records from Michigan but not records of complaints.
January: Sharon Hamilton arrested on drug charge. Her 11-month-old daughter, Latiana, and 3-year-old son eventually is placed in state custody.
May: Latiana Hamilton (1) and her 3-year-old brother are placed with the Cumberbatches.
July 18: Latiana dies in the bathtub at the Cumberbatch home. An autopsy shows blunt trauma to the head and drowning.
July 20: DCF counsellor requests complaint records from Michigan.
July 23: DCF administrator directs child licensure staff in Jacksonville district to request records on complaints and concerns as part of the licensing process for prospective foster parents who were licensed in other states.
July 27: Lena Cumberbatch charged with murder. Nine abuse counts are added later.
Aug. 21: DCF spokeswoman says agency’s background check on the Cumberbatches revealed they have no problems.
In 1993 and ’94, Michigan authorities investigated several former foster children, the documents show. Names, ages and genders are blacked out, but the foster home allegations include:
Feces smeared on a child’s face after an accidental bowel movement.
Children being lined up against a wall and beaten with a belt for wetting their pants.
A young child being locked in a dark basement and told “the monster is going to get you if you are bad.” A child subsisting on a daily diet of milk and cereal.
http://www.tampabay.com/news/foster-mom-charged-in-death-of-boy-headed-for-adoption/2314674
TAMPA — A foster mother has been arrested in the death of a 17-month-old boy who suffered apparent head injuries just weeks before he was likely to be adopted.
Latamara Stackhouse Flythe was arrested on a charge of first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse in the death of Aedyn Agminalis, who died December 11 after he was rushed to St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital. The child had been in Flythe’s care since September.
An autopsy showed “sustained trauma” to the head, which resulted in bleeding inside his brain and led to his death, according to an arrest warrant.
Flythe, 43, was arrested Feb. 20 and was still in jail as of Monday afternoon. She is denying the charges, according to a court document seeking bail.
At the time of the boy’s death, an active investigation of the foster home in Riverview was already under way because of a choking incident on Dec. 4 that led to foster child, Aedyn, being hospitalised. The child had vomited and a piece of food became lodged in his airway, a Florida Department of Children and Families report states.
He was discharged on Dec. 7 but had to be rushed back to the hospital that same day. On his return, Flythe told doctors at the hospital that the boy had a seizure and was unresponsive, hospital records show.
http://saintpetersblog.com/new-details-emerge-case-foster-mother-charged-murder-tampa-area-toddler/
A first-time foster parent with problems falling behind on rent and a need for extra income in raising her two biological children; with multiple visits to the hospital, according to news reports and information gathered independently byFloridaPolitics.com Thursday.
However, on paper LaTamara Stackhouse Flythe met all the criteria for foster parenting. She lived in a nice suburban Tampa neighbourhood and listed her income at around $70,000, according to an article by The Tampa Bay Times Thursday, which noted her earnings were a combination of child support and a salary from her employer, Children’s Home Network, an “agency subcontracted by Eckerd Kids to recruit, license and support foster parents.”
A Door of Hope, another Eckerd subcontractor, approved LaTamara Flythe’s foster parenting license. Foster parents get a minimum of $439 per month, per child, aged 5 or under in Florida. Flythe had the option to foster one more child in her home, meaning a potential four minors could have been living under her roof.
Eckerd Kids is one of the biggest so-called community-based care agencies (CBCs) contracted to do foster care and adoption business with the state of Florida. In 2012, DCF officials in Tallahassee awarded the lucrative $65.5 million annual contract to Eckerd Kids for Hillsborough County, where they claim more children die every year than in any other county in the Sunshine State.
https://www.mbcradio.com/2016/01/trial-of-regina-foster-parents-accused-of-murder-set-to-begin
A Regina couple, who were approved as foster parents, are accused of killing a four-year-old girl and almost killing her two-year-old sister.
The charged, are Kevin Goforth, 40, and Tammy Goforth, 39.
The couple had been looking after the two girls in the summer of 2012 when both had to be rushed to hospital. The four-year-old was unresponsive and died. Her little sister was in serious medical distress but managed to recover.
The Goforths are facing a charge of second-degree murder and criminal negligence causing bodily harm.
The children’s biological mother has been at most of the previous court appearances demanding justice for her daughter. At one point she had to be removed from the courtroom after an outburst against the accused.
Both Kevin and Tammy are out on bail. It is alleged the children were severely malnourished and suffered physical abuse.
http://www.news9.com/story/36639215/murder-charge-filed-against-okc-foster-parent-accused-of-shaking-baby
OKLAHOMA CITY –
A first-degree murder charge was filed against the foster father, 24-year-old Austin Davis, accused of fatally injuring a 10-week-old baby boy.
According to police, Davis was caring for 10-week-old Jacob and another baby, when he admitted he shook Jacob when he wouldn’t stop crying. Jacob was taken to the hospital on Aug. 8 in critical condition.
Hospital staff alerted police to some suspicious injuries on Jacob’s body Davis was arrested on Oct. 12 on a complaint of child abuse.
Later, on Oct. 13, Jacob’s biological parents, who were then granted full custody from a judge, decided to remove the baby from life support.
http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/st-louis-foster-mother-charged-with-fatally-beating-toddler/article_3dba7501-7584-51c7-8d6e-3e22d2e92bbe.html
ST. LOUIS • A St. Louis foster mother has been charged with fatally beating a toddler in 2015.
Christina D. Bell, 28, of the 3500 block of Illinois Avenue, was charged Friday with a felony count of child abuse resulting in death.
Charges say police were called to Bell’s house about 2:20 p.m. Dec. 8, 2015, and found 3-year-old Daylen Brown unresponsive. He died about 9 p.m. the same day at Cardinal Glennon Medical Centre in St. Louis.
An autopsy revealed a closed head injury and “non-accidental blunt force trauma” causing a lacerated liver, court records say. Daylen’s cause of death was abdominal blunt trauma, and ruled a homicide.
It was not immediately clear why it took almost 17 months for charges to be filed against Christina Bell.
http://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/911-calls-released-death-2-year-old-foster-child/17237487
HENRY COUNTY, Ga. – For the first time we’re hearing the desperate 911 call made in the Laila Daniel murder case.
Police say the 2-year-old died while in the care of her foster parents.
Daniel’s family members told Channel 2’s Audrey Washington the 911 call is heartbreaking to listen to and that they want justice for Laila.
The foster parent, Jennifer Rosenbaum, a one-time Henry County commission candidate, is charged with murder. Her husband, Joseph, is charged with child cruelty.
“I have a daughter a foster child that I just got. She was choking. I tried to do the Heimlich manoeuvre on her. She’s still breathing but it doesn’t look good,” Jennifer Rosenbaum says in the 911 call.
She then tells the operator that she is trying to do CPR, but doesn’t know how.
“I’m hoping I didn’t break a rib, I’ve been pushing hard and I don’t really know how to do this,” Rosenbaum says.
A criminal warrant for Jennifer Rosenbaum claims she failed to feed the child and hit Laila in the abdomen so hard she bled. Authorities have not released an official cause of death.
http://www.henryherald.com/news/new-charges-in-foster-child-death-focus-on-jennifer-rosenbaum/article_9fa0193d-9596-51d7-89a9-6818a90937bc.html
The grand jury charged that Jennifer Rosenbaum caused Laila Daniel’s death “by inflicting blunt force to her torso.” She’s charged with seven total crimes related to the child’s death, including felony murder, aggravated assault, aggravated battery and cruelty to children in the first degree.
Joseph Rosenbaum, also 28, now faces a charge of murder in the second degree for leaving Laila Daniel in Jennifer’s care, “knowing the child had previously suffered injuries while in Jennifer Rosenbaum’s care and by failing to seek necessary and adequate medical attention for previous injuries.” By leaving Daniel alone with Jennifer Rosenbaum, the grand jury charged, Joseph Rosenbaum caused her death.
A total of 24 counts accuse both of physically abusing Laila Daniel on various dates between Oct. 17, 2015, and Nov. 16, 2015. During that time, the grand jury charged that Laila Daniel sustained injuries all over her body, including a fractured arm, leg and rib. Most of the counts allege the injuries are due to blunt force with an unknown object. The indictment breaks the charges down by body part and criminal offence.
Another five counts deal with the Rosenbaums’ alleged mistreatment of Daniel’s four-year-old sister Millie Place, who was also placed in the couple’s care at the time. Jennifer Rosenbaum had served as an intern for the Juvenile Court division under previous District Attorney Jim Wright.
http://www.argusleader.com/story/news/crime/2016/03/08/sioux-falls-police-briefing/81326998/
A Sioux Falls woman, faces several charges including murder in the January death of a 2-year-old child.
Mary Beth Jennewein, 32, was the boy’s foster mother, police spokesman Sam Clemens said Tuesday. She was arrested on Monday and a $1 million cash bond was issued.
Jennewein is charged with one count of second-degree murder and four counts of first-degree manslaughter, Clemens said.
There was a delay between the Jan. 6 death and the arrest on Monday while police waited for the coroner’s report, Clemens said. The report came in Monday and indicated traumatic brain injury was the cause.
The boy originally was taken to the hospital Jan. 4 for a breathing problem. Jennewein told first responders that the baby woke up screaming and that she had been trying to comfort him when he began to gasp for air, according to court documents. She said she then gave the toddler CPR until paramedics arrived.
Upon inspecting the boy further, a radiologist said he had a life-threatening head injury and limited brain activity, according to the affidavit. The boy died after being taken off life support on Jan. 6.
The child was placed in Jennewein’s care in September, Clemens said. Jennewein was also caring for the boy’s 7-year-old sister at the time, he said.
https://www.reviewjournal.com/crime/homicides/man-facing-murder-charge-after-toddler-dies-of-head-injuries/
A 18-month-old foster boy thrown to the floor multiple times over the weekend in Las Vegas died Tuesday, police said.
The child’s foster parent, Craig J. Dickens, 34, initially faced charges of child abuse but now faces a murder charge, court records show. He is being held without bail at Clark County Detention Centre.
Police responded early Sunday morning to Siegel Suites, 3890 Graphic Centre Drive, near Tropicana Avenue. Dickens told Metropolitan Police Department officers that the child fell from his crib, but doctors at Sunrise Hospital and Medical Centre determined that abuse caused the injuries.
Police said the toddler was thrown across the room twice. He suffered from a broken skull and underwent surgery to treat injuries that doctors called “extremely critical.”
He died Tuesday evening.
http://www.lasvegasnow.com/news/foster-father-charged-in-toddlers-death/797829716
18-month-old Daevon was tossed from the bathroom to a window twice. 34-year-old foster parent Craig Dickens blamed his actions on alcohol consumption.
Daevon was placed in foster care in late April after someone accused Gabrielle’s biological mother of driving Daevon while high. Four months later, Daevon died.
Ramona Branon, Daevon’s grandmother was trying to gain custody of Daevon. She wants to know why and how this happened. “We didn’t put our hands and hurt our baby.”
http://www.examiner-enterprise.com/news/20180107/dhs-nelsons-became-foster-parents-in-2014 Posted Jan 7, 2018 at 11:17 AM
Tracy Dawn Nelson, 43, was arrested on charges of first-degree murder Dec. 29 following the death of a 7-week-old foster child in her custody in June. At the time this arrest, she was free on bail from a separate arrest for child abuse on her adoptive child. “Tracy Nelson and her then female spouse Anissa Nelson have been foster parents since October of 2014 and completed all of the required background checks and trainings,” Oklahoma Department of Human Services representative Casey White said.
“They have had nine foster children through their home, six of which were emergency placements and were in the home less than one month. They also had an adopted child who was adopted privately, not through DHS.”
Bartlesville Police were alerted by the medical examiner’s office on June 18, that they had conducted an examination on a 7-week-old male and “found the evidence of a blunt force trauma to the left side of the victim’s head” and that the blunt force was the cause of the child’s death.
Authorities said they then interviewed Anissa Nelson. She said that, at the time of the child’s injury, “the victim was in Tracy Nelson’s sole care,” Anissa Nelson also said Tracy Nelson is “known to be aggressive and short temper(ed) with children.” “Anissa stated that she has witnessed (Nelson) shove socks in the children’s mouth to muffle crying noise. Anissa stated that she was witnessed (Nelson) pinch the larynx on multiple children to make the kids stop crying.” Anissa Nelson further reportedly alleged that she witnessed Tracy Nelson “toss” the children to her out of frustration when she was tired of them crying.
Nelson is also the subject of a pending child abuse case that involved the child Tracy and Anissa Nelson had adopted. Authorities allege the abuse happened between March 12 and March 13, 2015. The victim was 6 months old at the time of the abuse, but was 2 years and 8 months old at the time of the investigation. The then 6 month old victim was taken to the Jane Phillips Medical Centre emergency room with “a spiral fracture to her right arm.”
The death investigation reportedly brought out more details for the earlier child abuse case and police said they found “over 400 deleted text messages” on Nelson’s phone.
“The text messages are with the defendant’s wife, Anissa Nelson,” the report said. “The text messages clearly shows the two of them fabricating a story to tell the hospital and DHS. One message reportedly stated ‘I am going with the baby gate story’ followed by ’put on your wrist brace and act like your (sic) hurt.”″
A “Go Fund Me” campaign was set up by Tracy Nelson on June 28 seeking $15,000. The campaign description read: “We need helping fighting to get our daughter back home to us. We have suffered a tragedy and need to be together now more than ever. Our little “Doodle” came to us at 3 days old and has been our ray of sunshine every day since then. She will be 3 years old next Friday. We are in for the fight of our lives to get her back home where she belongs. We have signed mediation agreement to adopt her and we won (sic) stop fighting until she is in our arms again. We lived every moment for our children and in a moment our whole world fell apart. Please help us to get an attorney to bring our precious baby girl home to us.”
Their adoptive child’s child abuse case is set for preliminary hearing on January 30.
Bail in the foster child murder case was set at a $250,000.
https://www.news-press.com/story/news/crime/2017/08/02/cape-coral-police-foster-dad-kills-13-month-old-mackenzie-fewox/531432001/
A 38-year-old foster dad was arrested Tuesday evening and booked into Lee County Jail on charges of suspected homicide and cruelty toward a child.
Dustin Gregory Todd, of Fort Myers, was arrested by the Cape Coral Police Department
The child, 13-month-old Mackenzie Fewox, died Jan 29, 2017.
Mackenzie lived at the home with two foster brothers, a stepson and a natural son to Todd. It is unclear if they remain at the home. Sizemore declined to provide the age of the two boys because of privacy concerns.
http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2010/07/grandfather_says_girl_who_died.html
GRAND RAPIDS — Hank Schriever disagreed with authorities for putting his 5-year-old twin granddaughters in foster care in February, but assumed they would be safe. He was distraught to learn police think a foster care mother is responsible for causing the death of one of the girls, Emily Marie Meno. “My feeling is this never should have happened,” the Cedar Spring man said. “That’s why I’m so cotton-pickin mad about the whole system.” Emily (5) died Saturday at Spectrum Health Butterworth hospital from a traumatic brain injury that happened late Thursday or early Friday. Kent County Sheriff’s Capt. Tim Hanrahan said the foster parent, Joy Heaven, a single woman, was cooperative during interviews, but he declined to offer her explanation of what happened. Bethany Christian Services arranged for the foster care parent, Joy Heaven, who is in the Kent County Jail on an open murder charge.
http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2010/07/police_say_foster_mom_explaine.html
GRAND RAPIDS TOWNSHIP — A 30-year-old foster mom, Joy Heaven, told investigators she shoved Emily, her 5-year-old foster child, because she wet her pants and was in the way.
“Emily flew through the air with her feet off the ground and landed on her head in the kitchen,” Kieft wrote. “Emily was unconscious for several seconds.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wT0p1KgJ7rE
Failure To Protect, The Taking (and murder) Of Logan Marr. Frontline, a PBS Documentary.
(51:02)
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/fostercare/marr/
On Jan. 31, 2001, 5-year-old Logan Marr was found dead in the basement of her foster mother’s home in Chelsea, Maine. The foster mother, Sally Schofield, a highly respected former caseworker for Maine’s Department of Human Services (DHS), would later be tried and convicted of manslaughter after police determined that Logan had died from asphyxiation after being bound with duct tape and strapped into a high chair in the basement.
Sally was the third foster mother to take in Logan since she was removed from her birth mother, Christy Marr, in August 1998. The teenaged Christy had moved in with her mother, Kathy Baker, shortly after Logan’s birth, and the two had fought constantly over how to raise the baby. It was Kathy who initiated Christy’s first contact with Maine’s Department of Human Services; in May 1996, she called the department to report her concerns about Logan’s safety. The department told Christy that in order to maintain custody of Logan, she would have to begin living under a strict set of rules: Any boyfriends or individuals allowed to stay over in her apartment would have to be cleared with DHS. And she would have to cut off her troubled relationship with her mother. Kathy had married a man named Mitch, whom DHS had been told, falsely, had been convicted of sexually assaulting a teenage girl years before. As long as Kathy and Mitch stayed together, DHS warned, Christy would have to stay away or risk losing custody of Logan.
Christy tried to stay away from her mother, but with no sources of emotional support, one day, she left Logan with a babysitter at her mother’s apartment. Mitch, who had previously moved out, turned up and was seen by a neighbour, who called DHS. The department immediately sought custody of Logan, citing Christy’s failure to protect her from potentially unsafe people. By the next morning, two caseworkers had come and removed 2-and-a-half-year-old Logan into state custody.
