The disappearance and presumed death of 5-year-old Jeremiah Oliver has brought new scrutiny to the state’s Department of Children and Families. An investigation by the New England Center for Investigative Reporting has uncovered that children receiving DCF services are about six times as likely as other Massachusetts children to die from maltreatment.
Inside her Waltham condo, Andrea Rizzitano sits at her kitchen table looking at pictures of her great-nephew Kadyn Hancock. In almost every photo Kadyn’s big gray eyes stare into the camera – looking surprised, curious, even amused – like any other toddler.
At the time four years ago Rizzitano knew something wasn’t right with how her niece – and Kadyn’s mom – Christina Hancock was treating him.
"Ms. Hancock was very rough with the children. I noticed with Kadyn especially," she said.
Rizzitano’s growing alarm led her to contact the state’s Department of Children and Families over a dozen times.
"I became almost desperate to get help, and I called the social worker that was in charge of the case and I begged and pleaded and cried for help and it just didn’t come," she said.
DCF finally opened a file shortly before Kadyn was taken to the hospital with a broken arm in March 2010.
"I then again intervened and I said, 'please do not return him to the home. I will take him. Give him to someone else – even if it’s a stranger. Whoever you can, just so that he’ll be safe.'"
Rizzitano claims DCF removed Kadyn from his home for one week before being returned — a decision she protested.
"They didn’t feel they had to give me a reason and that’s what they said. And the social worker would come occasionally –every few weeks– and she would see that the house was cleaned, which I was cleaning and there was food in the refrigerator, which I supplied, and that was it."
Less than two months later, Kadyn died of blunt force trauma. His autopsy revealed that he suffered internal bleeding and contusions to the stomach, liver and colon. Kadyn was just 13 months old. His mother, Christina Hancock, pled guilty to involuntary manslaughter and is now in prison.
Sadly, Kadyn’s story is a familiar one. According to findings by the New England Center for Investigative Reporting, Kadyn is just one of more than 95 children to die while under DCF supervision over the past decade. NECIR reports the number of deaths is likely even higher since the state has not said how many children have died from 2011 to 2013.
Those were questions raised almost nine years ago by the mother of another boy, Dontel Jeffers. In 2005, 4-year-old Dontel was beaten to death after a little more than a week in a new foster home. Soon after came the death of 4-year-old Rebecca Riley, who was given a fatal overdose of psychiatric drugs by her parents. And most recently, there is the case of 5-year-old Jeremiah Oliver – who has been missing since last September and is presumed dead.
But, in a recent interview with NECN Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick suggested the Oliver case is not a reflection of the state’s child welfare system.
"There are gonna be outliers from time to time; people who don’t do what they’re expected to do, or who are poorly supervised."
But Andrea Rizzitano doesn’t agree.
"We can’t minimize the scope of the problem anymore and say, 'well, it’s an isolated case here and it’s an isolated case there,'- 95 children are not an isolated case here and there. It’s a red flag; it’s a pattern."
Rizzitano is suing DCF for failing to protect her nephew. Her case was dismissed last week, but she’s planning an appeal. Meanwhile an independent review of DCF is underway and expected to wrap up by April.
