DCF says it talked with Kansas City, Kansas, 3-year-old days before she was killed
Eleven days before Olivia Jansen’s body was found July 10 in a shallow grave in Kansas City, Kansas, the 3-year-old talked to a state child welfare worker on a video call.
The worker was investigating a June 22 hotline report from a caller worried that Olivia’s caregiver was “unavailable/unable” to care for her and may be using drugs.
That call led to the assignment of a Family in Need of Assessment case — where workers determine what services can help the family, the Department for Children and Families said Friday. The agency said the caller did not claim that abuse had occurred.
Because Olivia and her father’s girlfriend were out of state, the state worker initiated a video call on June 30 where the worker could see and talk to the child. The little girl had been living with her father and his girlfriend at the time.
“Olivia appeared excited about the upcoming Independence Day holiday,” according to a summary of information provided by DCF Friday morning. On the same day, the agency requested Olivia’s father take a drug test, which came back positive for THC on July 7.
On the morning of July 10 — as DCF’s assessment case was still ongoing and workers were determining what services the family would need — Olivia’s father reported to police that his daughter was missing. By early evening, authorities found her body.
Wyandotte County prosecutors have charged Olivia’s father, Howard Jansen III, 29, and his girlfriend, Jacqulyn Kirkpatrick, 33, with felony murder and other crimes in the girl’s death. According to a a probable cause affidavit, Olivia’s body had signs of physical abuse. She had a small cut on the back of her head and died of a brain bleed, court records show.
Laura Howard, head of DCF, told The Star Friday that she understands the hurt in the community and inside Olivia’s family. Some have questioned the agency’s involvement in the case after relatives said they had reported concerns to authorities and the child remained in the home.
Her agency, she said, continues to investigate and will do a “deep dive” to see if there was a breakdown in the system and if improvements need to be made.
“It’s a tragedy when a child dies,” Howard said. “I think this hits everybody hard. My heart goes out to the family and frankly to the entire community. It’s also hit my team hard.
“Even in a case where you could say if you dotted every i and crossed every t, when the net effect is a child is dead, I think that’s really, really hard on everyone and incumbent on all of us to say, you know, what might have happened differently?”
A preliminary investigation, Howard said, shows that staff followed policy. A more comprehensive probe is being conducted and results of that will be released, she said.
“We were not responding to an allegation of physical abuse,” Howard said regarding the June report. “And our initial contact with the child didn’t see that.”
The first call the agency received on Olivia was back in February, according to information released Friday.
On Feb. 28, the state’s abuse and neglect report center received two calls, one alleging that the “dad” hit Olivia Jansen on the leg, leaving a bruise and that her leg might be broken, according to the DCF release Friday. The other report alleged the “dad’s girlfriend (Jacqueline) hit Olivia.”
The DCF release said: “Report was assigned as same day response for physical abuse. DCF interviewed and observed Olivia on the same day the report was made and observed no marks or bruises. After additional interviews, person who alleged abuse recanted the story. After thorough assessment and discussion, no services were offered. The assigned reports were unsubstantiated, and case was closed.”
Nothing else was reported until June.
According to a 2018 law, DCF must release certain details about a child’s death after it determines it was caused by abuse or neglect. In this case, that took three weeks.
It took the agency that amount of time to make the administrative determination that Olivia had, in fact, died of abuse. One issue, Howard said, could be the way the law is worded.
“If the 2018 law said, ‘That in the event that charges are levied in the death of child that allege child abuse, DCF shall release its past history,’ we could have released the past history three weeks ago,” Howard said. “What the law says is that we have to go through our process, which is a specific process to substantiate child abuse.
“If the law was framed slightly different, we could have released it three weeks ago, but because the law requires us to make that independent substantiation of child abuse that puts us in a really difficult situation, particularly when there’s an ongoing criminal investigation.”
Howard said she and her staff were already having conversations on whether they should recommend adjustments be made to the law in the coming months.
No matter how many hotline calls are made to DCF about a child’s well-being, it’s important when a child dies that the agency be open and honest, Howard said.
“I want to be transparent,” she said. “I understand the public interest, the community interest. I think it’s important the community know the involvement that DCF has had. ...I would have liked nothing better than to have released this information immediately.”
Rep. Jarrod Ousley, D-Merriam, said legislators can always go back and look at new legislation to see if tweaks are needed.
“If the secretary is currently on board with it, that would be the time to do so. In the past we haven’t had the willingness to be transparent,” he said. “Details of the call is useful information.”
Olivia’s paternal grandparents told The Star earlier that they had not seen the girl since March and called DCF in June about their concerns of her well-being.
The grandmother said she spoke with someone there for more than 20 minutes, expressing fear that drugs were in the home Olivia lived in. She said she later received a letter from the agency that stated it would not be contacting her with updates, but that she could submit more information to investigators.
She worried that if child services contacted Olivia’s father and Kirkpatrick, but then didn’t follow up to check on the little girl, her situation could get worse.
Howard said she knows the anger that exists after Olivia’s death. And she understands that some say the agency failed her.
“What I would say to the community is, ‘I hear you, I understand that perception,’” Howard said. “Know this, our workers I’m sure are sitting there going, ‘What if this? What if that? ‘ I feel that, I hear that.
“But one thing I think is important to say to the community is don’t stop making reports, keep your eyes open. Don’t stop calling us if you see or hear things.”
This story was originally published July 31, 2020 at 4:53 PM.