After the birth of her baby girl, Bailey, Christy moved into a new apartment. She communicated with her mother only through videotapes that she made. After seven months the department returned Logan to her. DHS learned of Christy’s 9 week trip to her father in Florida — which in the department’s view put the girls in jeopardy by exposing them to an accused sex offender — and her new relationship with a burglar Paul, they reopened her case and assigned it to a new caseworker, , Allison Peters. Peters soon received a tip — never confirmed — that Paul had hit Christy in front of Logan. Peters moved quickly, arriving unannounced at Christy’s door with two police officers and a court order to remove the girls. Logan and Bailey were driven to a foster home two hours away. Logan and Bailey were living with a new foster mother, Mary Beth Anderson. Four year old Logan was beginning to show the effects of separation from her mother. According to Mary Beth’s journal, Logan asked from the beginning when her mother would “get her back.” That month, Logan was seen by a therapist five times. The therapist listed the themes in Logan’s play as “Mommy and Daddy fighting; Mommy and Daddy losing their baby; Big sisters taking care of little sisters; and Someone took me away but I don’t know why.” According to Mary Beth’s journals, Logan began to have raging temper tantrums. She writes, “Logan’s outrage is still bad. The child has anger by the ton. Logan pushes and pushes and if I don’t react, pushes further with whining and screaming and punching with closed fists and kicking.”
Concerned that Logan might have been abused some time in her past, Mary Beth brought Logan for an evaluation to the Spurwink Clinic, which specialises in child abuse. They recommended that Logan receive counselling to cope with the separation from her mother. After a physical incident between Mary Beth and Logan — an incident both Mary Beth and the department refuse to discuss (and there was no criminal charges laid) — DHS moved quickly to get the girls into another foster home. The girls moved in with Sally and her husband in early September 2000. Sally reported concern at what she saw as signs of neglect in Logan — Logan’s need to take care of her younger sister and Logan’s quick attachment to her new caretakers.
As Sally Schofield sought to bond with Logan and Baily, DHS connections helped complicate and cutting back the biological mother Christy’s visits with her children. She would now have to provide her own transportation, though she didn’t have a car. She wasn’t allowed to know Sally’s last name, address, or occupation. According to Sally, DHS said this secrecy was required because of “safety concerns.” Discouraged, Christy began to falter. She missed classes and counselling appointments. At her supervised visits with the girls Christy could see that Logan wasn’t doing well. She was discouraged by DHS, though, from discussing what was making Logan unhappy. At their videotaped Christmas visit on Dec. 18, 2000, while a DHS supervisor sat listening, Logan stopped opening her gifts and told Christy that Sally had hurt her. She squeezed her cheeks together with one hand, and said, “She did this to me, and I cried, and it hurts me. She did it to my sister, too.” When Christy tried to find out more about what happened, she says the DHS supervisor shook her head, forbidding her from going into detail about the incident. In early January 2001, during another supervised visit, Logan again told Christy that Sally had handled her roughly, wrapping her up in a blanket. Again, Christy was signalled by the DHS supervisor not to pursue the matter.
DHS rules require caseworkers to visit foster homes quarterly, and to promptly investigate any complaint of physical abuse. Logan’s caseworker, Allison Peters, did neither. Peters declined FRONTLINE’s request for an interview.
That night, the police came to interview Sally. She told them she thought Logan must have knocked herself over in the high chair and hit her head. Although she claimed that Logan had not been restrained in the high chair, in a subsequent search of Sally’s house, the detectives found evidence that raised doubts about her story. Strewn amid boxes in the dank basement were clumps of duct tape, some 40 feet in all. Police tests revealed that the tape had been looped repeatedly around Logan’s body and head, and across her mouth. Tufts of her hair were stuck to the tape. And an autopsy revealed that Logan had not died from a blow to the head, but from asphyxiation.
Bailey was moved to a third foster home after her sister’s death. For the next year, Christy battled with DHS to get her back. Finally, in February 2002, she was returned to Christy for good.
http://www.pressherald.com/2017/03/18/release-of-woman-in-childs-death-stirs-painful-memories-for-mother/
Sally Ann Schofield, 55, a former state child caseworker who suffocated the 5-year-old foster child with duct tape, was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 17 years in prison. Schofield remains at the Maine Correctional Centre in Windham and is due to be released on probation on April 25. At the time, Schofield was a supervisor in the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, and the placement violated state rules.
https://www.rt.com/usa/alexandria-hill-texas-toddler-125/
The foster mother of a 2-year-old Texas foster girl, Alexandria Hill, has been charged with murder after the toddler died last week from a severe head injury.
Alexandria Hill was placed into the custody of 54-year-old Sherill Small in January after the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services determined she was being neglected by her previous foster parents.
The girl’s biological father, Joshua Hill, told KVUE-TV that he and Alexandria’s mother lost full custody of their daughter last November after the DFPS accused them of “neglectful supervision.” Mr. Hill said the agency made that determination “because her mother and I smoked pot at the time.” According to the father, the parents only smoked while their daughter was asleep.
“We never hurt our daughter,” Mr. Hill told KVUE on Thursday. “She was never sick, she was never in the hospital, and she never had any issues until she went into state care.”
It was only in state care, Hill said, that things started to go wrong.
“She would come to visitation with bruises on her, and mold and mildew in her bag.” he told KVUE. Hill told KVUE that he got a phone call Monday night telling him his daughter was on life support at the Scott and White Children’s Emergency Hospital in Temple, Texas.
“They wouldn’t tell me what condition she was in or what was wrong or what had happened. When I got there, I found out that Alex was in a coma,” he said.
Foster parent Sherill Small told investigators during a routine police report that she had been spinning the girl around in circles when she accidentally let go of Alexandria’s hands, sending the child to the ground where she hit her head on the carpet. During a physical examination, however, doctors found three symptoms of traumatic brain injury and began asking more questions. The foster mom later admitted to being frustrated with the girl and swinging her over her head and down near the ground with a “lot of force” three times. On the third time, 2-year-old Alexandria’s head hit the floor. An autopsy report released the following day concluded that blunt-force trauma to the head caused the girl’s death.
A spokesperson for the Texas DFPS told KXAN News that Sherill Small was previously accused of neglecting a foster child in her care who reportedly suffering from bruising and lead poisoning. A second foster child was removed from Sherill Small’s foster care.
http://www.nytimes.com/1992/02/17/nyregion/foster-mother-faces-charges-of-killing-girl.html
A 36-year-old foster mother in the Bronx was charged yesterday with murder for beating her 6-year-old foster child and niece, immersing her in a tub of cold water and then taping her mouth shut, according to court records.
The woman, Mary Ann Ayala, was also charged with two counts of attempted second-degree murder for choking the dead girl’s 4-year-old sister and putting her in a cold tub.
The girls, Millison, 6, and Stephanie, 4, had officially been placed in the care of Mary Ayala as foster children.
Several neighbours said this weekend that they had seen evidence that Ms. Ayala mistreated the children, and a former neighbour said he called Child Welfare authorities to report that the children were mistreated.
Child Welfare authorities said Saturday that state confidentiality laws prohibited them from commenting on the case.
Documents introduced by prosecutors in court yesterday stated that Ms. Ayala caused the 6-year-old’s death “by striking her with a shoe, squeezing the neck of Millison Ayala with her hands,” and then placing her into a tub of cold water “for an extended period of time,” which caused her body temperature to fall below 85 degrees.
Ms. Ayala then taped Millison’s mouth shut, the court documents showed. The records said she also immersed Stephanie (4) in a cold bath, causing her eventually to become unconscious.
http://people.com/crime/mom-who-allegedly-killed-son-in-plot-inspired-by-manchester-by-the-sea-fostered-multiple-children-lawyer/
Foster parents Heather Franklin, 33, and husband Ernest Franklin II, 35, are accused of murdering their adopted special needs son Jeffrey Franklin, 16, and then covering it up by burning down their house. Multiple governmental agencies have granted her the right to adopt and she’s been a foster parent with multiple foster children in her house according to transcript of the hearing, which was obtained by PEOPLE.
An investigation after the fire on the night of Feb. 28 revealed that Jeffrey did not have smoke or soot in his mouth, trachea or bronchi — which would have been present if he had died as a result of the fire, according to court records obtained by PEOPLE. In court Friday, McBride accused the Franklins of killing their son two hours after watching Manchester by the Sea. In the movie, a father, played by Casey Affleck, who won an Oscar for Best Actor for his portrayal of the man, accidentally burns his house down, killing his three children. The father is told that he can’t be prosecuted for their deaths because the fire was accidental. “Within two hours of that movie playing to this defendant and her husband, Jeffrey’s deceased,” McBride said in court. Ernest Franklin alleges, “ he started a fire in a wood stove in the home, leaves the door open and claims to have left the house to go retrieve his dogs, who he claims have run over the hill.” Heather Franklin, who is pregnant — and was pregnant at the time — leaves the house and drove around from 11:30 p.m. that night until 2 or 2:30 a.m., when she returned home. McBride added that Heather did not even have a driver’s license “because her license was either revoked or suspended.” She didn’t return, he says, “until the fire totally engulfs the house.” Ernest Franklin’s lawyer, assistant public defender Zachary Wentworth, had no comment about the case except to say that his client is innocent until proven guilty and that the prosecution’s theory about Manchester by the Sea “makes for good headlines and is very intriguing.”
http://www.oxygen.com/blogs/da-claims-facebook-messages-of-mom-accused-of-manchester-by-the-sea-murder-show-motive
An autopsy revealed that Jeffrey had died before the fire at the family’s house, police said.
Just several days before Jeffrey’s death, Heather had messaged a friend about her frustrations with her son—who was developmentally disabled, deaf, and mute—on Facebook, court records said.
“Been struggling with jr,” she wrote. “I guess no real surprise there.” “I so badly want out…dealing with jr peeing all over his room again for past few weeks,” she added. “It punishes me more than him.”
http://newschannel9.com/news/local/former-foster-mom-charged-with-murder-tells-police-child-was-a-faller-downer
One day after Clara Edwards took Sahara Weatherspoon to the hospital unconscious in 2013, Edwards was interviewed by the Catoosa County Sheriff’s Department.
In a video of the interview, which was played in court Thursday, Edwards told officers, “I would never hurt that child. We are bonding to the point where I am important to her,” Edwards told police. “I would never do anything to hurt her.”
She then described Sahara as a “Faller-downer,” saying she’d once asked Sahara’s doctor for a helmet to keep her from getting injured. She also said it was noted by another doctor that Sahara bruised easily, possibly because of her thin skin. In a video Edwards used a doll to represent the Saharah. She showed officers how she believed the child might have fallen down the stairs.
Edwards said Sahara was crying but then walked back up the stairs with her minutes after falling.
She then described another accident that happened hours later, saying Saharah may have hit her head on an armoire.
It was then that Edwards says she picked up Sahara and brought her to the hospital after she couldn’t get her to wake up.
She also said that some of the bruises on Sahara probably came from attempting to wake Sahara up after she fell.
http://www.wrcbtv.com/story/31247841/jury-deliberates-in-foster-murder-trial
A release sent by Catoosa District Attorney Buzz Franklin says Edwards pleaded guilty to Voluntary Manslaughter, a lesser offence than the First Degree Murder charge that caused the mistrial in February. Sahara, a foster child, had been placed in her and her husband Ron Edwards’ care in early 2013.
On December 29, 2013, Saharah was taken to T.C. Thompson’s Children’s Hospital with a traumatic brain injury. Saharah died shortly thereafter as a result of the inflicted injury.
http://www.bakersfield.com/news/breaking/foster-parents-found-guilty-of-second-degree-murder-in-child/article_4a9c079d-3197-54c2-a524-df251a793755.html
Six years after they left the battered, lifeless body of 3-year-old Serenity Gandara on their living room floor and fled to Mexico, the child’s foster parents Wednesday were held accountable in her death.
A Kern County jury found Carla Torres and Alberto Garcia guilty of second-degree murder in the young girl’s brutal killing in July 2010. The jury also found both defendants guilty of two counts of wilful cruelty to a child, and Torres guilty of assault on a child under 8 resulting in great bodily injury.
Serenity suffered a lacerated spleen, pancreas and stomach during at least two separate beatings on July 17, 2010.
A pathologist testified the ruptured organs were fatal injuries, but the child also sustained a skull fracture just before her death.
The couple abandoned Serenity’s then 4-year-old brother, Isaiah, at the house when they fled. He was also covered in bruises and scars.
The two foster children had lived with Garcia and Torres for two years, and the injuries found on them indicate they were abused over months if not years. The abuse wasn’t just physical. Torres screamed at the children, her sisters said, and withheld food from Serenity. They were the children of Garcia’s sister, and were placed in the couple’s care because of the sister’s drug problems.
http://www.pantagraph.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/livingston-county-sa-to-review-death-of-foster-child-case/article_61ac23b0-a486-11e2-a25a-001a4bcf887a.html
On May 4, 2011, Kianna Rudesill, 4, of Bloomington, died of head injuries. She was living with a Cullom foster family at the time.
A Peoria County coroner’s jury ruled the death a homicide. A report from forensic pathologist Dr. J. Scott Denton indicated Kianna suffered eight points of impact to her head and face, seven on her back and 18 on her arms and legs. He said the injuries were “more consistent with inflicted rather than accidental blunt trauma.”
The Pantagraph has not identified the foster parents because no criminal charges have been filed against them. The foster mother’s story about the incident is — that Kianna threw a temper tantrum and hurt herself. Kalvelage-Roth noted Kianna had reactive attachment disorder, a psychological condition that can cause a child to “act out”. Clinical psychologist Dr. Becky Kalvelage-Roth said she met with the foster parents once a month for the past year. She testified she found the couple to have very good parenting skills and recommended their biological children be allowed to return home. While Judge Travers said he stood by his original ruling, he believed the couples’ biological children were suffering by the separation and were being “held hostage” by a goal of finding more evidence of parents possible involvement in Kianna Rudesill’s death.
He agreed to return the biological children to the home. A status hearing is scheduled on July 9.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/nov/07/matthew-scully-hicks-jailed-for-life-daughter-elsie
An adoptive parent and former fitness instructor has been jailed for life and told he will serve a minimum of 18 years after being found guilty of murdering his 18-month-old daughter less than two weeks after he and his husband adopted her. They also had another adopted child.
Matthew Scully-Hicks had gripped Elsie around the ribcage and shaken her, and may have banged her head against a hard surface.
An independent review is taking place that will consider whether social workers and health professionals missed chances to step in and protect Elsie before she was killed by Scully-Hicks, 31. Because at least four social workers, a GP, a health visitor and hospital staff including a registrar saw or treated a series of injuries she suffered before the last fatal attack.
Elsie was formally adopted by the couple on 12 May 2016 and suffered fatal injuries at their home in Llandaff, Cardiff 13 days later on 25 May.
Elsie’s birth family said she would still be alive today if she had not been removed from their care by social services.
Elsie was named Shayla O’Brien by her birth family when she was born in November 2014.
Speaking on behalf of the family, Elsie’s birth grandmother Sian O’Brien said: “I accept that at the time of giving birth my daughter was living a chaotic lifestyle and was not in a position to care for Shayla and she was removed from the hospital five days after birth by social services. “As a family, we continued to have contact with Shayla whilst she was in the care of the foster family.” She said: “In January 2015, I started proceedings in the family court to become the legal guardian for Shayla.” “I wanted to bring her up in a happy, healthy and warm family environment. That was all taken away from me when social services and the family court decided I would not be able to cope,” she says.
While the approved of Matthew Scully-Hicks who described 1-year-old Shayla (Elsie) as “a psycho”, “the exorcist”, “Satan dressed up in a Babygro” and “having a diva-strop” in text messages.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/4958759/matthew-scully-hickss-horrified-husband-took-off-his-wedding-ring-after-finding-out-jekyll-and-hyde-dad-murdered-their-adopted-baby-daughter/
Matthew Scully-Hicks’s horrified husband took off his wedding ring after finding out ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ dad murdered their adopted baby daughter
Elsie died in hospital four days after being violently shaken and thrown on the floor by Matthew Scully-Hicks, 31 who could not cope with caring for her when his husband was away. In December 2016, Craig Scully-Hicks informed the family court that he accepted his husband had killed Elsie, as well as causing her a twice-broken leg in November 2015.
“One of the conundrums of this case is that, on the surface, Matthew and Elsie were bonding. She showed no fear of him. She was happy to go to him,” the judge added.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6018673/amp/Social-services-chief-apologises-birth-family-baby-girl-killed-gay-adoptive-fathe.html?__twitter_impression=true
Murder came just two weeks after he adopted her with his husband Craig
Elsie had broken leg and once vomited blood in series of attacks before murder. Social services missed chances to save her and saw her 15 times before death. Two social workers failed to notice a bruise that was on her forehead for 8 weeks. Report says professionals “lacked curioucity” about string of injuries she suffered.
http://newsok.com/article/5401491
An Oklahoma Department of Human Services child welfare supervisor has been demoted for mistakes found after a new foster mom murdered a 2-year-old girl placed in her care.
The supervisor had approved the woman as a foster parent despite warning signs that should have triggered a more exhaustive background check, DHS found.
Another DHS supervisor involved in the girl’s case resigned rather than face termination, records show. And the child’s primary case worker retired.
The girl, Alysa Horney, bled to death inside her foster home after her liver was pushed into her spine by a blow to her body on the morning of Dec. 8, 2013. The pathologist who did her autopsy reported finding 40 blunt force injuries to the outside of her little body.
The foster mother, Delila Ann Pacheco, 48, of Tahlequah, is serving a life sentence after being found guilty at trial of first-degree murder. Prosecutors alleged the foster mom killed Alysa in a bedroom of the trailer home because the girl wouldn’t go to sleep.
http://fightcps.com/michigan-foster-parent-sentenced-for-murder-of-2-year-old-foster-child/
Michigan: Foster Parent Sentenced for Murder of 2-year-old Foster Child
March 2, 2008 – By Linda Martin
Allison Newman’s mother wanted to recover from an addiction to crack cocaine, so she asked an acquaintance to watch her six month old baby temporarily. When Michigan social workers got into the act, the baby ended up in the home of Carol Poole, 42, a barren woman living in an expensive upscale home, who wanted children. She has now been convicted of murdering Allison when she was only two.
