Police reported Independence family to state services a week before child’s fatal fall
A week before a 3-year-old fell to his death from an eighth-floor window at an Independence apartment building on July 29, police had visited his home, were in contact with his guardians and made a referral to state child welfare officials, according to a police report.
But despite the fact that the family was reported to the Missouri Department of Social Services, and the family had — on multiple occasions — themselves asked building management at Independence Towers to fix the faulty window, and city officials were aware of the poor condition of the building, nothing appears to have been done to intervene for the boy’s safety.
The social services referral came July 22 when another child from the home, a 5-year-old, was seen walking alone a short distance from the apartments around 7 a.m.
When asked if the Department of Social Services, or DSS, was investigating the death at Independence Towers and whether the agency had received hotline calls about the family, a spokesperson didn’t specifically respond to those questions.
“The Director of the Department of Social Services does have the authority to release information and findings about cases which resulted in a child fatality or near fatality,” Baylee Watts, of DSS, said in an email. “The Director can consider whether it is appropriate to release information or findings about the case after the investigation is concluded and the Department has had the opportunity to consider the impact of the release of information on other children within the immediate family, the criminal investigation or any legal proceedings arising out of the case in the manner required by law.”
It’s unclear if police or DSS investigated the family further or had additional contact with them after the July 22 incident. Officer Kelley Rupert, a spokesperson for the Independence Police Department, didn’t respond to a request for information about that contact Friday afternoon.
After the 3-year-old’s death, the child’s father and the man’s girlfriend were each charged Wednesday with one count of first-degree endangering the welfare of a child. The other children in the home were placed in state custody, according to court documents.
Both Moses Bass, 30, and Destiny Randle, 28, made initial appearances in Jackson County Circuit Court Wednesday and are scheduled for bond review hearings Aug. 7. Both remain in custody in Jackson County jail on $100,000 bond.
Child found lost one week prior
According to a police report about the July 22 incident, which was released to The Star by the Independence Police Department Friday, the 5-year-old child was found at a gas station just north of the apartments after police received a report of a lost child in the area of Jennings Road and U.S. Highway 24.
An employee at the gas station told an officer he had given the child some food because he said he was hungry. At the time, the boy had a Nintendo Switch with him, no shirt on and was wearing shorts and flip flops.
The boy indicated he lived in the direction of the Independence Towers apartment building, but the officer determined “he had no idea where he lived or maybe just did not want to tell me.” The officer took the child back to police headquarters, and the department made a social media post with a photo of the boy in an effort to reunite the child with his family.
“We need your help this morning~Do you recognize this kid?” the department wrote. “We were called to check on this child who appeared to be walking alone this morning around 7:00 a.m. in the area of 24 Highway and Jennings.”
The officer found a profile on the Switch labeled “Moses” and saw the device had previously connected to a network named “BassFamily.” Police found Bass had utilities set up in his name at an apartment at Independence Towers — the same apartment where the 3-year-old would fall one week later.
Police knocked at the apartment door, and Randle answered.
“I asked her, ‘Is this your kid?’ and pointed at (the child), she originally said no and began to say her kids are inside,” the officer wrote in a report. “Destiny then looked outside in disbelief.”
She then called Bass, who reported the child had been in trouble the day before.
“I offered (Bass) resources and they denied wanting services,” the officer wrote. “(The child) went back with the family.”
The officer wrote that the state’s Department of Social Services was notified about the incident.
Faulty window blamed for death
After the 3-year-old’s death a week later, Randle told police that, for months prior to the fatal fall, she tried to get the window fixed by building management.
“Randle reported that she has attempted several times to get building management to fix the window and stated the window has been in that condition since they moved in approximately (one) year ago,” Independence police detective Kurt Jarnagin wrote in charging documents.
After his arrest, Bass allegedly told police in a formal interview that he had known the window was a safety hazard since June 2023, and that the children had been able to bypass the locks and get out the window since December. He allegedly said he knew one of the children could remove the pole they used to secure the window because neighbors told them the children were throwing toys out of the window.
Randle allegedly told police after her arrest she was “concerned from day one that one of her children would fall out the window.”
It comes after a series of problems that have plagued the Independence Towers apartment building for years, as tenants said their calls for help to address a litany of complaints have gone ignored.
Tenants complained publicly for months about living among rats, mice, cockroaches and bed bugs. In March, The Star reported residents didn’t have hot water for two weeks. During the winter, there is no heating — and in the summer, no air conditioning, which multiple tenants told The Star forced them to keep their windows open.
Residents enlisted the help of KC Tenants, a local tenant union, and a court ordered changes to the building’s management and ownership.
But City of Independence officials claim their hands are tied because, they say, no official complaints have been filed. Tom Scannell, Director of Community Development, said the city is unable to take action unless formal complaints are filed to the city.
“We can only enforce the rules and regulations and processes that we have in place. If there are tenants that would like to file a complaint for items that are wrong in their unit, they can reach out to city staff,” Scannell told the The Star in a phone interview. “Once we have the complaint form, the city can then step in to follow the process to ensure that those units are safe and livable.”
And although window locks and restrictions for openings were written into Independence building code roughly 20 years ago, according to Scannell, those codes don’t apply to older buildings like Independence Towers. City code does not allow the city to retroactively enforce the amendment to older buildings, Scannell said.
The 3-year-old who died Monday has not yet been named by officials, but a family member has identified the child by his first name, Tidus. When asked when the child’s name would be released, Rupert, with Independence police, told The Star in an email: “This is an ongoing investigation therefore I cannot give a time frame for that.”
Court documents describe the state of the family’s apartment: A detective wrote that the space had trash piled up “everywhere,” beds for the children were dirty and had no sheets and that old, soiled diapers were found in a room. Child safety covers were found on the doorknobs inside the children’s room, inside the main door and outside of the bathroom.
One of the children in the apartment reported he was in the bedroom with the door shut when the 3-year-old fell from the bedroom window and died.
The child also said he had marks on his arms and legs from Randle and Bass allegedly hurting him with an object described by the detective as a “black whip or belt-like object.”
The Star’s Noelle Alviz-Gransee, Robert A. Cronkleton and Kendrick Calfee provided reporting for this story.
This story was originally published August 2, 2024 at 6:19 PM.
