COALITION AGAINST INSTITUTIONALIZED CHILD ABUSE
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CHILDREN WHO HAVE DIED IN FOSTER CARE

Help for Grieving Families (click here)
 

Children who are placed in the care of the state need and deserve protection. The same protection all other children need and deserve. Too often we hear of children who have died because the system failed them in one way or another.

WOULD YOU LIKE TO HELP? This is a new page on CAICA. If you have information about a child who has died as a result of the foster care system, please e-mail their stories to us at info@caica.org. Please include as much information as possible, including links to news articles and photographs, if you have them. We will then add their information to this list and their photo to our Memorial Website so they will not be forgotten.

We must ask ourselves: what can we do to assure these deaths will not happen again? Please share your thoughts, suggestions, and stories with us so that we can be a voice for those who no longer have a voice. E-mail info@caica.org.

 
CHILD NAME AGE/DATE DETAILS ARTICLES/DOCS
 
Christopher Michael
 8 years
11/24/2002
 		 Christopher died from abuse and neglect. He had pneumonia and was heavily bruised. His adopted parents and seven siblings went on to serve as missionaries in Africa. His adoptive mother was arrested when she returned to the US. Investigations into his death revealed he was beaten an average of six times a day. If he didn't eat properly his food was taken away. He resorted to stealing scraps from the compost heap and to eating dog food. If he soiled himself he was forced to wear the dirty diaper on his head. According to court documents, if he didn't wash his clothes correctly in a 5-gallon bucket his parents dunked his head in the dirty water until he stopped struggling.
 		 Christopher's main page
 
Dominic Williams
 		 16 years
6/2004
 		 Beating and strangulation by sex offender; abused and neglected while shuffled through series of group and foster homes. Records indicate the Missouri Department of Family Services failed to place him in six possible permanent homes, including with his paternal grandmother who raised his older brother.
 		 Dominic's main page
Dontel Jeffers

 		 4 years
3/6/2005
 		 Dontel was removed from his home when his father was deported. He lived with his foster mother for 11 days, and was abused during the time he was with her. She has been charged with the beating death of Dontel, leaving fingernail and other marks on his little body.
 		 Dontel's main page
Isaac Lethbridge

 		 2 years
8/16/06		 Isaac was removed from his parents' home because of filthy living conditions. He was placed in foster care. He was beaten to death inside the Detroit foster home of Charlise Adams-Rogers, a placement made by the Stewart Center.
 		 Isaac's main page
Katherine Frances

 6 years
12/5/06
 		 Katherine suffered from a skull fracture, brain damage, internal bleeding and bruising to her eye, hip and arms. Her foster mother, Joyce Luvern Burks, 41, waited several hours before taking Katherine to a hospital. Officials say Ms. Burks could have prevented Katherine's death. She was arrested on suspicion of injury to a child. She was being held at the DeSoto city jail Friday in lieu of $500,000 bail and could face up to 99 years or life in prison.

The arrest comes five weeks after Ms. Burks' 14-year-old biological son, who has a different last name, was taken into custody on suspicion of murder. Police say he repeatedly body-slammed Katherine on Dec. 3. She died two days later.

 

 Katherine's main page
Kayla Lorriane Wood
 		 16 years
 		 Kayla was stabbed and found in a burning building. She was in and out of foster care homes and was not properly supervised. Her grandparents feel the system failed her.
 		 Kayla's main page
Keyana Bravo-Hamilton

 

 2 years Keyana's foster mother was charged with one count of murder by abuse; one count of murder; one count of criminal mistreatment of Keyana’s sister, Jasmine; and one count of criminal mistreatment in the first degree for withholding medical treatment.
 		 Keyana's main page
Marcus Fiesel

 		 3 years
8/2006

According to police, Marcus' foster parents wrapped him in a blanket with his arms behind him and taped it tight, then left him in a closet for two solid days while they went off to a family reunion in Kentucky. When they returned and found him dead, police say, they took him to a farm in Brown County, Ohio, and after several tries burned his body. Then they concocted a cruel lie - that he had wandered off or been abducted during an outing to an Anderson Township park - to explain his absence.

Other details that have begun to emerge in published accounts raise disturbing questions about Marcus' care, including the propriety of his placement in the first place and the adequacy of follow-up checks on his welfare. But the real tragedy is that this kind of child abuse, this kind of neglect, this kind of institutional failure to protect all our children, is so common.

 

 Marcus' main page
Name not released 16-month old
9/4/06		 Bruising to head and shoulders, cause of death was blunt force trauma. This child was in foster care. His foster mother was charged with capital murder.  (click here)


 

 http://www.compassionatefriends.org/
Compassionate Friends' mission is to assist families toward the positive resolution of grief following the death of a child of
any age and to provide information to help others be supportive. They offer friendship, understanding, and hope to the
bereaved. There is no religious affiliation and there are no membership fees or dues. Their secret to success is as seasoned
grievers reach out to the newly bereaved, energy that has been directed inward begins to flow outward and both are helped
to heal. Their vision is that everyone who needs them will find them and everyone who finds them will be helped. 

 

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