Allison’s grandfather, Kenneth Newman said: “She cracked that baby’s skull open, dressed her and put her to bed to die.”
“People (child welfare workers) turned their heads because these people lived out in Canton and had a few dollars in the bank.”
“There was evidence that Allison started being abused seven or eight weeks before her death. When Ann (the girl’s mother) went into rehab, the date to sever parental rights got postponed and Carol Poole realised she wasn’t going to get to adopt Allison. We think that’s when everything went bad.”
Quoting from Doug Guthrie of The Detroit News article:
“During her trial, two workers at the Childtime Learning Centre day care in Plymouth said they noticed scratches and bruises on Allison long before her death. They reported the findings to their supervisor, who was charged but not convicted of failing to comply with state law by reporting the injuries.”
http://articles.southbendtribune.com/2007-02-01/news/26802789_1_foster-care-license-child-abuse-foster-mother
Foster mother faces manslaughter, child abuse charges.
February 01, 2007 DETROIT (AP) — Court records, trial testimony and state investigative reports show irregularities in how a woman charged in the death of a 2-year-old was assessed for her foster-care license and a string of complaints that failed to raise any flags before the boy’s death, according to a newspaper investigation. Charlise Adams-Rogers, 59, of Detroit, was charged earlier this month with involuntary manslaughter and second-degree child abuse in Isaac Lethbridge’s death. Isaac stopped breathing Aug. 16 and died at Children’s Hospital of Michigan. The boy died from multiple blunt force trauma and second-degree burns on his chest, stomach and head, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said. He had brain haemorrhaging, according to an autopsy. Adams-Rogers maintains that Isaac’s death was an accident. “I’ve been helping kids all my life,” Adams-Rogers said. “I got into foster care to help children.” Workers at the Detroit-based Lula Belle Stewart Centre frequently complimented Adams-Rogers’ child care skills and training in their reports. But a Detroit Free Press series found that one worker simply cut and pasted Charlise Adams-Rogers’ evaluation from her 2004 review for her 2005 evaluation. Her reviews in 2003, 2004 and 2005 warned that she risked burnout from outside activities, but her license was still renewed.
https://www.lansingstatejournal.com/story/news/local/2015/07/01/death-ricky-holland-still-saddens-searchers-deputies-years-later/29564459/
Adoptive parent Tim Holland called 911 and reported his 7-year-old adopted son as missing on July 2, 2005 − 10 years ago – sparking a massive search and one of the most riveting news stories in recent Michigan history. Tim and his wife, Lisa, begged the community to look for the boy. “If somebody’s seen him,” Tim Holland said that weekend from his porch, “ please tell the sheriff’s department. “Right now I feel numb. …I feel like I have nothing left to give. All I have left is hope and prayer.” It was a sham. The Hollands knew Ricky’s body was in a trash bag along the side of that road. They had killed him. But that Fourth of July weekend the town rallied to find Ricky.
Among the first to doubt the Hollands were two of their neighbours, Jim and Jackie wheeler. The Wheelers also worked for the Ingham Country Sheriff’s Office’s Mounted Division. The Hollands did not know that. Wheeler suggested to country detectives that they examine the Hollands’ trash bags. Jackie Wheeler said cold remarks from Lisa Holland shocked her. Neighbours stories started spreading, of finding Ricky in their kitchens eating and going through the refrigerator. In each case he begged them not to tell his mother. Ricky once told a neighbour, “My mom doesn’t feed me. I don’t think she loves me very much.” As the ring tightened, the Hollands began blaming each other. Lisa supposedly hit Ricky in the head with a tack hammer. When he died a week later – after receiving no medical care – Tim hid the body. Finally on Jan 27, 2006, Tim Holland led police to Ricky’s remains.
http://www.wilx.com/home/headlines/Ricky_Hollands_Mother_Fighting_For_Custody_of_Newborn_Baby_159103555.html
LANSING — Casey Caswell, the biological mother of Ricky Holland, told News 10 in 2006 that her son should have been in her custody.
Now, her lawyer, William Campbell, says she is fighting for parental rights over her 3-month-old son.
“Casey and her husband Matt at this point in time are awaiting adjudication on a petition to terminate their parental rights,” Campbell told News 10 on Thursday.
Campbell says Caswell, who has lost custody of five children in the last several years, is fighting the issue in court. He admits she and her husband are homeless, but argues that — with some help from the Department of Human Services — they could provide for the child.
Caswell, 19 years old at the time, turned Ricky into the state when he was 3 years old. A judge subsequently revoked her rights to him.
http://www.wrdw.com/content/news/Woman-formally-charged-for-June-2014-murder-of-toddler-288723881.html
When foster child Kenyon Slacks, 3, of Hephzibah, died last June, toxicology report and a search warrant led to a charge: murder.
Foster parent Elizabeth Osei is facing murder charges in the death of 3-year-old Kenyon Jay Slacks.
Toxicology reports showed the 3-year-old child tested positive for a dangerous amount of morphine, even for an adult. The child had never been prescribed morphine, the report said.
Deputies say they found morphine pills, four medical syringes, and a bottle of morphine sulphate in Osei’s name after searching the home, the warrant states.
Friday, Sept. 9, 2016
AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) — A deputy in court tells News 12 NBC 26 that Osei’s lawyer said they felt she either gave the medication in error or that it was actually given to the child by the hospital. The state could not produce any motive on why she would have caused death. Richmond County Clerk of Court tells News 12 NBC 26 that Elizabeth Osei has now been acquitted on all charges related to the death of 3-year-old Kenyon Jay Slacks.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/talalansari/parent-at-nations-leading-for-profit-foster-care-firm-facing?utm_term=.qa7534ED5#.pq5kNr0jk
Posted on February 23, 2016, at 4:48 p.m A foster parent with the nation’s leading for-profit foster care company, The Mentor Network, is facing criminal charges. Elizabeth Osei is in jail in Georgia, accused of murdering her three-year-old foster son who died of an overdose of morphine. The prosecutor at Osei’s bond hearing told a judge that a bottle of morphine — 15 milligrams — was found in a table next to the bed in Osei’s bedroom. Mentor paid a $500 fine for failing to “ensure adequate supervision” of the child who died.
Workers told BuzzFeed News that the Mentor Network Company sacrificed child safety because it pushed so hard to meet profit goals. States and local governments pay the firm to select, train, and hire foster parents, to place children with those parents, and even to hire the caseworkers who are supposed to look after the children’s welfare. More broadly, Mentor has been accused of overlooking criminal backgrounds of foster parents and ignoring warning signs of children in dangerous situations to show profit. Mentor is controlled by a giant private equity firm and trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the name Civitas Solutions.
http://www.whio.com/news/crime–law/wife-foster-father-accused-child-death-now-custody/Uvz7KNI8UISBmyDcd1UEgL/
On Nov. 18, 2015, emergency first responders were called to King of Glory Church on Genesee Avenue in Dayton, where Weaver was pastor, on a report of a toddler not breathing. The 2-year-old child, Stanley Thomas, was taken to Good Samaritan Hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Injuries included bruises, scars and a large burn, according to the Montgomery County Prosecutor’s Office. Weaver told authorities the child had fallen from a table at the church.
The boy’s death was ruled a homicide in March 2016.
A Jan. 9, 2017, trial date is set for Torace Weaver. He was Stanley Thomas’s foster father. Shureka Weaver, wife of the former Dayton pastor accused of murder and other felonies in the death of their 2-year-old foster son, has been indicted by a Montgomery County grand jury in connection with the case. The Weavers received their licensure to become foster parents in August 2015.
http://www.whio.com/news/crime–law/wife-foster-father-accused-child-death-now-custody/Uvz7KNI8UISBmyDcd1UEgL/
Foster mother booked on murder charge in death of girl (3:04)
Foster mother, Trenique Faciane (40), of a 22-month-old Louisiana foster girl, Madison Parrott, who was allegedly beaten to death, was booked Wednesday on a charge of first-degree murder. Biological mother, Mindy Parrott, did notify Department of Family Services after finding bruises on her daughter in Faciane’s care. Trenique Faciane is part owner of a child daycare facility.
http://www.nbc-2.com/story/35258720/north-fort-myers-mom-seeks-answers-on-daughters-murder
Heidi Shinn, 18, and her foster mom were shot to death by her foster dad last Thursday.
Jonathan Jensen, 47, then killed himself.
Heidi Shinn had been living with her Lehigh Acres family for the last six years.
NBC2 has discovered Jonathan Jensen has a criminal past.
He had been arrested three times, twice in the last 10 years for hitting someone. Neighbours say there were often fights or domestic disturbances at the Jensen’s home.
“It was very disturbing to even find out he had guns in the home and he went to jail several times,” said Rachel Shinn, Heidi’s biological mother.
She questions why DCF allowed her daughter to stay with Jensen knowing he had a criminal past.
“Or send her back home to me, and this would never have happened,” Rachel said.
DCF isn’t answering any of our questions and would only say they are investigating.
http://www.childrensrights.org/toddler-murdered-foster-parents-12-year-old-son-say-police/
Two-year-old Aniyah Batchelor’s stay in a Fort Washington, Maryland foster home ended violently last Tuesday when a 12-year-old biological boy of the foster parents beat her to death, according to local police. The Washington Post reports:
[Police spokeswoman Julia] Parker said the 12-year-old boy had “beaten the child repeatedly” in a single incident. No weapon was used.
The foster parents, a man and a woman, were not at home at the time of the incident, Parker said.
There were four children in the home at the time of the incident and, according to Parker, the family’s 15-year-old daughter was left in charge of the three others. Aniyah’s mother, Stephany Cunningham, had a positive opinion of her daughter’s foster parents until she found out Aniyah was left unsupervised:
“I want to know how can they let kids watch kids and let my baby get beat,” she said, crying on the phone.
Maryland’s Department of Social Services [DSS] has declined to comment, citing privacy rules. Police have refused to comment on whether the boy had any criminal history, but did confirm that they have no history of involvement with the family.
The local community has been shaken by this case which doesn’t match the image of the happy family they have come to know.
https://www.csmonitor.com/1988/0927/award2.html
1) Nathan Moncrieff, a state ward since birth, was 13 months old in April 1986 when he was placed with two men. About a month later, the San Francisco boy was dead, bludgeoned by the couple, one of whom had a criminal record that should have disqualified him from foster care.
2) Two-year-old Henry Gallop died Aug. 11, 1987, of unexplained causes in a Boston foster home. Ninety-eight days later a second foster child, 15-month-old Arron Johnson, was found dead in the same home. The home had a long record of rule violations, and a medical examiner’s report later revealed that both children died of poisoning.
3) Joseph Hout, aged 2, was literally shaken to death in January, and his foster parents have been charged with the murder. Neither the city of Philadelphia nor a private placement agency carefully screened the foster father, who had hidden his 1981 conviction for rape and aggravated assault.
http://www.khq.com/story/15952608/post-falls-police-arrest-suspect-for-murder
KHQ.COM – November 4, a Kootenai County Grand Jury returned two four count indictments charging 28-year-old Amber Marie Clark and 36-year-old Jeremy Michael Clark, both of Post Falls, for their actions in relation to the death of foster child two year old Karina Moore, as well as injuries sustained to a four year old boy placed in the Clark home in 2007 and 2008 as a foster child.
The charges also stem from the January 2009 death of Karina Moore, who died while in the care and custody of the Clarks. At the time of this incident, the Clarks were serving in the capacity as foster parents for Karina Moore, who was in the care of the State of Idaho Department of Health and Welfare.
A medical examiner in nearby Spokane County ruled the death of Karina Moore a homicide in 2009. The Clarks claimed the toddler fell down a flight of carpeted stairs in their home.
Perpetrator: Terry W. Dennis (Adoptive father) and Pamela T. Dennis (Adoptive mother), charged with murder.
Name: Terrilynn Destiny Julz Dennis.
Died: April 4, 2013.
Age at death: 7.
Cause of death: Fatal abuse.
Location: Newport News, Virginia, USA.
Disability: Spina bifida.
Details:
Terrilynn was beaten to death by her adoptive parents; she died of peritonitis from blows to the stomach, complicated by physical and medical neglect.
http://www.elpasotimes.com/story/news/crime/2017/02/07/foster-dad-found-guilty-murder-babys-death/97616310/
A foster father was found guilty Tuesday on a lesser charge of murder in the 2012 death of an 11-month-old baby left in his care.
Antonio Lopez, 30, was found guilty on one count of murder in the death of 11-month-old Jayla Beckley on July 27, 2012. He showed no emotion when the verdict was read.
Lopez was accused of stomping on Jayla’s back, resulting in her death.
According to court documents, Jayla suffered several injuries, including tears in her liver and intestines that caused internal bleeding. She also had three broken right ribs, two broken left ribs and a broken skull.
He added that what Lopez said in his confession about Jayla going limp after he stomped on her matches what would have happened to a baby who was stomped on.
https://pilotonline.com/news/local/crime/article_0cf57316-bf2b-5276-b16b-37750245a9f8.html Nov 3, 2011
Braxton Taylor, born to a drug-addicted mother whose other children were already living among relatives, Braxton went to live with longtime foster parents Ben and Sarah Fitzpatrick when he was 3 days old. But three months after he left their care, the baby was dead, shaken to death by his second foster mother, 30-year-old Kathleen Ganiere.
http://www.wpbf.com/article/treasure-coast-man-charged-in-death-of-foster-toddler/1323504
Investigators said the 2-year-old foster child, Trysten Eli Frank Adams, was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead. They said an autopsy found lacerations to the boy’s liver, internal bleeding and bruising consistent with blunt force trauma.
Officials said foster parent Michael Beer, 47, was the only adult in the home at the time of the incident.
“The type of injuries that the child sustained would have resulted in death within a very short period of time, like anywhere from within 15 minutes to less than an hour, according to medical experts,” Port St. Lucie Police Department Lt. Scott Beck said. “The only person who was with the child during that time frame is Mr. Beer.”
Trysten’s biological mother, Elisa Benedito, who had her three children taken away by DCF and put into the care of the Beer said she still can’t believe this has happened.
“Sunday night was very terrifying,” said Benedito. “I never thought I would see the day for my child or anyone else’s child.”
Benedito said she thought the Beers were fit parents. She said she even saw them going to church, so when word came that he had been arrested for murder she didn’t know what to think.
http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20140425/news/140428846/
RANTOUL — A 35-year-old foster parent from Rantoul is facing a first-degree murder charge for the death of a 7-week-old in his care.
Champaign County State’s Attorney Julia Rietz charged Patrick Kennedy with first-degree murder Thursday for the death of Daniel Lindholm-Wilkins.
Prosecutors say the newborn was taken to the hospital last week with rib fractures and bruises.
http://www.joplinglobe.com/news/confession-leads-to-murder-charges-in–year-old-child/article_4ab2801a-8bef-11e6-82fd-43a0daeb0a84.html
PINEVILLE, Mo. — Charges were filed earlier this week in the murder case of foster child Megan McCullar, a two-year-old McDonald County girl whose death by head trauma had lain unresolved for 15 years.
Foster mother, Jessica Newhard, who held custody of McCullar at the time of her death, was charged with second-degree murder on Tuesday.
McCullar had been removed from the care of her mother, Tracy McCullar, and placed with Newhard and her husband — McCullar’s stepbrother — by the Missouri Division of Family Services in June of 2001. She died three months later of “shaken impact syndrome,” according to the probable cause affidavit.
Jessica Newhard was the only person at home with Megan when the child died on Sept. 18, 2001
She had passed two polygraph examinations in which she denied killing McCullar, according to a 2006 Globe report.
The charges come two years after Newhard allegedly admitted to her now estranged husband that she killed the child.
http://www.foxcarolina.com/story/35033010/lesser-charge-sought-for-foster-father-after-greenville-co-toddlers-drowning
GREENVILLE, SC (FOX Carolina) –
Investigators said 2-year-old Za’Marion Wilcox wasn’t properly supervised when he drowned in a community pool in September.
More than three months after the toddler’s death, his foster father, 37-year-old Travis Henry Wagner was charged with homicide by child abuse. During the hearing, an investigator testified Za’Marion was circling the pool while Wagner was in the water with his other children. Za’Marion reportedly put a towel over his head and fell in with the towel.
He was underwater for two minutes before another child realised what happened, the investigator said.
A detective testified their was an anonymous complaint against Wagner before Za’Marion was placed in his care.
http://www.wmcactionnews5.com/story/30851789/14-year-old-charged-in-death-of-6-year-old-girl
MEMPHIS, TN (WMC) –
A 14-year-old boy is charged with first-degree murder in connection with the death of a 6-year-old foster child. That same boy is also facing charges of child abuse for beating two other foster children.
Police officially charged 14-year-old Antonio Evans with first-degree murder in the death of 6-year-old Destine King on December 31. Evans was the babysitter of King. Some area teenagers said Evans is the step-brother of the foster mother’s grandson.
A 6-year-old girl went to the hospital just days before Christmas. She was later pronounced dead.
According to police, on December 23, 6-year-old Destine King, a 7-year-old boy, and a 9-year-old girl were all left in the care of a 14-year-old Antonio Evans, while their foster mother was at work. It is unclear why the three young children were removed from their home.
https://www.cp24.com/foster-parents-of-katelynn-sampson-get-life-sentence-1.804046
The foster parents of a murdered seven-year-old Toronto girl were sentenced to life in prison on Tuesday.
Katelynn Sampson’s death shocked the city when her body was discovered in a Parkdale apartment building where she lived with her foster parents in the summer of 2008. She was said to have suffered extreme abuse under the couple’s care.
On Tuesday, Sampson’s foster parents Donna Irving, 33, and Warren Johnson, 50, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in connection with the girl’s death after initially being charged with first-degree murder.
