Metro
Tot dies
after injury in foster home: Officials treating case as homicide
By Stella
Garin, Cynthia Hubert and Ted Bell
Staff Writers
A 2-year-old
child died Tuesday afternoon after suffering injuries at the south Sacramento
County home of his foster family, and homicide detectives are investigating
whether he was a victim of abuse or neglect.
The boy, one of six foster children under the age of 4 in the home, was
pronounced dead at Methodist Hospital after a family member called 911
early in the afternoon and reported that the toddler was not breathing.
Authorities declined to identify the child since his natural parents had
yet to be notified.
Spokesman Jim Cooper said the Sheriff's Department is treating the death
as a homicide because of "inconsistencies" between the child's
condition and the explanations provided by the foster mother and her daughter.
No charges had been filed Tuesday night.
Investigators provided few details about the circumstances of the boy's
death, but another source said the child may have been injured in a tub
of hot water.
An autopsy is scheduled for today.
The foster mother, who authorities said is licensed and in good standing
with the county, was questioned Tuesday along with her 22-year-old daughter.
The family, whom neighbors described as quiet, live in a well-kept home
near Calvine and Grant Line roads in south Sacramento. Authorities don't
believe there is an adult male living there, but they couldn't confirm
that Tuesday.
The five surviving foster children, including the dead boy's two siblings,
ages 6 months and 4 years, were placed in emergency foster homes.
"It's a horrendous tragedy," Jim Hunt, director of Sacramento
County's Department of Health and Human Assistance, said of the boy's
death. "But it's too early to assess blame or fault. We've got to
let the Sheriff's Department conduct its investigation."
The death comes at a time when the county's foster care system is under
severe strain because of a huge increase of children in recent years and
a shortage of "quality foster parents."
Preliminary data show that, in part because of the county's tougher stance
on abusive and neglectful families, the number of children in foster care
grew from 2,911 in 1995 to 5,756 last year.
A task force led by retired Judge Eugene Gualco is studying the implications
of those numbers on the children the system serves. The panel is scheduled
to release a full report within the next month.
The dramatic increase in the county's foster care caseload came after
Child Protective Services changed its policy to embrace a "child
protection" philosophy rather than one that attempted to keep families
together after alleged abuse.
But Hunt said the strains on the system apparently played no role in Tuesday's
tragedy.
"It doesn't appear that this was a factor here," he said. "This
appeared to be a very good foster home, and we had no indications of any
problems whatsoever."
The foster mother, 43, received her license about 18 months ago and is
allowed to care for a maximum of six children, sources said.
Cheri Taylor, coordinator of the county's child death review team, which
investigates deaths of all youngsters through the age of 17, said a handful
of children have died in the care of foster parents in recent years but
only one involved suspicious circumstances.
That death, which occurred in 1997, has been referred by the team to the
District Attorney's Office, she said. It is still under investigation
and no charges have been filed.
Taylor cautioned that some deaths seem like obvious cases of abuse at
first, "and later, after you look carefully, things seem a lot different."
The agency in charge of overseeing the care of the child who died Tuesday
is St. Patrick's foster family agency. An individual who answered the
phone at the agency declined to comment.
Gary Levenson-Palmer,chief of the state's community care licensing unit
that oversees Sacramento's licensed foster family agencies, said county
officials will investigate how this foster home was certified and what
type of supervision was provided by St. Patrick's that might have helped
prevent the tragedy.
Children placed with private foster families are supposed to be closely
supervised, with weekly visits from social workers.
Levenson-Palmer said county officials recently cited St. Patrick's foster
family agency for their actions concerning problems with another foster
parent, unrelated to Tuesday's case.
Staff writer
Nancy Weaver Teichert also contributed to this report.