After string of child deaths in Kansas City, why is the public still in the dark?
Three children, ages 4 to 6, died gruesome deaths in Kansas City the past 2 1/2 years.
One was decapitated. Authorities said another died of malnutrition, and the third fell 17 floors from an apartment window. Since their deaths, three more younger children in the area have died, including an Independence boy who fell from an eighth-floor window on July 29.
Officials with the Missouri Department of Social Services have not released information about any of these children. No details on whether their families were ever reported for abuse or neglect or if they received any state services.
And because of Missouri law, they don’t have to.
Unlike other states, such as Kansas where laws in recent years have ensured more transparency after a child’s death from abuse or neglect, the release of information in the Show-Me State is at the sole discretion of the DSS director after reviewing whether the information could harm siblings.
And Robert Knodell, who has been in the top post since the fall of 2021, said information is not released until investigations are complete. In some cases, that can take years, leaving the public in the dark about whether Missouri’s child welfare system designed to protect the state’s most vulnerable children did everything it was supposed to do.
Teresa Woody is litigation director for Kansas Appleseed Center for Law and Justice, a nonprofit that has been among the groups fighting for more transparency in the neighboring Sunflower State. It’s “very surprising,” she said, that Missouri’s law is so limited.
“Unfortunately, after a death, there’s nothing you can do (for) that child,” Woody said. “The whole point of the information being released is so that you can try to take steps to keep that from happening to other children in the future.
“That’s always the goal, to have as much transparency around child welfare as possible.”
But that hasn’t been the case after a child dies in Missouri. That’s why some think it’s time for lawmakers to champion a change in the current law, which went into effect more than two decades ago.
As for Knodell, he’s become known for his transparency when it comes to struggles inside his agency. He’s spoken openly about the need for more resources to address high turnover and rising caseloads.
He launched an investigation after former students of a southern Missouri boarding school said hotline calls alleging abuse had been made over the years but nothing came of them. And after 43 children in Missouri — from babies and toddlers to older teens — died of fentanyl in 2022, Knodell appointed a subcommittee to analyze those deaths.
Then, earlier this year, he released that group’s report which showed the state’s child welfare agency missed warning signs and failed to protect dozens of children from dying of the illicit drug.
In a letter accompanying that report, Knodell said: “It is imperative that we collectively strive for improvement on both a personal and communal level.”
Yet when it comes to child deaths, Knodell has drawn a hard line. He told The Star in an email that after a child’s death that his department is “not in a position to release any information until a final conclusion has been entered.”
“... Accountability and continuous improvement are paramount priorities here at DSS and within our Children’s Division, as well as doing our part to aid in the proper administration of justice for victims,” he said. “We must also weigh the privacy protections afforded by statutes to surviving, innocent children and other innocent, immediate relatives, who sometimes live in communities that are marginalized.
“Protections that should receive the same consideration as those for more privileged members of society.”
Still, Woody and other child advocates say Missouri’s law needs to allow for more information to be shared. Similar to what happens in states like Kansas.
In 2018, Kansas lawmakers passed legislation that required the Secretary of the Department for Children and Families to release certain information when a child dies of abuse or neglect. That information includes the age and sex of the child and a summary of previous reports received by the agency and services that were provided to the child.
This past session, lawmakers increased that transparency requiring the secretary to release information sooner in some cases. As of July 1, the DCF secretary doesn’t have to wait until an investigation finds the child died of abuse or neglect. The secretary is now required to release information when related criminal charges are filed and the kid was involved in the child welfare system.
“To have one person who has the power to either make it public or not … that’s very troubling,” Woody said. “Agencies have a proclivity to protect themselves.
“ … Obviously, children have confidentiality privileges, just like anybody does, but you know, when you have something like this happen, you really need to figure out what happened. Was it just something (that) couldn’t have been foreseen? Was it, you know, something that somebody should have noticed?”
Karvell, Ivy and Grayson
Karvell Stevens, 6, was found on Feb. 15, 2022. Police responded to his mother’s home in the 7300 block of Indiana Avenue on Kansas City’s southeast side after a woman called and said “the devil was trying to attack her.”
Officers found Karvell’s decapitated body inside the home.
His mother Tasha Haefs, 35, was charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action and is set to go to trial in April of next year. Authorities allege she admitted to killing her son — a student at Spring Valley Elementary School in Raytown — in a bathtub.
The Star requested information shortly after Karvell’s death and renewed its request for information three months ago and received a standard response:
“DSS has checked into the status of this investigation and at this time, it remains open,” the response said. “... DSS records of child abuse and neglect are generally closed and confidential by law and not subject to release.
“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.”
Nine months after Karvell’s death, police responded to an apartment along St. John Avenue in northeast Kansas City and found Ivy House dead inside a bedroom. Wrapped in blankets, her malnourished body was already decomposing. In just six days she would have turned 5.
Ivy’s surviving twin sister, identified in court records as AH, suffered severe malnutrition and dehydration. The living 5-year-old weighed no more than a 20-month-old girl when she was found, court documents said.