In his sentencing reasoning, Justice John McMahon called the murder “brutal, cruel and inhumane.”
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-79961/Foster-parents-jailed-battering-year-old.html
A boy of four died after being subjected to months of cruelty by his foster parents.
Social workers did nothing to protect him even though he was often covered in cuts and bruises.
By the time paramedics were called, John Smith had suffered a brain haemorrhage, his body was covered in 54 visible injuries – including three adult bite marks – and clumps of his hair were missing. He died the following day, Christmas Eve 1999. Yesterday, his foster parents Simon and Michelle McWilliam were jailed for eight years for child cruelty.
An independent report revealed that social workers made 20 visits to the McWilliams’ home in Fishersgate, West Sussex, during the six months John was in their care.
On at least seven occasions his injuries were suspicious enough for them to have sought medical evidence or attention.
But Brighton and Hove Council staff ‘too readily’ accepted the lies peddled by 41-year-old McWilliam, an accountancy student, and his third wife, 35.
The couple, who had applied to adopt John, insisted the boy had harmed himself. He constantly threw himself downstairs and into furniture, they claimed, calling him a problem child.
Few checks were made on personal information the couple provided during an eight-month assessment, according to a report into the tragedy by social services expert Alyson Leslie.
When she contacted McWilliam’s ex-wives, they were horrified at the prospect of him adopting, calling him cruel and violent.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VcMoOlql0Q
Baby dies in Foster Care home (2:10)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmMGbRt1A5A&t=12s
CPS Michigan Starved 10YO Disabled Boy to Death After Mom Sought State’s Help, Johnny’s Story (6:39)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3945964/Boy-five-died-care-foster-home-drugs-including-diazepam-heroin-system.html
The young boy who died while in the care of a foster home agency had at least four drugs in his system, including heroin and diazepam, as well as burns and bruised on his body, child protection sources have revealed.
The five-year-old, who suffered from epilepsy and hepatitis C, died in 2015 in a Uniting Care run foster home in Pennant Hills, north west Sydney – the same agency who ran the home where Girl X infamously died of a drug overdose in 2014. The boy has been buried at a cemetery just metres from Girl X, 15
Girl X was repeatedly raped by carers before fatally overdosing in 2014
The boy died on his foster parent’s couch just one week after his kindergarten school had raised concerns with Family and Community Services after seeing severe burns and scratches on his back, according to The Daily Telegraph.
The school sent the five-year-old to the hospital because of the severity of the injuries, but he was returned back to his foster home after treatment.
A Unity Care employee who claims to have seen the child’s toxicology reports told the Telegraph the boy had ‘diazepam, morphine, opiates and possibly heroin’ in his blood, as well as an ‘unaccounted punch mark — possibly from a syringe on his body’ and ‘cockroach bites’.
http://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/index.ssf/2016/03/fired_caseworkers_say_dhs_chil.html#incart_river_index_topics
Two former child welfare caseworkers with the Oregon Department of Human Services are suing the state for $919,333, claiming that supervisors fired them after they complained about repeated violations of state law.
Shandie Johnson and Tammarra Ferguson refused to keep quiet about repeated times they saw managers bypass judges and make their own decisions about children in possible danger of abuse or neglect, according to their lawsuit filed Thursday in Wasco County Circuit Court.
The agency doesn’t comment on pending litigation, spokesman Gene Evans said Friday.
The caseworkers’ complaints indicate the need for a culture shift at the department, said their lawyer, David Paul of Portland. The agency has paid out more than $29 million in jury verdicts or settlements since 2009 in seven high-profile cases involving 17 children who were badly injured under its watch. One of the 17 died.
http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/courts/broken-arrow-foster-mother-to-stand-trial-on-child-abuse/article_a1058dc2-c0a8-57e2-9cae-d64118217b9d.html
A former foster mother from Broken Arrow was bound over for trial on a child-abuse murder charge Friday in the death of a 3-year-old boy who suffered a “severe traumatic brain injury” while in her care.
Andrew Prior died four days after suffering “a severe traumatic brain injury,” a fracture to his first vertebrae and a brain bleed that required emergency surgery. He died from a herniated brain stem, according to court documents.
Krajian told hospital staff she was helping Andrew’s sister get dressed when she heard the boy fall in the living room of her home in the 7400 block of South Elm Avenue. She said the boy’s brother told her Andrew fell while jumping on the couch, but the older boy later gave different accounts of the event to others, witnesses told police.
One witness told investigators she overheard Krajian say to the older boy, “You remember what to say, right?” while he was en route to be questioned by police.
Several doctors who examined Andrew and the circumstances of his case indicated to Broken Arrow police that the injuries could not have occurred from such a fall and were consistent with abuse.
Foster father Peter Krajian pleaded no contest to child abuse by injury in December and received a four-year suspended sentence. The charges alleged that he pulled out his foster daughter’s hair, leaving a large bald spot on her head.
The boy’s siblings, now 5 and 7, are in the custody of a great-aunt who lives out of state. The older boy was overjoyed to hear that he would no longer be in any foster homes or shelters, the great-aunts attending Friday’s hearing said.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZ-n_-anRvk
Tools of Torture Removed from Adopted Barahona Twins House of Horrors, Florida DCF History
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48YF1uEuCUA
Innocence Destroyed – Part 1 – WARNING: Graphic content [ 8:10 ]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhGz5NEPoGs
Innocence Destroyed – Part 2 – WARNING: Graphic Content [9:11 min]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ih0D85vhY-M&t=422s
Innocence Destroyed – Part 3 – WARNING: Graphic Content [8:08min]
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Dead-tot-s-parents-settle-for-300-000-3221535.php
The parents of a 2-year-old Pittsburg girl who died from eating baking soda while in the care of her foster mother will receive $300,000 to settle a lawsuit they filed against Contra Costa County.
Mikisa Boone and Marvin Green, the natural parents of Deonna Green, sued the county in May, saying social workers failed to act after noticing that the girl had lost a significant amount of weight before her death
Foster mother, Khareasha Pugh,Pugh was given custody of Deonna two months before she died. According to a report that the county filed with the state Department of Social Services, social workers had made monthly visits to Pugh’s home.
Deonna lost 5 pounds in 40 days between two visits with physicians, county health officials said.
She was examined Oct. 20, 2006, in the emergency room of Contra Costa Regional Medical Center in Martinez. Deonna was taken in by Boone, who requested a general medical evaluation, authorities said.
The physician noted that Deonna’s weight was about 24 pounds, less than the average weight of a child her size, and scheduled an appointment with a paediatrician for four days later, officials said. But Deonna never showed up.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/15/us/new-jersey-opens-files-showing-failures-of-child-welfare-system.html
The state, in response to a court action brought by The New York Times, released 2,000 pages of documents that concerned 17 different children and that chronicled the mistakes, missed opportunities and other missteps that led to the deaths of four children and the sometimes brutal, prolonged abuse of 13 more.
In one case, the records show, the state’s Division of Youth and Family Services gave a child to a foster father who was himself homeless; that child wound up being sexually abused. In another, a child was unwittingly given to a foster mother who had years before been barred by the agency from caring for any more children; that child was later beaten so badly with a shoe that imprints of the laces were found on her body.
In the case of Brian Clark, a 3-year-old, H.I.V.-positive child, he was never taken to the doctor by a foster mother who had been known by the agency to be a problem. He slowly, over days, died of pneumonia. And in yet another case, agency workers gave a fragile, days-old child to a foster parent whom it never informed of the baby’s medical condition. The infant was dead days later.
http://beautifulsunshineang.tripod.com/#
My son, Dillon Ray Farrer was murdered on June 21, 2001. I did not have him in my care at the time because I was very ill having complications in my third pregnancy. Because I was so ill and on bed rest and had no one to help me with my children, I decided to put the boys (Lucas my oldest, 3, and Dillon my youngest, 23 months) in a temporary, voluntary foster care arrangement, and then when I had the baby I would schedule a time to pick them up. I was scheduled to pick them up on June 27, 2001, when exactly one week beforehand, I got the call that he had stopped breathing.. I rushed to the hospital only to find out he was dead and to hear my 3 year old son tell me that Charlie (the foster father) had put a pillow over Dillon’s face to make him stop crying, and murdered him. I found out the reason why my baby was crying was simply because he wanted his pacifier. They thought he was too old to have a pacifier (like 23 months old is really too old!). This has destroyed my life and my 3 year old’s life.
http://akashictimes.co.uk/vulnerable-child-dies-after-the-state-separates-him-from-family/
Jonas Stadden was a vulnerable four year old with down’s syndrome, living in Somerset who was described as a happy-go-lucky, ‘bubbly’ child.
But his life was to be cruelly snatched away after his mother made the mistake of asking the social services for help and advice.
The social services responded by informing the parents that they would assist the family by placing little Jonas, along with his brothers and sisters into foster care. This is despite the fact that Jonas’ parents were not under any suspicion for causing harm to their family.
The father of the boy had previously noticed burns and bruises on Jonas’s body and informed the social services and hospital. He was also savvy enough to photograph the injuries. But his pleas fell on deaf ears. Months later, Jonas was pronounced dead. Until this day, the family say they have not received any explanation whatsoever. They were not told who caused his death and the bruises went unexplained.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASaMGN7ALSc
Supervised Love (22:28)
After unjustly haven taken her 3 children and them subsequently torturously killing Jonas, her youngest child, the mother had to endure supervised visitation with her other children.
http://www.masslive.com/news/worcester/index.ssf/2016/02/state_medical_examiner_cant_de.html
AUBURN – 2-year-old foster child, Avalena Conway-Coxon, was found unresponsive in the foster care home of Kimberly Malpass, 2 Pheasant Court, Auburn, on August 15, according to the Worcester County District Attorney’s Office. Avalena was found with a 22-month-old girl, identified in reports only as Samara, also near-death. Avalena was pronounced dead at UMass Memorial Medical Center-University Campus. The second child is alive and in state custody. Reports from the state Department of Children and Families said Avalena suffered heat stroke and the two children had “prolonged exposure to a high-temperature environment.” The doctor’s report included in the DCF review reads: “This would be expected to result from having been left unattended in a room or vehicle with excessive temperature. Petechial skin findings and bruising pattern concerning as they may have resulted from child struggling against car seat restraints, though pattern of injury not definitive. It is my medical opinion that this represents child neglect.” No one has been charged in connection to her death.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7J9W12HdV0
Texas toddler killed after being taken by CPS (6:34)
http://www.dailyfreeman.com/general-news/20170313/poughkeepsie-woman-says-she-didnt-learn-about-sons-death-in-foster-care-until-two-days-later
Ashley Lane, 23, of Poughkeepsie, said she was told by authorities on Friday that Xavier Hopp had died Wednesday. Lane said her understanding is the toddler died from head trauma he suffered when he “fell down a flight of stairs” at his foster home in Ellenville. Xavier’s death is the subject of investigations by state agencies, the Ulster County Sheriff’s Office and the Ulster County District Attorney’s Office, though authorities have not provided any details about the circumstances or said whether the matter is considered criminal.Lane said Xavier was removed from her Poughkeepsie home “because the house was falling apart” and was placed with a pre-adoptive parent on Nov. 22, 2015, joining his 3-year-old brother, who had been placed there previously. Lane said both her children were healthy when they were placed in foster care.
https://www.gofundme.com/lay-alyssa-mae-to-rest
My Alyssa Mae was born on July 9th 2017, she recently passed away on January 12th 2018 while in foster care. I was going to get her back in a month. Just after two days of things looking up and finally being able to get her back i got the phone call no mother or parent should ever have to get . My beautiful baby girl was gone. I am running this gofund to raise what I need to get her embalmed and taken home where she needs to be with our family in Colorado. Where a funeral home generously donated a beautiful resting place for her with my mother.
http://fox40.com/2017/08/17/after-baby-dies-in-foster-care-biological-family-wants-answers/
SACRAMENTO — A Sacramento family is demanding answers from CPS after their infant son, taken into protective custody following allegations of abuse, died in foster care.
The parents say Jonathan and his twin sister Viola were diagnosed with gastro reflux disease, or GERD. The condition is common and makes it difficult for babies to digest food. They say they took Jonathan to the hospital for GERD-related issues the first time, and while feeding him at the hospital, Jonathan reared his head back and bumped it on the gurney rail of the hospital bed. They say the second time, his mother was feeding Jonathan at home, when one of their older children slid past them, accidentally bumping his mother’s arm while the bottle was in Jonathan’s mouth, resulting in a cut under Jonathan’s tongue.
Smith said as soon as he saw blood in his son’s mouth, he rushed him to the hospital again.
“I didn’t even have shoes on. I ran him to the hospital because I thought it was the right thing to do,” Smith said. His parents argue that he never should have been taken away in the first place, because the minor injuries the courts are concerned about occurred accidentally.
“The next thing we know, my little boy is on life support, and then he’s dead,” Clifford Smith said.
They showed FOX40 a video of 3-month-old Jonathan, who was wide eyed and murmuring to his biological mother on Friday during a visitation. It was the last time they saw their son alive.
“Why weren’t my kids properly taken care of? Why did this happen to my son? They won’t give us a straight answer,” Smith, the babies father, said.
“Why did this happen to him on Sunday morning and they didn’t call us until Monday?” Kristina Fleshman, the boy’s mother, said.
CPS told FOX40 they could not comment on why Jonathan was placed in protective custody because of confidentiality laws protecting the rights of juveniles. However, they did confirm that Jonathan died while in foster care.
https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/death-toddler-shaken-death-foster-13321512
A toddler in foster care, who died after being violently shaken by his foster mother could have been saved if warning signs had been acted on by child protection – a serious case review has found.
The review, by Warwickshire’s Safeguarding Children Board, has been anonymised – but refers to the case of 23-month-old Harry Aspley who died in June 2013 after being shaken by foster mother Wendy Hardy.
Details in the shocking document reveal how Hardy left little Harry alone and in a coma for several hours after the assault until he was discovered by his foster father. The review said this demonstrated the foster mother Hardy’s “complete lack of compassion and empathy for a small child”.
The youngster, Harry, had been placed by courts in the care of Hardy for his “protection”.
The review said concerns about the wellbeing of Harry were repeatedly raised during his foster placement, which began on March 29, 2013, by family members and professionals.
It read: “His mother and maternal grandmother said on several occasions to social workers that his behaviour had changed and that he was not the same child.
Harry Asply was admitted to hospital with a bleeding brain on June 26 and died on June 30 when his life support was switched off.
Doctors concluded his injuries were non-accidental due to bleeding in his eyeballs consistent with a child being shaken.
Foster mother Hardy pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to five years and four months in prison at Birmingham Crown Court.
She was also handed an additional 14 months in prison, which will run consecutively, for fraudulently claiming £27,000 for fostering two children who were not in her care at the time.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-08-28/toddler-in-foster-care-drowned-in-green-pool-inquest-hears/8849094
A foster carers’, Julie Tarlinton and Greg McBride, backyard pool where toddler Braxton Slager drowned was installed without approval and was not up to Australian standards, an inquest into the child’s death has heard.
An inquest is looking into how a foster child, 22-month-old Braxton, drowned at a north-western Sydney house in September 2014 after being in foster care for three weeks. The court heard the boy’s parents were apparently struggling to overcome drug problems, but that the child’s father was expected to resume his role as primary carer “within weeks”.
Several people who saw the foster carer’s backyard observed: “The cleanliness of the residence was substandard, police who attended the scene described the house as ‘messy and untidy’ and the backyard was ‘messy, dangerous to children and similar to a dumping ground’.”
“The pool was filled with dank water, distinctly green in colour,” Mr Craddock said. “The (foster house) backyard contained multiple items, such as discarded building materials, tools, nails, metal objects, alcohol and beer cans.”
http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-foster-care-baby-death-cause-20170531-story.html
The death of a 13-month-old boy, Michael, in foster care in Bridgeport December 2016 was the result of “acute intoxication” from an antihistamine medication he was given, authorities confirmed Wednesday morning. The child was removed from the biological mother, Lauren Citron, 25, shortly after his birth and placed in foster care with non-relatives by DCF. The mother has physical disabilities.
A caregiver for the biological mother, Lauren Citron, said the mother, who lives in Greenwich, had been petitioning to get the child back for most of the year.
Michael, died of “acute chlorpheniramine intoxication; according to the chief state medical examiner, Dr. James Gill. The manner of death is undetermined, meaning Gill did not make a finding of homicide, accidental, or natural death. On May 4 2017, the child advocate’s office put out a public-health alert about Benadryl and other antihistamines, warning caregivers to never use the drug as a sleep aid for young children.
http://www.timescolonist.com/news/local/b-c-to-investigate-toddler-s-2013-death-in-foster-care-1.1929616
B.C.’s director of child welfare has launched an investigation into the death of 21-month Isabella Wiens more than two years after she was found dead in her crib at a Burnaby foster home. Donaldson, who has repeatedly asked Cadieux about the case in the legislature, said the timing of the director’s case review raises troubling new questions. He noted that Isabella’s mother, Sara-Jane Wiens, recently launched a lawsuit against the province, the director and the foster parents. The suit alleges negligence and breach of duty, and claims that Isabella’s death was never properly investigated.
“Is there a cover-up going on?” Donaldson said. “Is this a rear-guard defensive action by the ministry to say, ‘Oh wait. We have new information. We will do a case review?’
The B.C. Coroners Service concluded its investigation on March 5, 2014, and classified the cause of Isabella’s death as undetermined. The coroner’s report states that, on the day of her death, Isabella was put down for a nap at 3 p.m. with a comforter draped over the crib to block out the light. Three hours later, she was found lying on her stomach with the comforter completely covering her head and body. She had stopped breathing and attempts to revive her failed, the report said.
