After beating death of MO boy, cousin asks: ‘How many people called’ state hotline?
Hours before a Missouri boy’s beaten body was found outside a barn in southwest Missouri, the 12-year-old had been fishing with his dad.
By the day’s end, his father was arrested. Soon Chad A. Baker was charged with first degree murder, accused of beating his son to death sometime last Sunday evening.
An affidavit describing that charge — and two others — said Baker allegedly confessed to a relative that he had killed Logan, the younger of his two sons.
Now questions are being raised about what social workers for the state of Missouri may have known about the family and relatives’ concerns about Baker’s mental health and ability to care for his sons. The boys’ mother died in 2018 of a heart condition.
Alivia Azzun, Logan’s cousin, said she had called the state’s child protection services earlier this year concerned about her uncle, who she said has schizophrenia and wasn’t currently managing it with medications. She was worried about the family’s situation, saying the home they lived in wasn’t in good condition.
Since Logan’s death, Azzun said she’s been told that at least one former teacher also had reported concerns more than once to the state “and nothing happened.”
“I want to know exactly how many people called,” she said. “How many calls does someone have to make for someone to get help?”
Baker had also been charged with endangering the welfare of a child after allegedly driving under the influence in October 2019 with his sons in the vehicle with him.
The Star has requested information and records from the Missouri Department of Social Services. A spokeswoman with the agency did not specifically address a list of emailed questions, which included whether the state had investigated the family and if they were looking into the death.
Rebecca Woelfel, of DSS, said in general that “child abuse and neglect investigations are often co-investigated with local law enforcement.” She also said that information on specific child abuse and neglect investigations is closed and confidential under Missouri law, except for “very limited circumstances.”
Missouri law does allow for information to be released in the case of a child’s death, but the head of DSS has discretion whether it is.
Logan Baker was just days away from starting seventh grade at Stockton Middle School, 130 miles south of Kansas City. He earned honor roll recognition this past school year and was known to teachers as sweet and kind. Same with his older brother, who is 14.
When authorities found Logan’s body Sunday night, a school supply list was tucked in a pocket of his jeans.
In these last days of summer, the two brothers and their dad reportedly had been staying at the home of their grandparents — Baker’s mom and stepdad — in Bolivar, about 25 miles from their home in a neighboring county.
Just after 10 p.m. Sunday, a call about a deceased person came in to police.
Once at the home, Bolivar officers were directed to the barn, said Bolivar Police Chief Mark Webb. There in the grass, officers found the 12-year-old who was “unconscious and was not breathing.”
A large piece of “cylindrical steel,” with blood on it, lay near Logan’s body, authorities said.
“It was basically all head trauma,” Webb said. “Severe head trauma.”
Officers at the scene spoke to Baker, who was standing nearby with a relative he had called to the home, according to the probable cause affidavit.
The relative told police that “he had been contacted by Chad, who stated that he ‘needed to talk to him,’” the court record said. The relative “knew something was wrong so he responded to residence, where he located (the 12-year-old) laying deceased on the ground.
“At some point during the incident, Chad admitted to (the relative) that he had killed (his son).”
Logan’s cousin told The Star that her younger brother, who was at the grandparents’ home, called her Sunday night.
“I don’t know how to say this,” the 18-year-old told her, “so I’m just going to say it, Chad killed Logan.”
Azzun’s been trying to distract herself ever since, unable to fully process any of it. She struggles to understand what happened or why her uncle could never get the mental health treatment he needed.
When she looks at his mugshot, she said she recognizes that “dead look in his eyes.”
“That was the face he made when he was having an episode,” Azzun said.
For now, she thinks of her young cousin, who she can still picture as a newborn.
Hunting and fishing was everything to Logan, she said. “That’s all he could talk about.”
He could be “a little ornery” at times, she said. And always kind and caring.
As Webb, the police chief, put it: “He was just a good ole country kid, saying, ‘Yes ma’am. No ma’am. Yes sir’ — that’s what everybody said.”
Alex Allen, who taught Logan English this past school year, seconds that. His favorite song was “A Country Boy Can Survive” by Hank Williams Jr. and he’d always beg her to play Merle Haggard tunes. She said she can still hear his cowboy boots clicking on the floor as he walked through her room.
“He was an old soul,” the sixth-grade teacher said, adding that he could also be a “class clown” of sorts. “He wanted people to laugh. He wanted people to be happy. All the time.”
Logan — who was called Baker by most people at school because his best friend had the same first name — also loved football and was excited for the upcoming season.
“He was ready. ... He could play for the school,” Allen said, her voice breaking.
On Ashley Coleman Baker’s Facebook page weeks before her death, the mom posted about her sons’ successes in the classroom. Logan had received a certificate for Outstanding Academic Achievement.
“We are above and beyond proud of (our) smart, caring little boy,” she wrote.
She also bragged about Logan’s older brother excelling in reading, showing his Certificate of Achievement for that.
“My boys faced some tough times this year with my heart problems and hospitals stays (multiple),” the post read. “But they still managed to do amazing in school. ... They’ve gone through so much this year but nobody knew how much stress they had over their heads but they didn’t even flinch.”
Azzun said her aunt’s death was not only hard on her two cousins, but also on her uncle. His mental health struggles got worse after that, she said.
“He’s not an evil person,” Azzun said. “He’s still someone’s son, brother. … I think it’s truly going to hit him when he comes to. The boys were his reason for living.”
She would like to know if state workers ever investigated any reports. Did they go out to the Stockton home to see the condition it was in?
“What would it have took for them to show up?” she said. “How many times, how many calls would they have to receive for action to be done? … Kids have been taken for less.”
