Missed signs? Missouri hotline called seven times before boy’s 2023 death
Before a Kansas City boy fell from a 17th floor apartment window and died in November 2023, Missouri’s child welfare agency had been contacted seven times to protect him.
Records released by the Missouri Department of Social Services on Thursday — 16 months after The Star first requested them — show that callers tried to help Grayson O’Connor in the years and months before his death. They reported everything from his mother having unstable housing and previous drug use to seeing her berate and scream at him.
Other calls reported that Grayson’s mother appeared overwhelmed and unable to care for him. In the same year that Grayson died, three hotline calls were made, including one reporting that his mother had screamed at him again and left him at an intersection.
That report led Missouri’s Children’s Division to open cases for “family-centered services” and “intensive in-home services.” But after yet another hotline call that year, state workers closed the family-centered services case less than three weeks before the boy’s death.
“Family Centered Services case closed 11.9.23 due to mother’s failure to progress and unwillingness to continue services,” the records detailing the reports and results of the investigations said.
Grayson died Nov. 27, 2023, one month before his sixth birthday.
His mother, Corrinne O’Connor, 28, faces a June 23 trial on charges of felony child endangerment resulting in the death of a child. O’Connor, according to court records, is accused of causing her son’s death by removing safety devices from the window of her apartment.
“The loss of a child is a tragedy that no parent, family member or community should have to endure,” Jessica Bax, DSS director, wrote in a letter accompanying the records. “And we extend our deepest condolences to those who have been affected.”
Bax said DSS took “prompt action” to review local child welfare practice after Grayson’s death and implemented a series of steps to “address and improve practices.”
“The information released is not just an account of what has occurred, but a call to action that reinforces our unwavering dedication to the safety and well-being of our state’s most vulnerable.”
History of hotlines
The reports and details from the investigations released Thursday only confirm what O’Connor’s neighbors said soon after Grayson’s death. They previously told The Star that they had seen and reported warning signs of neglect and abuse throughout the years Corrinne O’Connor and Grayson had lived in the building.
A Star analysis of police records found that police were called to the apartment at least eight times since 2018, and that Grayson had been temporarily removed from his mother’s custody at least once before.
In the months since Grayson’s death, child welfare advocates have been frustrated that more wasn’t done to protect the boy.
Kansas City police were dispatched to the downtown apartment building on Nov. 27 after a passerby discovered the boy lying in the alley. Officers found Grayson’s body behind the Grand Boulevard Lofts with apparent head trauma.
Officers noticed a lone open window on the 17th floor and went upstairs.
In the apartment, police found Grayson’s mother on the ground underneath an open window, according to a probable cause affidavit. Police asked where her son was and she responded, “Out the window.”
The newly-released DSS records provide details of what calls were made and when in the years leading up to that day. The first hotline call was investigated in 2017.
That call reported that the family had “unstable housing, concerns for unstable relationship and prior drug use.” Children’s Division opened a “family-centered services” case and provided housing resources, counseling, parenting class and “unannounced and announced visits with the family,” information released Thursday showed.
Despite the services, the hotline calls continued.
In 2021, O’Connor was referred for “preventive services” after a report stating that she “expressed she was overwhelmed with care of child” and she had lost her job and had “limited food in the home.”
Workers eventually closed the referral.
“Children’s Division made multiple attempts to contact mother without success,” records show.
The following year, someone observed O’Connor “screaming at child,” the information from DSS said. “Child crying and holding hands to face. Mother was observed to be overwhelmed. Concern for mother’s ability to care for child.”
“Children’s Division made contact with mother and mother indicated she was not in need of services,” the records said. Parents and families can refuse services from the state.
No services were provided.
The final hotline call — regarding Grayson’s death — came in late 2023. The result of the investigation was “finding of neglect.”
“No additional services were provided due to mother’s incarceration and child’s death.”
Other requests denied
In the past three years, The Star has requested child welfare records in the deaths of several children in the Kansas City area.
Only Grayson’s records were released Thursday.
A couple of the children had no prior history with the child welfare system before their deaths, DSS said. And requests for records about three other children were denied.
Missouri law leaves the decision on whether to release information after the fatality or near fatality of a child from abuse or neglect to the sole discretion of the DSS director after reviewing whether the information could harm siblings.
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.
Authorities allege she admitted to killing her son — a student at Spring Valley Elementary School in Raytown — in a bathtub. Her trial is now set for October.
The year before Grayson died, Kansas City police found the body of Ivy House, who was just six days from her 5th birthday, wrapped in blankets inside an apartment bedroom in the 5700 block of St. John Avenue.
Her malnourished body was already decomposing. Ivy’s twin sister, also inside the apartment, was malnourished and unresponsive when police arrived. She survived.
The twins had been removed from the care of their mother, Adair Fish, when they were much younger. They were returned to Fish in late 2019 and the twins went from being in state custody to being hidden away inside the family’s apartment, most of the time during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Many questions remain in Ivy’s case, such as whether Children’s Division workers visited the family after Fish regained custody of her twins. And did Fish, who was described as reclusive and wouldn’t let people inside her apartment, turn state workers or others trying to help away?
DSS denied the release of records about Karvell and Ivy and Tidus Bass — a 3-year-old boy who died in August 2024 after falling from his eighth floor apartment in an Independence high-rise.
“The Director must 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,” the denial stated.
“The Department of Social Services has reviewed and after thorough consideration of the facts of the cases and the potential impact such release of information would have on children within the immediate families, DSS has made the determination to close the records.”
This story was originally published April 18, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