An autopsy found healing injuries, including bruises on Isabella’s chin, forehead, face, arms and legs, as well as healing fractures in her left arm. “It was estimated that the fractures of the left arm occurred weeks to months prior to Isabella’s death,” the report said. “Where and how the fractures occurred could not be explained.”
The coroner made no recommendations.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5247863/Aboriginal-foster-babys-carer-murder-charge-near-Dubbo.html
8 January 2018 – A foster care woman has been charged with murder after a 20-month-old foster baby in her care was found dead with a broken leg and badly bruised face.
The carer, 40, was arrested on Monday over the 2015 death of the toddler in a rural town near Dubbo in Central West New South Wales.
The Aboriginal child suffered a broken femur and facial injuries before he died, The Daily Telegraph reported.
The toddler’s biological mother told the paper she was ‘desperate for answers’ and said she felt let down by the government and the foster care provider.
‘We don’t know anything… We haven’t been told anything. We didn’t even get to see him until three weeks after he died,’ she said.
The mother claimed she was abused by her partner and sought temporary help to look after her son, who died just two months later. The night before the child was found dead, the foster carer held a ‘gathering’ at the home, the paper understands.
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/minnesota/articles/2017-11-30/foster-care-license-suspended-following-childs-death
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — An investigation into the death of a toddler at a St. Paul foster home has caused state regulators to temporarily suspend the caregivers’ license.
Police were called to the home Nov. 13 on a report of a child who had stopped breathing. Sgt. Mike Ernster says the 2-year-old girl was pronounced dead at the scene. Ernster says the investigation into the death is ongoing and there have been no arrests or charges.
Ramsey County spokesman John Siqveland says there have been no complaints about the home’s license. Regulators had inspected the home just 4 days before the girl died.
https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/666677/Foster-mum-found-guilty-of-18-month-old-toddler-Keegan-Downer-s-murder
Foster mother Miss Kandyce Downer, 34, a mother of four children, denied murder and causing or allowing the death of an 18-month old foster child but has been found guilty of battering the foster child to death after three hours of jury deliberation. Toddler Keegan Downer, born Shi-Anne in March 2014 to a heroin-addict mother, an otherwise healthy little girl was taken into care by social services.
She was then placed with 35-year-old Downer at her family home in Beckbury Road, Weoley Castle, as the legal guardian in January 2015.
But Keegan, described in court as a “healthy and happy baby” collapsed at home shortly before 10am on 5 September last year, just eight months after being put into Downer’s care.
Nigel Power QC, prosecuting at Birmingham Crown Court, claimed that instead of calling 999 when she discovered Keegan “was dying or already dead”, Downer drove away to dump the child’s blood-spotted mattress near a skip.
When she returned she called emergency services telling them: “My daughter is not breathing”.
When paramedics arrived, Downer had Keegan lying down on a sofa and told them: “I don’t know when she stopped breathing, because I was in the bath.” But Downer later told a paramedic at hospital she had left the child alone in the morning.
More than 120 old or recent bruises and broken bones were discovered on Keegan Downer’s body, Birmingham Crown Court was told.
The child also had a “terrible” spiral leg fracture which had gone untreated and had left the girl “deformed” with one leg shorter than the other.
She died from a combination of septicaemia, infection, blunt chest trauma and old head injuries.
In the three months before her death, Keegan was not seen by any independent care professional, including medical staff or social services.
http://www.wfaa.com/news/local/tarrant-county/mom-questions-how-infant-daughter-died-in-foster-care/306232220
FORT WORTH — A young mother who had her children removed from her care following a Child Protective Services investigation is now asking how her 10-month-old daughter ended up dead while in foster care.
Promise Waggoner died late Monday night, according to the Tarrant County Medical Examiner. A cause of death is pending.
The girl’s birth mother, Trynisha Huey, says she’s devastated.
“It hurts because in two months she would’ve been a whole year. My baby is gone,” said Huey as she fought back tears during an interview on Tuesday.
The mother said she lost custody of Promise, and her older sister, Erica, after coming under scrutiny for allegedly having drugs in the home, and also not feeding her child. Although Huey denies the charges, the children were removed earlier this year in the 323rd District Court in Tarrant County. She fears for her older child’s safety, who remains in foster care. “Can I have my oldest child back? Can I have her back?” she said.
http://extras.mercurynews.com/mariah/
Little Mariah, a 3-year-old born in Berkeley, was “tweaking again,” her foster brother would tell investigators — detailing the extended hallucinations and body convulsions in the hours before Mariah died on Oct. 16, 2015.
“Again” meant that thirteen days earlier, just days after her new foster parents took Mariah and her older brother Jeremyah into their foster Stockton home, the agitated girl was rushed to the emergency room where doctors found traces of meth in her system.
The foster mother’s suggestions was that the meth poisoning occurred before the girl was in her care. Medical staff and social workers then decided Mariah had ingested the meth while living with her biological mother in Oakland, San Joaquin County prosecutors say. The girl was treated, then returned to the foster home. It was a death sentence.
A leading toxicology expert briefed on the case said no doctor or social worker should have believed that excuse. Mariah had been away from her biological mother for at least three days when she arrived at St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Stockton, and such severe symptoms would surface immediately after meth drug ingestion, the expert said.
“I think CPS made a mistake.” Thirteen days later Mariah took her final breaths alone, during a nap on her pink bed with a baby blanket. Her foster mother’s boyfriend, Ernest Stevens III, found Mariah’s lifeless body, not far from where he later claimed to have discovered a bag of white crystals on Mariah’s toy box.
http://abc11.com/family/family-awaiting-answers-on-childs-foster-care-death/2675208/
Monday, November 20, 2017 – Luke Glenn, 3, was found dead in a foster home on July 31. In the immediacy of his death, officials with Orange County’s Department of Social Services confirmed Luke was in its care, and Hillsborough Police suspected no foul play. Still, both entities consider the case an “ongoing investigation” and they await both the toxicology report and completed autopsy report.
According to the Glenns, Luke and his older brother Noah were taken away from their biological parents in 2015 because they missed several doctor appointments. “I still sit here and cry every night and I get depressed because of the pain,” Lisa Glenn, Luke’s grandmother, told ABC11, and she added that Luke’s birthday is November 22. “The pain will never change”
Lisa Glenn says Luke’s older brother, Noah, remains in foster care in another home. County and state agencies do not publicly disclose social services cases.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3kaYVAgytE
Dead in Six Days: The Story of Baby Delonna (8:31)
http://khon2.com/2017/07/28/parents-demand-answers-after-3-year-old-boy-dies-while-in-foster-care/
A Hawaii island family is mourning the death of a 3-year-old boy, Fabian Garett-Garcia who died Tuesday at a hospital in Kailua-Kona.
The Hawaii Police Department say the child was in foster care when he died, and the case is now under investigation.
Because he was in foster care, the child’s father Juben Garcia says Child Welfare Services, a branch under the Department of Human Services, brought them the devastating news.
“They said there’s no easy way to say this, and then my girlfriend asked, ‘Is Fabian alive?’ and she said no, and that was it,” said Juben Garcia.
Juben Garcia says his son and his two other children were removed from their home in August 2016. The family home was deemed unacceptable due to his drug use.
He says he still can’t believe that his little boy is gone.
“I don’t know how to explain it. It’s numbing. I don’t know, shock, I guess,” he said. “It’s shocking, like unbelievable. Even after I saw him, I couldn’t believe he was dead.”
He adds that CWS has not given much of an explanation as to what happened.
“They said that he was at the table and then he fell from like three or four feet,” Juben Garcia said. We checked with Hawaii island police and Child Welfare Services for more information. All police will tell us is that the child was in foster care when he died. A CWS spokeswoman says she is not allowed to give out any information.
The child’s father says he’s now worried about his two other children who remain in foster care.
“They said they placed them with another foster family, which doesn’t give me any names or any assurance that this is not going to happen again,” Juben Garcia said. https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/10268673/toddler-dies-vomit-foster-mother/?utm_campaign=sunmainfacebook&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook#Echobox=1572766570 Foster mother Chasity Alcosiba, 45, was this week charged with second-degree murder over the death of three-year-old Fabian Garcia in Hawaii. Tragic Fabian – who was put in Alcosiba’s foster care along with his younger siblings – also had “various stages of bruising” on his head, neck and body.Fabian’s biological parents, Sherri-Ann Garett and Juben Garcia, had filed a lawsuit against Alcosiba and state authorities over the child’s death.Alcosiba had told cops Fabian’s injuries were caused by a fall from a work bench two weeks earlier, the family’s lawsuit claimed. But she later changed her story to allege Fabian fell while wearing virtual reality goggles on the day he was found. The family claimed Fabian had been subjected to long term brutal abuse. Part of the lawsuit read: “Fabian’s death followed months of visible injuries on Fabian and his younger siblings and numerous notifications of suspected child abuse by Fabian’s parents to defendant State of Hawaii’s social workers.” https://www.westhawaiitoday.com/2019/04/06/hawaii-news/lawsuit-filed-in-toddler-death-family-of-child-who-died-in-foster-care-seeks-justice-awareness-and-change/ KAILUA-KONA — The parents of a 3-year-old who died in 2017 while in foster care are suing the state, Catholic Charities, the caregivers and others for the wrongful death of their son. The “horrific injuries” that caused Fabian Garett-Garcia’s “tragic, untimely, and wrongful death” on July 25, 2017, were the result of negligence by the state Department of Human Services and its contract provider Catholic Charities, state-licensed caregivers Chasity Alcosiba-McKenzie and Clifton McKenzie and others yet to be named, the lawsuit filed Thursday in 3rd Circuit Court alleges.
http://www.ketv.com/article/police-investigate-death-of-14-month-old-in-foster-care/8542043
LINCOLN, Neb. —
Lincoln police are investigating the death of a 14-month-old who was in foster care.
Lincoln Police Chief Jeff Bliemeister said conclusions to the cause of death from an autopsy are pending.
Bliemeister said an initial report indicated there was sub-dermal hematoma and retinal bleeding.
The child was taken to Bryan West hospital, then to Nebraska Medicine, where he died Wednesday evening.
A two-year-old sister of the toddler was in foster care at the time of the medical call, and police said the child was examined and had no physical harm.
DHHS removed the child from the home.
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/09/22/no-charges-filed-in-drowning-death-toddler-in-foster-care.html
EAST MONTPELIER, Vt. – Prosecutors say no charges will be filed in the drowning death of a Vermont toddler who was in foster care.
Two-year-old Alexander James Lowell-Henry was found unconscious July 5 in a family pool in East Montpelier and later died.
He was in the custody of the Vermont Department of Children and Families and living with a foster family at the time.
The Washington County state’s attorney’s office said Thursday that it would be unlikely to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a crime occurred, given the evidence and the current state of the law.
The office calls Alexander’s death a “preventable tragedy” that would not likely have happened if the caretaker had adequately supervised him and ensured that proper fencing had been installed around the pool.
http://panow.com/article/473637/questions-remain-sturgeon-lake-after-report-toddler-s-death-foster-care
At the age of two, a toddler known only as “Jake” in a Saskatchewan Child and Youth Advocate’s report died in foster care.
He and his brother had been removed from his home on Sturgeon Lake First Nation after his father became violent with his mother while they had been drinking. In Bob Pringle’s report, he noted that she was abused at the hands of the child’s father and had been abusing drugs and alcohol.
“Jake” was only five months old at the time. By the time he died in 2009, he had been moved from foster home to foster home 11 times. He was found dead in his playpen, and the cause of his death was not uncovered by an autopsy and is still unknown.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/boy-s-death-in-foster-care-no-accident-dad-1.924193
The father of 22-month-old Evander Daniels, who drowned while in foster care outside Saskatoon, says he doesn’t believe his son’s death was an accident.
“His burns to his body were just horrible, and this is no accident,” Chris Martel told CBC News Wednesday.
Martel said that despite repeated requests for information, authorities have not provided him with a full report on the circumstances of his son’s death.
The boy was found partially submerged in a bathtub in a foster home in Aberdeen, about 40 kilometres northeast of Saskatoon, on June 8. He was rushed to a hospital in Saskatoon but could not be revived.
A coroner’s report said the boy drowned and there were signs of scalding on his body.
On Aug. 19, RCMP announced that the woman who ran the foster home, Eunice Wudrich, 45, had been charged with endangering the life of a child and criminal negligence causing death.
The boy was found in about five centimetres of water and was alone in the bathroom while Wudrich was in another room supervising four foster children and her own daughter.
Martel said the boy’s mother was in the process of having him returned to her custody at the time he died. He said the child was in foster care because the mother had been suffering from postpartum depression.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2476311/Orien-Hamilton-Father-year-old-girl-beaten-death-foster-care-warned-officials-danger-prior-death.html#ixzz57UliozX2
The biological father of an 11-month-old girl killed while in foster care claims he warned Texas officials she was in danger.
Brian Hamilton, father of Orien Hamilton, warned authorities one month ago that his daughter was in trouble in the foster home she was in, because Jacob Salas has a history of abuse.
The toddler died Saturday after the abusive man pinned her head to the floor with his knee, and officials are at a loss to explain how Mr Salas’ history of abuse fell through the cracks.
The young girl was removed from her San Antonio home four months ago after investigators found methamphetamine in her system.
She was placed with Jacob Salas, a former prison guard, who was accused in 2004, 2005 and 2012 of abuse, according to KVUE.
The abusive ex-prison guard, according to KXAN, crushed the baby’s skull until she died. Then he dialed 911 on Saturday, claiming the baby was choking on a piece of food.
Child Protective Services is scrambling to find an explanation.
Mr Salas driver’s license is registered to the address where paramedics rushed Saturday after receiving a call that a baby was choking, KVUE revealed.
‘Whether or not we could’ve, should have done more is a question – it’s something that we missed,’ the spokesperson added, ‘it’s obvious.’
State officials have since removed the three children, all under the age of eight, from the foster home, according to YNN. They are currently staying with a relative.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4849156/Baby-died-dropped-foster-carer.html
3 September 2017 – Torment of mum whose 10-month-old baby, Skyla, died after being ‘dropped by a foster carer’: ‘Absolutely devastated’ birth mother says couple and social services both failed her daughter
Ten-month-old had emergency brain surgery before doctors gave up hope. Birth mother Sarah Giller consented to life support machine being switched off.
Mother of four Miss Giller said: ‘I thought my baby would be safe in foster care’.
Her daughter was born eight weeks prematurely in Pinderfields Hospital, Wakefield, West Yorkshire, last October, weighing 3lb 4oz. She remained in hospital for two weeks but was said to have been healthy. Miss Giller contested a social services application to take her into care but a judge ruled against her.
‘I was given false hope by social workers who indicated she would be able to come home at some point. But was then stopped from seeing Skyla last April.
Ten days ago paramedics were called to a village near Huddersfield and Skyla was taken to Leeds General Infirmary.
The next day Miss Giller was phoned by a social worker and told Skyla ‘had been taken to hospital and was extremely poorly’. ‘It was devastating,’ said Miss Giller. ‘There were wires and things coming out of her head, nose and mouth with a huge cut on her head where they had done brain surgery.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Luke_Borusiewicz
Luke Anthony Borusiewicz was a toddler in Queensland, Australia, who died while under foster care administered by the Department of Community Services (DOCS), an agency of the Department of Communities, Queensland.
Borusiewicz died on Sunday 18 January 2009, aged 2 years. The inquest into his death found it to be accidental, the result of falling from his bed and striking his head in the custody of sleeping ‘Joy’, a 74-year-old foster carer, who at the time of his death, had three other foster children in her care.[3] Borusiewicz had been removed from his parents on 5 July 2008 and placed into a foster home from 22 July to 24 December 2008.[4] The premise for the child’s removal was alleged drug use by his parents, although his father Michael Borusiewicz claimed he was “clean” for six months before his son’s death.
Luke was found to have a fractured skull, subdural haematoma and brain oedema.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/delonna-sullivan-inquiry-conflicting-accounts-from-rcmp-social-worker-1.3124087
A fatality inquiry looking into the death of an infant girl in foster care has heard conflicting accounts of how she was removed from her home in the first place.
Delonna Sullivan, 4-months-old, was removed from her mother in April 2011 by a rare emergency order, which meant the baby could be placed in provincial care without any judge’s order. The girl was placed with a foster mother. Six days later, she was found dead in her playpen.
Tuesday, RCMP Constable Bryan Brooks testified that he and a social worker spent only a couple hours in the home of Jamie Sullivan before removing her daughter.
That doesn’t match what the social worker told the inquiry on Monday: she said she spent an entire day investigating Sullivan’s home before taking the girl.
An emergency order is only used if a child is thought to be in “imminent danger.” The social worker said the house was messy and poorly maintained. She also had concerns about possible drug and alcohol abuse by Delonna’s mother. Sullivan denied the allegations, saying that Delonna was in no danger.
Monday heard testimony from the support worker who dealt with the foster mother who took in Delonna. He testified that the girl had to sleep in the playpen because the home lacked a crib, although he was assured this was a temporary issue.
At one point, Delonna was left in the playpen for five hours without anyone checking on her.
The social worker admitted that he did not visit the home, nor see the playpen, either before placing Delonna in the home or after she had arrived. http://liftingtheveil.org/child-welfare-in-the-news/child-protection-the-hard-truth/?fbclid=IwAR0y3s6b99rzMKRmrmJ3dDSHB1aor0nb2i2eRY4FwppA2RUmOHKJKKpDfUU
On April 8, 2011, Delonna’s mother and grandmother visited the foster parent’s home, and were distressed by what they saw. Delonna had severe diaper rash, and was covered in feces due to three straight days of diarrhoea. It was obvious to both of them that four-month-old Delonna was not appropriately being cared for by the foster parents.
