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CBS 11 NEWS
Girl Dies In Foster Home, Teenage Boy
Accused
December 6, 2006
Jack Fink Reporting
(CBS 11 News) DESOTO A 14-year-old
boy is accused of killing a 6-year-old girl in a foster care home.
Click here for video
 Katherine
Frances died at Children's Medical Center Tuesday night. Police say
she was body slammed repeatedly by the son of her foster parents.
“What we’ve been told by witnesses
and by the suspect himself was the child was picked up over its head
and slammed to the floor on four separate occasions,” Captain Rod
Smith of the Desoto Police Department said.
The death has sparked an intense
safety check of foster families. On Thursday, December 21, Child
Protective Services says it has closed eight homes covered by Mesa
Family Services. Of the 128 under review, 97 homes have been
inspected.
CPS is also investigating
Therapeutic Family Life, the private company that now licenses the
foster home in question. A company attorney says there was no
indication of a safety problem at the home.
The state is also reviewing Mesa
Family Services, the original firm that licensed the foster home and
surrendered its license.
"You know we take them out of a
situation to a worse situation, what's that all about?" asked State
Representative Elvira Reyna of Mesquite. Reyna’s committee oversees
CPS and she says the legislature revamped the organization during
the last session. "Once we put something in place, we don’t know if
it’s working until something like this happens. Obviously we didn’t
do enough. More needs to be done as quickly as possible."
“I feel the system is
overburdened," said former foster care supervisor Carol Duncan. She
thinks part of the problem is the state's rush to have private
companies license foster homes. "We're taking the kids a further
step away from the case worker who is supposed to be responsible for
ensuring their safety."
CPS said there should have been an
adult at the home at all times with the children. “We believe the
foster father was at work all that day. And so the question is
whether the mom was there,” Marissa Gonzalez with CPS said.
The victim was placed in the foster
home with her three brothers and sisters last July after their
mother left them home alone without food or water.
The 14-year-old boy is currently in
the custody of juvenile protective services. The suspect's aunt
tells us there's been a rush to judgment and her nephew did not kill
Frances.
Desoto police searched the foster
house Wednesday. There has been no word on what they uncovered. The
police say the teenage boy will be formally charged with murder a
week from Friday.
Authorities have removed the
victim's brothers and sisters from the home. They are now with their
grandfather in Plano. The state had considered placing the children
there earlier this fall, but didn't because there were people in the
home with criminal records or a history with CPS.
The six-year-old victim's
biological mother has hired attorney Domingo Garcia. She has
declined to comment on the situation.
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