Charging documents indicated that Fish had previously lost custody of the girls, but regained it in 2019.
Again, DSS did not answer questions about Ivy’s family. The girl’s mother, Adair Fish, is scheduled for a jury trial in February.
Then in late November of last year, police responded to an alley near the Grand Boulevard Lofts, where a 911 caller had found Grayson O’Connor, a 5-year-old boy. Officers noticed an open window on the 17th floor and questioned his mother, Corrinne O’Connor, in her apartment. She allegedly told police her son had gone out the window, according to court documents.
Authorities said she didn’t call 911 to report his fall. O’Connor allegedly removed safety devices from the window of her apartment that would’ve prevented the window from opening more than a few inches, according to an eviction petition from the apartment building.
Neighbors told The Star they reported their concerns for Grayson’s welfare to Missouri’s Child Abuse & Neglect Hotline.
Eight months after The Star asked for information and records, the state recently provided an “update on your request.”
“At this time, investigations have been closed on this case,” the email said. “DSS is now currently conducting a final review on your request to decide if any action may be taken. As this process may take some time, we appreciate your patience and understanding.
“DSS anticipates the new estimated earliest date responsive records may be available is August 29, 2024.”
Child tragedies have continued after Grayson’s death.
In February, prosecutors charged a Kansas City mother with endangering the welfare of a child after she told police that she mistakenly placed her 1-month-old baby in an oven instead of her crib, according to court documents. The child died.
And in mid June, Kansas City Police discovered a 7-month-old baby unresponsive at a home in the 5300 block of Olive Street, near Blue Hills Park. The baby, Giovanni Carr — known as Gio — died a few days later of injuries consistent with serious abuse.
A relative of the baby told The Star that the little boy was in the care of his godmother at the time he was allegedly injured. The godmother was, at the time, the best friend of Gio’s mother and had watched the baby before, but never by herself, the relative said.
DSS has not provided The Star with any information on those two babies.
After a child’s death, Missouri has an “internal crucial event review process,” Knodell said, where a group of workers from Children’s Division and DSS review “any prior history” in the case. The purpose of the review process, he said, is to ensure that policies and procedures were followed and to identify trends that the two departments could respond to “in order to better practice.”
When asked if all policies and procedures were followed in the cases of Karvell, Ivy and Grayson, Knodell declined to say.
“At this time,” he said, “the Department is unable to comment on the cases identified due to the investigation remaining open and/or the impact to other children within the immediate family, the criminal investigation or other legal proceedings being impacted.”
‘A little bit suspect for me’
Last week, a 3-year-old child died after falling from an apartment window at Independence Towers. Police still have not released his name.
Prosecutors charged the boy’s father, Moses Bass, and his father’s girlfriend, Destiny Randle, each with one count of first-degree endangering the welfare of a child. The other children in the home were placed in state custody, court documents said.
According to an Independence police report from July 22 — a week before the boy’s death — another child who lives at the home was found wandering outside at 7 a.m. The 5-year-old 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. 24 highway.
An officer took the child, wearing only shorts and flip flops, back to police headquarters. The department then made a social media post with a photo of the boy in an effort to reunite the child with his family. Police eventually pieced information together and went to an Independence Towers apartment where Randle opened the door.
The officer wrote in the report that the state’s Department of Social Services was notified about the incident.
It is not clear if the department followed up on the report.
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Baylee Watts, a DSS spokeswoman, said “information related to specific child abuse and neglect investigations is closed and confidential under Missouri law, except under very limited circumstances.”
“The Department of Social Services strongly encourages anyone who suspects child abuse or neglect to call our toll-free hotline at 1-800-392-3738,” she said in the email. “The Missouri Child Abuse and Neglect Hotline is answered 24-hours a day, every day, all year round.”
In wake of this recent death in Independence and the others since February 2022, some hope lawmakers revisit what DSS can release and when. As well as whose decision it should be.
“I think it’s a really good question to be exploring, for sure,” said Rep. Ingrid Burnett, a Kansas City democrat, who is “termed out” and won’t be in office next session. Burnett served on the Children and Families Committee.
“I have to say, the sole discretion of the department’s director for anything is a little bit suspect for me, because I think there is an opportunity there to be influenced by factors other than what’s best for the child, or what’s best for the family or whatever service you’re delivering.
“That rings a little alarm bell for me.”
Burnett was quick to say that she’s been impressed with recent changes inside the child welfare system and the focus on family preservation under Knodell and Children’s Division Director Darrell Missey. Her issue, she said, is not with who is in charge, but the law itself.
And whether the system is adequately funded to protect children.
“In my mind, yes, we need to know, are they doing they’re job appropriately?” she said. “But do they also have the resources to do that job? I’m going to suggest they don’t. ... And what do we need to do to get them the resources if they don’t?
“I think it’s important for the public to know was the division involved? Were they aware that there were concerns with this family?”
Reporters Nathan Pilling, Bill Lukitsch and Ilana Arougheti contributed to this report.
This story was originally published August 8, 2024 at 6:00 AM.