On April 11, 2011, Delonna was taken to the hospital. At 4 P.M. she was pronounced dead. The mother wasn’t notified of her daughter’s death until 10 P.M. that evening. The medical examiner ruled that Delonna had been heavily dosed with Tylenol, and subjected to unsafe sleeping conditions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3kaYVAgytE
Dead in Six Days: The Story of Baby Delonna (8:31)
https://www.scoop.it/t/family-centred-care-practice/p/4029057050/2014/10/01/shylee-kasokeo-a-haunting-story-of-betrayal
“Shylee Kasokeo was 21 months old when she died in the care of her foster woman, who was charged with manslaughter but acquitted at trial.”
‘“In a police interview, Laverdiere admitted she picked the girl up and “forcefully” sat her down on the floor while trying to get her to drink and then gave her a “little push,” causing her to fall and hit her head on the floor.
…
However, Moreau ruled the incriminating statement was inadmissible because police had violated her Charter rights to have a lawyer and to remain silent.”’
http://edmontonjournal.com/news/crime/paula-simons-her-name-was-serenity-never-forget-it
Alberta’s Child and Youth Advocate, Del Graff, issued a review of the case of a four-year-old First Nations girl died while in a kinship care placement. Graff’s review revealed that the relatives with whom the girl had been placed had been poorly trained and that the home study of their family had been cursory.
The review also found Serenity and her two older half-siblings had been left in the guardianship of this couple for 11 months, despite complaints and tips about abuse. No workers had checked on the three children in the 11 months before Serenity died.
Child advocate Graff’s report omitted medical details even more shocking.
Serenity arrived at a hospital in central Alberta on Sept. 18, 2014, suffering from a suspected head injury, with “blown”or dilated pupils. She was four years and three months old. She weighed just 18 pounds, the weight of a typical nine-month-old baby.
Notes from the emergency room describe “multiple bruises all over her body, some green in colour and others purple.”
The notes describe bruising to the child’s pubic area. Her hymen was gone. In addition to bruising on her chest and back, she had genital bruising and “unusual bruising around her anus.”
Brought by her guardian to the hospital, Serenity was also suffering from severe hypothermia, with a rectal temperature of 30.1 C. Normal for a child is 37 to 38 C.
The woman said Serenity had fallen from a tire swing. Serenity remained on life-support long enough for her birth parents to say goodbye to her. She died on Sept. 27, 2014.
Court documents say Serenity’s siblings, then five and six, told Zebra Child Protection interviewers they had been abused by two adults living in the home.
More than two years later, Alberta’s medical examiner has not released Serenity’s cause of death. The Child and Youth Advocate, an independent officer of the legislature, was denied a copy of an autopsy report. The case has never been ruled a homicide. Cpl. Laurel Scott, who speaks for the RCMP in central Alberta, says an investigation is still open. Because of that, she offered no further comment.
Why did the child advocate’s report omit any reference to the genital and anal bruising, and the absent hymen, which might suggest sexual assault? Or to the hypothermia? Tim Chander, who speaks for the advocate’s office, says it doesn’t include such details unless they’re confirmed by the medical examiner. So in the absence of the medical examiner’s report, that vital information was excluded from Graff’s review.
And why, after more than two years, has the medical examiner provided no information? On Friday, Alberta Justice could provide me no answers.

I can’t name Serenity’s mom. She is 28. She moved east of the province. She has regained custody of her children, trained as a chef, is engaged to be married. She says she has been clean and sober for five years. “I did a whole 360 on my life,” she says.
“I was 20 when I met Serenity’s father. It seemed things were good at first, but then it turned for the worse. He was heavily into partying and I was starting to realise that he fought with me a lot because he liked to. He assaulted me and I called police, and then child welfare got involved.”
The domestic violence and her substance abuse — she drank alcohol and used marijuana, but insists she took no harder drugs — resulted in the apprehension of her children.
Serenity, she says, initially thrived in foster care.
“Her first foster home was really great. She was super healthy there and I got to spend a lot of time with her.”
But then, she says, she was told her children would be adopted out, separately and permanently, unless she agreed to have them placed with family members in a kinship-care arrangement. Feeling she had no choice, she agreed to have the children placed with a couple who were related to her father.
After her children had been living in kinship care for a few months, she says they were losing weight. Her son appeared to have scabies. She complained. She took pictures and videos. All that resulted, she says, was that child welfare workers and these carers banned her from seeing her children. Other relatives tried to see the children and bring them gifts, but were turned away as well.
http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/article112421367.html
The results of an autopsy of 1-month-old Macey Wilson contradict her foster parents’ account of the baby’s death in May, the Sacramento County Coroner said.
Before the autopsy was completed, the girl’s foster parents said she was found unresponsive in a toddler car seat at the foster home in the 5200 block of Crystal Hill Way in the Valley Hi area of Sacramento, Coroner Kimberly Gin said.
The baby’s lividity pattern, where her blood settled after death, was on the front of her body, the autopsy found. That pattern indicates she died lying down, Gin said.
Sgt. Bryce Heinlein, a department spokesman, said the major crimes unit is investigating the case. He said he could not provide any further details because the case is pending.
Because the foster home is managed by a third-party agency, the investigation was done by the state’s Community Care Licensing office, not CPS, Mott said. The state would not provide details about its investigation to CPS, she said.
Michael Weston, a spokesman at the state Department of Social Services, said confidentiality laws prevent the agency from commenting about its investigation.
The Coroner’s Office has ruled Macey’s cause of death as inconclusive, saying there were no obvious physical signs to explain it.
The report suggests that the foster parents moved Macey from where she died into the toddler seat, said Tracy Rhodd, the baby’s paternal grandmother.
“Why did they move her?” she said. “They lied about where they found her.”
She said the Coroner’s Office told her that the foster parents had not checked on Macey for 12 hours when they found her dead. She said that’s too long to leave a baby unobserved, and might explain why Macey died.
http://www.koat.com/article/woman-arrested-in-the-death-of-11-month-old-foster-child/14533825
BELEN, N.M. —
A foster parent has been arrested in connection with the death of an 11-month-old baby. 55-year-old Stephanie Crownover, a respite foster care giver for foster children through CYFD, was caring for Ariza, and her two siblings while the primary foster parent was out of town.
Investigators said New Year’s Eve morning they got a call to Crownover’s home in Belen. When they got there they said the house was filthy with dog feces throughout the house. The children were all sick with diarrhoea. Ariza, had a respiratory infection.
They said Ariza had no crib. They also said she spent the night in a car seat, next to a space heater. Crownover told investigators when she woke up she saw that Ariza was not breathing.
They charged Crownover with child abuse resulting in death for failing to get her medical care. KOAT asked investigators how the little girl died.
“At this point that is still under investigation by the office of the medical investigator. They will be conducting blood tests and other tests to determine the exact cause of death,” Lt. James Harris with the Valencia County Sheriff’s Department said.
Investigators said when they arrested Crownover she showed very little emotion. She said the child’s death wasn’t her fault and she would not take care of any more babies in her home.
KOAT asked CYFD how Crownover was able to be a licensed foster care parent. They said her home had just been inspected the first week in December.
They said at that time it not in the condition investigators described when they found the little girl.
Ariza saw her biological mother for the last time 29 December 2017 at Small Steps visitation center in Los Lunas. Ariza’s mother, Alicia Patterson, tells Target 7 the children “all had soiled diapers and no socks on.”
http://katv.com/community/7-on-your-side/few-answers-after-foster-child-death
Grandmother Jacqueline Sanders and others who loved 15 month-old Thurman Billings gather outside the DHS office where she last saw the boy alive.
Sanders recorded video of the visit two weeks ago. she says her grandson was healthy and happy…with no history of medical problems.
But on Tuesday he was pronounced dead at Children’s Hospital.
“Right here is the place where I came to visit my grandson,” recalls Sanders. “There his body lay right here across the street. And I ain’t got no answers.”
Sanders says her two grandchildren have been in foster care for about six months.
So far biological relatives do not know why Thurman died, where he was or who he was with.
https://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Infant-s-death-on-reality-TV-probed-in-10827495.php
But the mystery behind 13-month-old boy Michael Citron’s death — he was in the care of a state-approved foster family — lingers, despite a city spokesman having initially attributed the fatality to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). According to DCF, Michael Citron was placed in the Bridgeport foster home Nov. 13, 2015, just weeks after his birth. The foster family had been licensed by DCF that September 2015.
The case is under investigation by two state agencies — the Department of Children and Families, which placed Citron in his foster home — and by the Office of the Child Advocate.
“Certainly a child dying in foster care is a significant event,” said Faith Vos Winkel, who investigates child fatalities for the child advocate’s office. Meanwhile the biological mother, Lauren Citron of Greenwich, has hired attorneysChristopher Kenworthy and Anissa Klapproth, the latter a child protection specialists, to conduct a separate probe.
“This was a terrible tragedy only worsened by the fact that the Citron family is still in the dark regarding the circumstances leading up to, and the ultimate cause of, Michael’s death,” attorney Christopher Kenworthy wrote in a statement Friday. “The Citron family is no closer to finding out what happened at this time then they were when the police arrived at their home at the beginning of the month to inform them of this terrible tragedy.”
Vos Winkel added that, in her experience, “It would be almost unheard of to call a one-year-old’s (death) a SIDS. Not that I can rule anything out. I’m not a medical examiner. But that would be pretty unusual.”
https://www.denverpost.com/2012/11/10/abused-childrens-cries-for-help-were-ignored-2/
Hartman’s baby monitor captured the 23-month-old’s screams and stifled sobs as her 300-pound foster mother sat on her. She recorded the horror coming from the house where the foster mother yelled and ridiculed and the children cried.
Hartman mailed the recording to El Paso County child welfare authorities with a note: “She really needs you. I am doing my part by writing to you, but you must do the rest.”
Then Hartman waited. She called the county when she heard more screaming, when she heard foster mother Jules Cuneo refuse to give the toddler food.
She wondered if anyone would rescue the girl with the toothy grin and big brown eyes.
No one did. Alize Vick, the girl across the street, died five months later, in October 2007, after her foster mother hurled her five feet, head-first into a coffee table. Cuneo was enraged because the toddler wouldn’t talk to her.
A caseworker said she listened to the recording and visited the home. But the worker determined it wasn’t enough to take Alize away from Cuneo.
More than 40 percent of the children who died of abuse and neglect in the last six years in Colorado had families or caregivers known to child protection workers who could have saved them.
https://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/front-range/denver/sarah-berry-convicted-for-leaving-7-year-old-in-a-closet-starving-him-to-death-files-for-appeal
DENVER – A foster mom who pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the death of a 7-year-old who was left in a closet and starved to death, has filed an appeal to overturn her plea.
Sarah Berry took a plea deal in 2008 shortly after her boyfriend at the time, Jon Phillips, who had custody of the boy, was sentenced to a life sentence for the death of Chandler Grafner.
Grafner was found starved to death and inside a small closet [the size of an oven] in 2007 at the Denver apartment the couple shared.
Foster parents Jon Phillips, 26, and Sarah Berry, 21, also were told in Denver District Court that they were each being held for investigation of child abuse resulting in death of Chandler Grafner.
https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2004/10/09/charges-in-death-of-foster-toddler/
FREMONT — The foster parents of a toddler who died Monday after being assaulted were charged with murder Friday.
Terry Corder and his wife, Sherrie, both 40, stood emotionless during their arraignment as Judge Dennis McLaughlin read the charges against them.
In addition to the murder charge, Terry Corder is accused of assaulting 2-year-old Dylan George with force that would likely cause great bodily injury, and his wife was charged with endangering Dylan by allowing him to suffer. Paramedics took the toddler to Washington Hospital and then to Children’s Hospital Oakland, where he was pronounced dead Monday morning.
An autopsy revealed that he’d died from multiple blunt injuries to the head, which Sherrie Corder claim were caused by a fall. Terry Corder admitted to hitting 2-year-old Dylan on the head.
Dylan was born on April 16, 2002, at St. Rose Hospital in Hayward to Monica Mirales and Michael George Jr., both of Hayward. George and Mirales, who were unemployed, received more bad news when they were evicted from their downtown Hayward apartment, Bertler said.
With the family looking for a place to stay and both searching for work, they agreed to let Dylan stay with Bertler, who’d been a family friend for almost two years, she said.
Dylan stayed with Bertler for a week in early September until Child Protective Services, a county-level division of the California Department of Social Services, took Dylan and placed him into foster care with the understanding that he’d return to Bertler’s home once a thorough background check had been done on her, Bertler said.
Social workers were to inspect Bertler’s house Monday, but never came, she said.
Andrew Roth, a spokesman for the state agency, said he could not discuss Dylan’s case, citing reasons of confidentiality.
http://www.newscentermaine.com/article/news/local/toddler-who-died-at-daycare-identified/97-438288338
May 10, 2017, 16-month-old Travis Weston was put down for a nap in a crib late Tuesday morning at Peek-A-Roo Day Care Center, according to state police. He was found unresponsive around 2:30 p.m. Weston was the foster child of the daycare’s owner, Teresa Sadak, and her husband Kent. Maine State Police say a toddler who died at a daycare in Raymond Tuesday had been ill for several weeks with ear infections.
State police say the toddler was placed at the center as a foster child on March 2 by the Maine Department of Health and Human Services.
An autopsy was performed Wednesday and the cause of death will be determined upon additional testing, according to the State Medical Examiner’s Office.
http://kstp.com/news/zayden-lawson-death-foster-care-eagan-aunt-searches-answers/4708448/
Zayden Lawson’s foster mother was in the process of adopting both he and his little brother when the three-year-old unexpectedly died last June.
The medical examiner said some of Zayden’s injuries appeared to be inflicted by a cord, and suggested Zayden died due to blunt force inflicted trauma. RELATED: No Arrests Yet in Foster Care Death of 3-Year-Old
Investigators ruled it a homicide. But six months later, no arrests have been made.
http://wfla.com/2017/11/07/pinellas-parents-bury-newborn-who-died-in-pasco-foster-care/
PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) – The death of a newborn infant in Pasco foster care named Kwon McGee is now the focus of two investigations and agonising questions by his Pinellas County birth parents.
“No parent, especially if they have their child taken away from them, expects their child to die in foster care,” said Doug Tobin, spokesman for Eckerd Connects, the agency that DCF hires to lead child protection and foster care in Pinellas and Pasco Counties.
In this case, Eckerd hired Florida Lutheran Services to provide the actual case management and foster care.
It all started on July 29 when Sangamuang gave birth at Morton Plant Hospital in Clearwater and social workers began talking to her about where she would live after she left the hospital. Sangamuang was unemployed and broke and needed temporary shelter, but had plans to move to Connecticut with Kwon to live with her mother.
Days later, those same social workers came to the Travelers Inn in Clearwater where Sangamuang was staying and demanded that she hand over Kwon.
“She’s like, well two officers, two sheriffs came up and said, ‘look ma’am if you don’t give me your baby, I will arrest you and take you to jail and you will no longer have your baby,’” Sangamuang said.
The baby ended up in the care of foster parents in Pasco County while Sangamuang tried to arrange for counselling and other directives ordered by a judge to get her child back. The child’s father, Ladell McGee, was away when Kwon was born and says he never had a chance to see his son.
The family’s rough patch turned utterly tragic Oct. 24, when the foster parent reported putting Kwon down to sleep in an adult bed after a feeding and later found him unresponsive.
Eckerd says the foster parents failed to follow Eckerd’s baby safety checklist that says all infants should sleep in a crib with a firm mattress and tight-fitting sheets without other materials that might suffocate a baby.
http://edmontonsun.com/2014/03/19/morinville-foster-mother-found-not-guilty-of-manslaughter-in-the-death-of-toddler-in-her-care/wcm/7ded125f-ec80-4aa8-a4df-9375eeef6148
Emotions ran high in court Wednesday as a Morinville foster mother, Christine Laverdiere, 38, accused of causing the death of a 21-month-old toddler in her care was found not guilty of manslaughter.
Paediatric pathologist Dr. Janice Ophoven testified at trial that the injuries were a result of a combination of vomit blocking the child’s airways following a seizure, a lack of oxygen to her brain and prolonged resuscitation efforts.
The child had bleeding in the brain and retinal haemorrhaging which made the scenario “very suspicious” for abusive head trauma as the evidence did not point strongly to a prior traumatic event or to an opportunity for someone else to have caused the injuries.
Earlier in the trial, Alberta Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Anny Sauvageau testified the toddler suffered an “abusive head injury” which led her to conclude the girl was the victim of either a “violent shaking,” an impact to the head or a combination of both.
In a police interview, Laverdiere admitted she picked the girl up and “forcefully” sat her down on the floor while trying to get her to drink and then gave her a “little push,” causing her to fall and hit her head on the floor.
https://thewest.com.au/news/australia/concern-over-toddlers-death-ng-ya-355371
The parents of a toddler, Kaylee, who died in “suspicious” circumstances in foster care a year ago pleaded with Department for Child Protection staff to check on her welfare in the last weeks and hours of her life.
An investigation by The Weekend West has found that Timothy and Melinda grew increasingly worried about their 20-month-old daughter and her older brother, who had been placed at a foster house in Boulder.
They claim that they were reporting concerns to the case worker for two months before Kaylee’s death and were being fobbed off and told that the office was short-staffed.
On August 16, during their last access visit at Hungry Jack’s in Kalgoorlie-Boulder, Kaylee was drowsy and didn’t want to play.
“She didn’t want to talk or smile, she just wanted to sit next to me. When I went to touch her head she didn’t want me to,” Melinda said.
Melinda added that when she went into the DCP office to voice her concerns, she was told the case officer “was busy and wouldn’t be available till Monday”. The couple caught the bus home.
An hour later, police knocked on the door and took them to the hospital.
DCP director general Terry Murphy said that was incorrect and a report from July last year “confirmed that contact was going well and no request to see anyone from the District Office was noted”. “They did, however, inform the contact supervisor on 6 August 2012 that they were worried about the care the children were receiving and noted a bruise on Kaylee’s cheek,” Mr Murphy said. “They also reported concerns to the Department following their contact visit with their daughter on 12 August 2012, shortly before she was relayed to Goldfields Regional Hospital.” He said it had not been established that the foster carers bore any responsibility for the injuries that caused Kaylee’s death.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/state/article2629551.html
When Florida child welfare administrators vetted Michael Beer’s 2013 application to be a foster parent, they missed something: Two decades earlier, the same agency had “verified” an allegation that Beer failed to aid a 2-year-old girl in his care who suffered egregious child abuse: a cracked skull, broken arm, multiple bruises and welts and bruised ears.
They gave him the license.
A year later, when Beer and his wife asked to renew their license, the Department of Children & Families discovered the 1993 abuse investigation. The case is mentioned in a background check that began in March, but the report on the background check is neither dated nor signed in a public document provided to the Herald. And the document says the now-21-year-old incident was “not an automatic disqualifier.” They renewed his license.
Beer’s run as a foster parent ended tragically last week when police in Port St. Lucie charged him with first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse. His alleged victim: a 2-year-old boy who had been sent by DCF in July to live in Beer’s home, along with two of the boy’s siblings. Police reports say Trysten Eli Frank Adams died of blunt force trauma, sustaining “severe lacerations” to his liver, along with bruising to his kidney, gall bladder, pancreas and rib cage.
http://www.wfmj.com/story/11691729/trumbull-county-foster-mom-sentenced-to-nine-years-for-toddler-death
Trumbull county foster mom sentenced to nine years for toddler death
Bonnie Pattinson pleaded guilty in October to involuntary manslaughter in the death of three-year-old Tiffany Sue Banks, who died of asphyxiation. Prosecutors said Tiffany had marks all over her body, including several on her neck that investigators said matched Pattinson’s rings.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bs-md-co-child-death-20150831-story.html
A toddler, 13-month-old Paris Bena Hall, was left by her foster mother in a car outside an Edgemere church earlier this month. No one has been charged, police said. Police found the 13-month-old girl around noon Aug. 21 outside Shiloh Baptist Church on Sycamore Avenue.
A woman who worked at the church had planned to take the girl, who was her foster child, to a daycare center next to the church, police said. She started talking to someone in the parking lot, and then, forgetting the girl in the car, walked into the church.
When the woman returned around noon, she found the child in cardiac arrest and immediately called 911 and started CPR, police said.
The child, Paris Bena Hall of Randallstown, was taken toJohns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center and pronounced dead later that day.
http://www.foxcarolina.com/story/33013950/coroner-3-year-old-drowns-in-greenville-co-community-pool
Coroner Parks Evans said 3-year-old Za’Marion Wilcox was at the community pool with members of his foster family when he fell into the water. One of his foster parents pulled him from the water and community members at the pool began administering CPR until paramedics arrived. Medics then rushed him to the hospital, where Evans said the toddler was pronounced dead at 8:40 p.m.
Evans said an autopsy performed on September 5 confirmed drowning as the cause of death and the nature of the death was determined to be accidental.
On Tuesday, December 6, deputies confirmed the victim’s foster parent, 37-year-old Travis Henry Wagner, is charged with homicide by child abuse.
Deputies said Wagner was charged because he failed to supervise Za’Marion for a period of time that was significant, allowing him to drown.
Bruce Wilson, founder of Fighting Injustice Together, later stated that his organisation was demanding that another Wilcox child currently in the foster system be returned to the biological family.
http://www.startribune.com/string-of-failures-came-before-suicidal-6-year-old-s-death/288934041/
Child protection workers and care providers failed to work together for more than a year to safeguard 6-year-old Kendrea Johnson, despite knowing she was severely mentally ill and living in a chaotic Brooklyn Park foster home, according to city and county records and a source familiar with the case.
Before she was found Dec. 27 hanging from a jump rope tied to her bunk bed, Kendrea was reportedly sexually endangered, threatened with beatings, locked in her room and may have been exposed to pornography — all the while becoming extremely angry that she could not be returned to her family, records show.
The Hennepin County child protection worker charged with overseeing her case told police that he didn’t know that the girl was suicidal, even though her mental health providers documented that she thought about it daily, records show. That lack of knowledge was “unconscionable,” according to one child mental health professional.
And, in the months before Kendrea died, the county’s child protection unit decided not to investigate four reports of neglect at the foster home, according to a source with direct knowledge of the case.
Tannise Nawaqavou, the 53-year-old foster care mother, notified child protection about finding Kendrea partially naked with another child in the home last August, reports show. But child protection records provided to police show that workers failed to investigate the possible maltreatment further, stating that it was “ruled out for not meeting any allegations.”
http://www.southcoasttoday.com/article/20070709/news/707090321
PROVIDENCE — Thomas “T.J.” Wright was smacked in the face and head, dragged on the ground, flipped backward on the stairs and even doused with a quart of milk, court records say.
After the 3-year-old died of brain injuries in 2004, his guardians — aunt Katherine Bunnell and her live-in boyfriend Gilbert Delestre — were charged with murder and accused of beating him to death.
T.J. and his two brothers went to live with Bunnell, then 20 years old, after their mother was arrested on drug trafficking charges in Illinois. Bunnell and Delestre, both unemployed, lived in a one-bedroom apartment in Woonsocket
A report issued by a panel a year after T.J.’s death said while the state prefers placing foster children with relatives, it should never have permitted T.J. to live with Bunnell and Delestre, who each had juvenile records and were already raising two children of their own.
“I was so mad. I just tapped him, and he just fell back,” Delestre said in the statement. “He’s clumsy a little, you know?”
http://torontosun.com/2016/03/04/4-year-olds-death-slow-cruel-and-painful-foster-parents-sentenced/wcm/9a9b6b80-504b-4e2a-bd33-19d6c00e9dac
4-year-old’s death ‘slow, cruel and painful’: Foster parents sentenced
REGINA, Sask. – High school sweethearts who married more than two decades ago, Tammy and Kevin Goforth left court Friday to live apart for years to come after receiving their respective prison sentences.
Tammy, 39-year-old mother and grandmother, convicted of second-degree murder in the death of a four-year-old foster girl and unlawfully causing bodily harm to that foster child’s two-year-old sister. For 40-year-old Kevin, convicted of manslaughter and unlawfully causing bodily harm.
http://edition.cnn.com/2003/LAW/05/07/ctv.death.by.water/
Cassandra’s adoptive parents, Richard Killpack, 34, and his wife Jennete Killpack, 26, are charged with felony child abuse and felony child abuse homicide for allegedly killing her by force-feeding her too much water. If convicted they could each face up to 20 years in prison. Water intoxication occurs when a large amount of water is introduced into the body which dilutes the amount of sodium in the body causing the brain to swell. The Killpacks have insisted they were using “water therapy” to try and help cure their adoptive daughter’s emotional problems. In television appearances and through their lawyer, the couple maintains that a therapist recommended feeding their emotionally-troubled adoptive daughter by hand to promote dependence and trust. Cuts and bruises around Cassandra’s mouth indicated that she was force-fed.
Heather Killpack, 7, the older daughter of the couple, said she knew what would happen. “I said, ‘You’ll have to go to Mom and do the drinking-water thing,'” the Killpacks’ biological daughter said in a videotaped police interview played in court on the first day of her parents’ three-day preliminary hearing. “She makes her drink ’til she pukes,” Heather told police, according to a report on the hearing in the Salt Lake Tribune.
As with many foster and adoptive children, Cassandra had been diagnosed with reactive attachment disorder—which is frequently seen in foster care children and means they are resistant to emotional bonding. Doctors say that such children can become violent and that building a relationship with them can be very difficult.
The Cascade Center for Family Growth denied any involvement saying that water therapy was not on their list of treatments. Utah officials are seeking to revoke the centre’s license and the state legislators have approved a resolution banning another controversial treatment called holding therapy, which involves physically holding a child in an attempt to revisit infancy.
https://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/local-news/foster-mother-20-arrested-in-babys-death
GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – A 20-year-old woman from Grand Junction is facing charges in the death of her 11-month-old foster daughter.
The Grand Junction Police Department said Sydney Danielle White told investigators she “accidentally dropped” the infant, Angel Lane Place, on the floor September 12, and then on September 15, grabbed her by the neck and shook her.
The coroner said Angel died of “blunt force head injuries” and ruled her death a homicide.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2241044/Foster-mother-accused-murdering-Rilya-Wilson-4-kept-wire-dog-cage-borrowed-friend-said-saw-toddler-play-feces.html
The tiny dog cage a foster mother kept the four-year-old child she is accused of murdering trapped in was wheeled out in court yesterday for jurors to see during the trial for first-degree murder, kidnapping and child abuse.
Rilya Wilson vanished in 2000 under the nose of Florida’s child welfare agency while she was under the care of Geralyn Graham, 66. Her body has never been found.
Authorities long suspected Graham in Rilya’s disappearance, but didn’t charge her until 2005 when prosecutors said she confessed to an inmate while serving time on an unrelated fraud charge.
Prosecutors brought the wire dog cage into the court room yesterday and placed it in front of the jurors as Graham’s friend Detra Coakley Winfield testified she loaned it to her specifically to keep the child in.
http://ammsa.com/publications/alberta-sweetgrass/four-month-old-baby-dies-while-foster-care
The death of the four-month-old baby girl brought a handful of people to the steps of the Legislature in Edmonton on June 6. Noticeably absent from the gathering were government officials. The baby died April 11 in hospital in Edmonton, six days after she was apprehended from her mother’s home. However, the child’s fate was only recently made public when Larry McConnell, the baby’s mother’s lawyer, spoke out. Neither the child nor her mother can be named in accordance to provincial privacy legislation.
Sharon Gladue tearfully addressed the small crowd that gathered in the bleak evening. Gladue spoke on behalf of the little girl’s grandmother, explaining that the distance the grandmother had to travel to get to Edmonton precluded the grandmother from being present. Gladue relayed how the child had been apprehended by RCMP and social workers and how the mother offered them the child’s car seat for safe transportation. At a court date, the foster parents arrived late and the baby was sick and had red marks on her face.
https://bringmethenews.com/minnesota-news/police-investigating-death-of-18-month-old-child-in-foster-care-near-jordan
Aug 29, 2018- Authorities are investigating the death of an 18-month-old child, Layla, who was in foster care at a residence in Scott County, Minnesota.
The Scott County Sheriff’s Office issued a press release saying its deputies were dispatched to a home in Sand Creek Township, near Jordan, around 4:40 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 26 on a report of a child having trouble breathing.
First responders arrived and found an unresponsive 18-month-old baby girl, who they transported to St. Francis Hospital in Shakopee before she was airlifted to Children’s Hospital in Minneapolis.
Sadly, the sheriff’s office was notified on Wednesday afternoon that the girl did not survive.
“We are unable to provide additional details at this time as this is an ongoing, active investigation,” said Sheriff Luke Hennen. The TV station notes that Layla was taken from her biological mother, Tasha Bacon, because of an opioid dependency she developed after shoulder surgery.
https://www.kidspot.com.au/parenting/real-life/in-the-news/foster-mum-jailed-after-being-accused-of-killing-20monthold-boy/news-story/c98c936eccbfec4880aa60af29632102
It’s been almost three years since a 20-month-old baby boy died in foster care, and finally his birth mum has found a bit of justice.
In 2015, the baby, who can’t be named for legal reasons, was voluntarily put into care by his mum.
She was the victim of domestic violence and needed help until she could provide a safe home for herself and her son. Two months after putting him in a state approved foster home in Dubbo, he was dead. The toddler was found by paramedics in his bed in the early morning on March 23 in 2015. It was too late to save him. An investigation found the boy had a broken femur and was covered in bruises on his face and body.
“He was a good boy. I thought he’d be safe,” his mum told 7 News.
On Monday, the child’s murderer and foster mother was arrested and appeared in court yesterday.
https://eu.newarkadvocate.com/story/news/2018/06/12/foster-care-officials-licking-county-saw-no-signs-abuse-before-death-nathaniel-gard-death/693879002/
NEWARK – Licking County officials and the private adoption/foster care agency Caring For Kids said they had no reasons for concern about the safety of a foster child who died June 6 from injuries suffered at his Newark foster home.
Nathaniel Gard, 5, died at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Columbus, four days after paramedics responded to a 911 call from his home, where he suffered severe injuries and stopped breathing.
One of his foster parents, Kenneth Schulz, 29, last known address 87 Jefferson Road, was arrested on June 2. He has been charged with child endangering, a second-degree felony, and is being held in the Licking County Justice Center in lieu of a $500,000 bond.
Assistant Licking County Prosecutor Paula Sawyers said additional charges, including murder, could be considered by a grand jury.
https://eu.newarkadvocate.com/story/news/local/2018/10/22/newark-foster-father-indicted-death-5-year-old-boy/1726172002/ 22 October 2018 – NEWARK – One of the two foster fathers, Kenneth Schulz, 30, of Newark, caring for a 5-year-old boy who died in June has been indicted on charges of murder and involuntary manslaughter. The prosecutor’s office received the autopsy back about three to four weeks ago and presented the case to a grand jury on Wednesday. Sawyers said the child’s injuries appear to be consistent with abuse, which is what led to the murder charge. Schulz was one of the foster fathers who was caring for 5-year-old Nathaniel Gard and Gard’s brother on June 2. On that day, police and paramedics were called to the home Schulz shared with his husband, William, after Nathaniel reportedly became unresponsive and stopped breathing.
Their foster care placement came after the boys’ mother apparently gave up her parental rights, reportedly claiming she felt they weren’t safe in her care. According to Newark police, Nathaniel and his brother were placed into Schulz and his husband’s care in December 2017 for pre-adoptive foster care placement through Caring for Kids, which is located in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. A 911 call from their Newark home indicated Kenneth Schulz had been “wrestling” with Nathaniel and the boy’s 6-year-old brother when he “started breathing weird” and became unresponsive. During an interview, Schulz had reportedly told Newark police detectives he had “used wrestling type moves” on Nathaniel, which included body slamming him. Schulz allegedly admitted to using a “power bomb” move on the child, picking the child up over his head and body slamming him into a couch, which caused the boy to hit his head on the back of the couch. Seconds later, Nathaniel had reportedly become unresponsive. Nathaniel died at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus four days after the 911 call was made. Medical personnel determined Nathaniel had suffered several injuries, including severe head trauma, detached retinas, bilateral hemorrhages and bruising to much of his body. Court records indicated the boy had two cuts to his genitals and the injuries were consistent with physical abuse.
https://www.bostonherald.com/2017/02/10/report-despite-dcf-efforts-35-kids-died-in-state-care/?fbclid=IwAR0lCf0vv5v52covZuSMdzLO7DKU6z-AKiz_OYjRSm5RJuueImZpbPhLB34 As many as 35 children died while in state care or custody last fiscal year, according to a new report that underscores the troubles still facing the Massachusetts state’s child welfare agency despite new funding. The report, released late Wednesday by the state Office of the Child Advocate, also showed sharp hikes in abuse and neglect allegations, as well as deaths, statewide. In all, 64 children receiving services from various state agencies died in fiscal 2016, which ran from July 2015 to June 2016. Another 68 died in fiscal 2015. The numbers marked significant hikes from previously available annual data — covering calendar year 2014 — when there were 40. Of the 35 children who died under the agency’s watch last year, 17 were less than a year old, including a dozen newborns who had been exposed to controlled substances. Two others were just months old when they died of suspected physical abuse, the report states. The report points to other red flags. Officials found 829 separate allegations of abuse and neglect across various settings, ranging from residential care to hospitals and schools — a 30 percent spike from the 633 in calendar year 2014. Of the new allegations, 221 stemmed from foster care alone, the vast majority being cases of neglect.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/14/world/americas/guatemala-shelter-fire-trial.html?action=click&module=Top+Stories&pgtype=Homepage&fbclid=IwAR2s_rMtpYnRojIbWpeIaUaAKzSOW0NLFrczyJ3RaiA3uDoVeXV7rcMlakU GUATEMALA CITY — As fire swept through the classroom, the pleas from the 56 girls locked inside began to fade. Most were unconscious or worse by then, as an eerie silence replaced their panic-stricken shouts. The police officers guarding the door — who had refused to unlock it despite the screams — waited nine minutes before stepping inside. They got water to cool down the scorching knob. Inside, dozens of girls placed in the care of the Guatemalan state lay sprawled on the blackened floor. Forty-one of them died. It was one of the deadliest tragedies in Guatemala since the end of its civil war decades ago, and it happened inside a group home for at-risk youth who had been put there by the government, supposedly for their own protection.
https://www.wndu.com/content/news/Recently-adopted-child-1-left-in-truck-dies-in-Tennessee-483613691.html?fbclid=IwAR0d3J6LDudZPXjMVqqzyRB1ax6yGVCG-oye_uDK3WdMhA7hccGKXqnOVDo NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – Authorities say an adopted 1-year-old girl whose father left her in a truck has died. News outlets cite a release from Metro Nashville police saying the adoptive father “reportedly forgot” about the child after dropping off her sibling at day care on Wednesday. The girl’s adoptive mother found the child around 5:40 p.m. in a car seat inside the pickup truck parked outside their home. It’s unclear how long she was in the vehicle.
https://www.wsoctv.com/news/local/child-found-dead-inside-hot-car-at-south-charlotte-shopping-center-police-say/980640502?fbclid=IwAR3jQQBX-nbD807MO63Sbb5D-pJYfffnw5EqlNgbgE3WjjkLMRk3blijNcg PINEVILLE, N.C. – A 12-month-old boy died Thursday after his foster mother left him in a hot car for hours while she was at work, police said.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/three-year-old-died-in-excellent-foster-home/article18255481/ These should not have been ingredients for a tragedy, but they were: On Thursday morning, Niagara Regional Police responding to a 911 call found the little boy VSA, or vital signs absent, and soon after arrested and charged the teenaged girl with first-degree murder. A postmortem has revealed the boy was suffocated. As The Globe reported yesterday, both the boy and the girl accused of killing him were clients of local children’s aid societies
https://www.wral.com/news/local/story/3032232/ Adoptive mother convicted in boy’s death. SMITHFIELD, N.C. — A Johnston County woman who beat and terrorised her children for years was convicted Thursday in the death of her 4-year-old adopted son. Authorities said Sean was bound so tightly in blankets that he suffocated. Defence attorneys maintain that the boy’s death was accidental and that Paddock’s actions were a form of discipline, not abuse.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Hana_Grace-Rose_Williams Hana Grace-Rose Williams (born Hana Alemu, June 19, 1997 – May 12, 2011 was a girl adopted from Ethiopia by an American couple living in Sedro-Woolley, Washington. She died in 2011 of hypothermia, according to an autopsy, and her adoptive parents Carri and Larry Williams were convicted in September 2013.[1][2][3] The adoptive father was later convicted of manslaughter in her death.[1] Carri Williams was convicted of “homicide by abuse” for Williams’s abuse and death and was convicted of “first-degree assault of a child” for abusing a second adopted Ethiopian child who survived and testified at her trial.[4][5] After being adopted, Hana was regularly spanked and locked in a closet, denied food as punishment, not allowed to wear clothes, only a towel, and was forced to sleep in a barn and take garden-hose showers outside, according to an affidavit from the Skagit County Sheriff’s Office.[2] The affidavit was based on information from the couple’s seven biological children, another adopted child, medical experts, and other family and friends. The biological children also wrote letters saying that their parents were good and had not abused anyone.
https://www.twincities.com/2018/07/21/brooklyn-park-couple-indicted-on-murder-charges-in-death-of-3-year-old-foster-child/?fbclid=IwAR3wK91_KLLFJCXl_S5XI5wtJxXo9AIiW2a5gCIPiL3eEZjyz4hLWkCQYyc Brooklyn Park couple indicted on murder charges in death of 3-year-old foster child. A Hennepin County grand jury indicted a Brooklyn Park couple Friday with first-degree murder in the death of their three-year-old foster child. Sherrie Dirk, 33, and Bryce Dirk, 31, were indicted on charges of first-degree murder while committing child abuse and second-degree murder while committing neglect, child endangerment and malicious punishment. Authorities found the girl to be severely dehydrated and emaciated. Since arriving at the Dirks’ home in Sept. 2016, her weight had dropped from the 98th percentile to the 13th percentile by November 2017, court documents say. Brooklyn Park police were called to the Dirks’ home in the 3600 block of 82nd Avenue North at about 6:30 p.m. Nov. 6, 2017, because a child was not breathing. According to court documents, sometime between 1:30 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. Sherrie Dirk left the girl in a room with the door closed for up to five hours after wrapping her with three sheets. Bryce Dirk was working in the home at the time, but did not check on her until around 6:25 p.m. When he did, one of the sheets was found wrapped around the girl’s neck and she was unresponsive, court documents show.
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/04/06/us/hart-family-crash-inquest-searches/index.html They intended to kill their 6 children, jury finds. The horrifying details emerged Thursday after a coroner’s jury unanimously ruled that Jennifer and Sarah Hart intended to die along with their six adopted children: Markis, 19, Jeremiah and Abigail, both 14, Devonte, 15, Hannah, 16, and Ciera, 12. Jennifer was intoxicated, and Sarah and two of the children tested positive for diphenhydramine, an active ingredient in Benadryl. At first, it seemed unfathomable the parents would drive their children from their home in Woodland, Washington, to their deaths in Mendocino County, California. Their social media pages included photos of beaming children holding “love is always beautiful” signs. In some photos, they had on matching T-shirts and wide grins. As the national spotlight on the story grew, more details emerged that the children desperately sought help from neighbours. Allegations surfaced that their parents abused and starved the six adopted children. When authorities entered the Hart home, it seemed neat, orderly and newly remodelled, said investigator Jake Slates from the California Highway Patrol. But while Jennifer and Sarah’s were decorated, Slates said, the children’s rooms were bare. Days before the family died in the crash, Child Protective Services in Washington requested a welfare check on the family. But no one answered the door on March 26; the family was already gone. Calls to the police began just two years after the Harts became parents, while they were living in Minnesota. They were first called in 2008 when one child told an adult that Jennifer struck the child in the arm, but the state closed the case claiming the child fell. After another call in 2011, Sarah Hart pleaded guilty to domestic assault after admitting to police she bruised her child by spanking her over the edge of a bathtub. After the family moved to Woodland, Washington, the children started going to their neighbour, Bruce DeKalb, for help and food in the middle of the night. Witnesses told California Highway Patrol that the children were “extremely disciplined, almost to the point of being robotic,” walking single-file to the bedroom and being told when to go to the bathroom, Slates said.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zhv9E-fK8M4 Raw: Interview with the Woodland, Wash. neighbours of the Hart family (3:53) https://www.oregonlive.com/crime/2019/04/hart-family-death-ruling-both-mothers-died-by-suicide-intentionally-killed-their-6-children.html Slates listed off several of the Google searches conducted on Sarah Hart’s phone: “Can 500 mgs of Benadryl kill a 120-pound woman?” “Is death by drowning relatively painless?” “How long does it take to die from hypothermia while drowning in a car?” “No-kill shelters for dogs”
http://blackchildrenmurderedbyabuse.blogspot.com/2012/11/amira-brown-12-years-old-beaten-to-death.html Baby Sitter, Rose M. Boyd-Tolver, Convicted of Killing 12-year-old Foster Child. The 262-pound woman beat her while she was unconscious with a broom handle (more than 80 times she struck her) then sat on her, smothering her to death. Rose M. Boyd-Tolver, who was described during her trial as being mildly mentally retarded, was convicted in a November jury trial of first degree murder in the death of Amira Brown.
https://www.denverpost.com/2005/06/07/deaths-of-foster-kids-show-flaws-in-system/ Fourteen-year-old Jimmy Wood died of an apparent prescription drug overdose. He was last heard crying alone in a closed bedroom. Mollie Gonzalez, 10, reached into a refrigerator in her bedroom and drank a fatal dose of her anti-seizure medicine. Talitha Brooks, (one year old), died of heatstroke in a sweltering bedroom just after her first birthday. All three were Colorado foster children placed in government custody to protect them from harm. Yet the circumstances of all three deaths remained hidden from public scrutiny despite internal investigations that faulted the foster parents and the agencies supervising them.
http://poundpuplegacy.org/node/24850 Alex Charles Boucher 3-year-old boy with cerebral palsy and other medical needs, in the custody of the CT Department of Children and Families was killed by his prospective adoptive father, James Curtis, in Florida as punishment for soiling himself. Mr Curtis wrapped Alex tightly in a blanket and left him for 30 minutes. Alex asphyxiated. Jennifer Curtis was not charged. The Curtis’ were given custody of Alex even though their homestudy and background checks were not complete and would have revealed past violence.
https://fox17.com/news/local/autopsy-maury-county-mother-shot-34-rounds-into-her-children-before-killing-herself?fbclid=IwAR1Y2ntjI_CXtv-zNdU05DcOx6Bg-qU9HqC_baWJqmDmPLm3rgsk1I4zJBM Autopsy: Maury County mother shot 34 rounds into her [adoptive] children before killing herself. Maury Countytwo months ago. Documents revealed that the mother shot 34 rounds into her four children before turning the gun on herself. The report says 17-year-old Kaileigh Lin Collier was shot 13 times in the bathroom, 15-year-old Lia Lin Collier shot nine times in her bed, 14-year-old Meigen Lin Collier shot eight times in her bed, and 14-year-old Bo Li Collier shot four times in his bed. Two months later, a motive is still unclear to investigators. Court records show the parents went through a nasty divorce; however, the kids seemed to live in a loving household with their adoptive mother. Adoption counselor Charlsey Gibson tells FOX 17 News the adoption screening process is intense. “Lots of questioning, there’s references, we do TBI, FBI background checks, DCS child abuse, health, abuse, sex offender registry checks,” Gibson lists. She said any indicator of mental illness would have been put under a microscope, but in the end, it’s hard to know what goes on behind closed doors at all times.
http://www.fox29.com/news/couple-and-teen-arrested-in-death-of-boy-7-after-punishing-him-over-bible-verses (FOX NEWS) – A Wisconsin couple and their son have been arrested in the death of a 7-year-old boy in their care, after they allegedly punished him for not memorizing Bible verses. Timothy and Tina Hauschultz and their 15-year-old son made the 7-year-old, whose name was Ethan, hold a 44-pound log for two hours every day for a week, Newsweek reports. While being monitored during his punishment, a medical examiner believes that the teen hit and kicked the younger boy 100 times, rolled the heavy log over his chest and stood on his head and body while Ethan was face-down in a puddle. He then allegedly buried him in “his own little coffin of snow.” Ethan died in April 2018 of hypothermia and blunt force trauma.
Feb 9, 2006 – Four-month-old foster child Eduardo Calzada died from a blunt force trauma to the head. Foster mother, Cathy Jean Scott convicted of second-degree murder.
Connre Dixon an 11-year-old foster girl, died Oct. 18, 2004 after being stabbed to death by her Monroeville foster father, Paul Efaw. He is expected to be released Oct. 15 from the Hocking Correctional Facility after serving three years for voluntary manslaughter.
Kevin’s life begins sadly before he is born: his parents are drug addicts. In January 2004, the boy is born in the Bremen-Nord Hospital. Kevin is a preemie. With his mother he has to undergo detoxification therapy for months after giving birth.As early as August 2004, there are first indications that Kevin is abused at home. Police picks up the drug addicted mother with her baby. Kevin is briefed in the Professor Hess Children’s Hospital shortly afterwards: His bones are broken in several places, he weighs just 7.5 pounds. At ten months, he is temporarily housed in the Hermann Hildebrand House, a children’s home in the posh district of Bremen Oberneuland. Social Senator Karin Röpke and Bremen Mayor Jens Böhrnsen are members of the sponsoring association. He stays there for six weeks. His wounds heal, he is nursed. A family crisis service of the private Hans Wendt Foundation meets several times and advises on the fate of the boy. They make a fatal decision: Kevin’s parents fulfilled the necessary “parenting skills”. The little boy is handed over to his birth parents. In February 2005, a peadiatrician diagnosed that Kevin had declined rapidly. In March 2005, however, the youth welfare office is the prognosis: Kevin is doing well. His mother is pregnant for the second time. In May 2005, the baby dies in the womb.
The police reported abnormalities, the authorities warned. However, during a home visit in July 2005, staff from the Social Services Office did not find any shortcomings in the boy’s care. In August 2005, Kevin’s mother and father has to go to a detox clinic again. His mother attends a parent school.
On November 12, the woman dies suddenly. The emergency doctor does not exclude third-party involvement. Kevin’s father has been under investigation since then. He is being forcibly sent to a psychiatric hospital for the time being. Afterwards he makes a methadone therapy. Kevin returns to the Hermann Hildebrand Children’s Home during this time. According to Mayor Böhrnsen, there is sufficient evidence that the child was “a burden at home and was abused”. He personally passed the case to the Social Senator. The Bremen Youth Welfare Office takes over the guardianship for Kevin and thus bears the full responsibility for the child. Because the authorities provide the father is“”a favourable social prediction”, Kevin should come back to the father – despite his methadone program and his criminal record for assault.
The employees of the Hermann Hildebrand House strongly advise against it: Kevin is weaker and much smaller than the other children. He just gained 500 grams at home that year. He still suffers from old fractures. His small body bears traces of evil abuses. For the child, the situation had been threatening, says the home director. His motor and linguistic development had also caused concern.
The home director then creates a set of measures to check what’s going on with the boy. The home had informed the Social Services Office verbally and in writing that it wanted to keep the boy in the facility. But no one came from the authority to look at the child. They knew nothing from investigations against the father.
However, a week later, the Social Services Bureau still decides to return Kevin to his father’s care once he’s released from psychiatry. When the father picks up the boy after two weeks in the home, the man “made a bad impression”.Concerned about the boy, the head of the home turns to the mayor of Bremen, who also reacted immediately.
In retrospect, it was “unbelievable” that the Office for Social Services repeatedly demanded that everything was in order – although there had been no contact with the boy since April, says the home director. In January 2006, a worried probation officer reports: Kevin’s father is not able to take care of the boy alone or to educate. According to the head of social affairs, a minority spoken out against the father. However, the majority pleaded with the reference to the “family orientation” for the care of the father. Condition, however, should be that the father accept help.
The child gets a childminder at the direction of the social center. There Kevin appears only irregular. The father tells himself he wants to move with his son to his grandmother. The lives outside of Bremen in the country. The responsibility would have had to take over another municipality. The day care is canceled shortly afterwards.
The family lawyer asks several times how Kevin is. From the youth welfare office she always gets satisfactory answers. In April 2006, Social Services staff members see Kevin for the last time. They decide that he must be supported by early help. In July, the Early Intervention Center announces that Kevin does not appear. However, it is not until September that the Office of Social Services reports to the guardian that Kevin’s father refuses to offer assistance. It is not until 18 September that the final decision is made to take the boy’s father. The best interests of the child are at risk. A procedure is initiated, a court has to decide. This lasts until the 2nd of October. Only this day, the family court decides to pick Kevin up from his father’s home and place him in a foster home. Again it takes eight days.On 10 October, employees of the youth welfare office ring the doorbell with the support of the police. It is shortly after seven o’clock in the morning. The father does not open, the police break the door open. In the fridge, they discover Kevin’s body. It shows fractures of the left thigh, right tibia and left forearm. His head must also have been maltreated, bleeding was discovered on him. The father stammered something about an accident, but makes swift use of his right to refuse to testify.
Against the father is now determined because of the urgent suspicion of the maltreatment and manslaughter. The initiated investigations against authorities employees were initially not directed against specific persons, said a spokesman for the prosecutor.
“A company hired to evaluate underground storage tanks adjacent to the Dozier School for Boys in Marianna performed a series of ground-penetrating radar tests on a parcel a little less than 500 feet from what is called the Boot Hill Cemetery at Dozier, an infamous youth prison linked to more than a century of chilling abuse. “A report on the study said there are 27 “anomalies” on the parcel consistent with human burials. If the 27 anomalies are, in fact, human remains, the total number of known burials on the campus would rise to at least 82 — though University of South Florida researchers who have studied the campus extensively believe there may have been 100 or more deaths at Dozier since its opening in 1900.”“Unmarked graves, by conscious design, are made to be hiding places,” said Jack Levine, a Florida children’s advocate who had raised concerns about Dozier when he was a young social worker for the state, according to the Herald. “What stays hidden almost forgives the crime.” For years, state officials have contended that only 31 boys were buried at the site. However, independent forensic scientists using high-tech equipment have found far more than that.On the campus, a small white building remains which was used by staff to torture and rape the boys in this institution. As the Herald notes in gruesome detail: “That’s where officers took them, they said, to be beaten — sometimes scores of times — with a leather strap inlaid with metal. The boys would be forced to lie prone on a filthy cot in a cell that became speckled with blood and slivers of human flesh. Some of the men also said they had been taken to a “rape room” where officers sexually assaulted them. Others say they were aware of children who were killed there.” Despite being notorious for rampant torture and sexual abuse of children, the school remained open well into the 21st century and did not shutter its doors until 2011.
Aitia Smith-Gross says her son, Peter, was taken from her because of alleged neglect, and less than two months later, he died while in foster care in Methuen. For two months, Peter stayed in foster care, while she visited. Smith-Gross says she was told to find permanent suitable housing and take parenting classes. “Thursday, DCF came to my house and told me my son passed away, because the foster mom left him on his stomach alone for 10 minutes and came back and he wasn’t breathing,” she said.
A 20-month-old foster child died after he suffered a head injury which likely led to brain swelling and deteriorating consciousness, a paediatrician told Dubbo Local Court this week. Before his heart stopped beating at a Neilrex property near Coolah, the toddler was being cared for by a [foster mother] woman who police allege murdered him sometime during the night between March 22 and March 23 in 2015. In January 2018 the woman, whose name was suppressed by the court, was arrested in Geurie and charged with murder. The court heard the dead child had a broken femur, injuries to his bottom area and extensive bruising to his abdomen and face.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/criminal-negligence-charge-baby-1.5160320?fbclid=IwAR1iDfEv3Ax_NEPb28j62NS8APnjX1fwxX3byNZ2IOjR3dtkq7LUJDl6u_g A young man admitted in court Monday that he caused the death of a 10-month-old foster child in his care in 2017,Waylen Wood, 24, pleaded guilty in the Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench Monday to criminal negligence causing death. The baby was still sick and being fussy, so Wood told his wife he would stay home and take care of him, Sychuk said. That morning, the baby continued to be fussy while Wood tried to give him bath. While dressing the baby, Wood grabbed the child’s arm roughly and twisted it. Wood also hit the baby’s head, Sychuk said. The chief medical officer examined the child and said Wood broke the baby’s arm and caused an “extensive” surrounding hemorrhage, Sychuk said. The baby continued to cry, and Wood dropped the boy on the floor in “complete frustration,” the court heard. The doctor who examined the baby said he had been dropped from more than 1.5 metres up. Wood then called 911, but when the operator asked if they should send an ambulance, Wood turned it down. He then called his wife, who went home and immediately noticed the baby’s arm was injured, the court was told. When she asked Wood what happened to the baby, Wood said he had fallen.
A man under arrest in Arizona told police that human remains found inside his burning home are of an adopted girl who died 2½ years ago, court documents revealed Monday. The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office said in a criminal complaint against Rafael Loera, 56, and Maribel Loera, 50, that the man allegedly told Phoenix police the girl died while the family was taking her to a hospital.
Not the end…
