Court records: Starving Vancouver teen visited by child welfare worker just days before death
Seven days earlier than a Vancouver teenager starved to loss of life late final yr, Washington baby safety companies acquired a report from the boy’s aunt who claimed that her sister withheld meals from her youngsters and that the boy was a “strolling skeleton.”
The report prompted a authorities official to go to the house of Felicia Adams, 52, and Jesse Franks, 56, the following day to test on Karreon Walker-Franks and his two youthful brothers.
Karreon apparently remained in Adams’ care even after certainly one of his brothers confided to the civil servant that on the identical day as the home name he noticed her mom hit Karreon with a stick, a punishment he believed she had given earlier than, as a result of the boy vomited.
Inside per week, 15-year-old Karreon was useless. He weighed about 65 kilos.
In line with courtroom information, Adams routinely refused to feed the boy and ordered his lecturers to not give him meals. He solely attended on-line lessons sporadically, in line with a search warrant affidavit filed with the Clark County Superior Courtroom. From the courtroom information it’s unclear what function Frank performed in Karreon’s care.
Focus of investigation
In line with the affidavit, Karreon was autistic, developmentally disabled, incontinent, non-verbal and partially blind.
Courtroom paperwork present that the isolation of the coronavirus pandemic and the ensuing closure of his college probably exacerbated the circumstances that led to Karreon’s loss of life.
Adams, often known as Felicia Adams-Franks, adopted the boy and his two youthful brothers in 2012. She is her aunt.
She is now the topic of an investigation by the Vancouver Police into Karreon’s loss of life.
Vancouver police spokeswoman Kim Kapp mentioned no arrests had been made within the case. Kapp mentioned the opposite boys in Adams’ care have been eliminated by state officers the day after their eldest brother died. They’re now 13 and 15.
The warrant searched Adams’ monetary information displaying that she had misplaced tens of hundreds of {dollars} over the previous 4 years on the close by Ilani On line casino on Interstate 5. She was seen there hours after Karreon’s loss of life.
The search warrant affidavit signed by Vancouver Detective Zachary Ripp describes the dire circumstances of Karreon’s life and loss of life.
Undertaker notifies police
On November 27, Adams took the boy to the emergency room at PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Middle in Vancouver, the place he was pronounced useless 14 minutes later. Pneumonia was named as the reason for loss of life.
It was not till {the teenager}’s physique was transferred to Evergreen Memorial Gardens, a funeral dwelling in Vancouver, that police have been knowledgeable of the doubtless suspicious circumstances surrounding his loss of life.
Funeral dwelling staff reported “considerations about Karreon’s look,” the courtroom information mentioned.
The Clark County Medical Examiner’s workplace responded and carried out an post-mortem which revealed irregular bone and hair development and lesions most definitely attributable to hunger, Ripps affidavit mentioned.
The kid welfare information included within the affidavit present that the state acquired two studies in 2017 of Adams’ meals restriction for the kids. The affidavit doesn’t reveal who made the studies.
Then, within the days main as much as Karreon’s loss of life, Adams’ sister Letricia Brown instructed baby welfare authorities that Adams “has withheld meals from boys for years and that they need to steal meals if they’ll,” in line with Ripp’s affidavit.
In the identical interview, Brown instructed authorities that Karreon collapsed from malnutrition. She instructed officers that Adams eliminated doorknobs from a bed room to verify the kids could not depart.
Kaytena Gonzalez, a baby care employee, interviewed the youthful brothers on the household dwelling within the Mountain View space of Vancouver. She noticed Karreon, however didn’t “work together” with him as a result of, in line with the courtroom recordsdata, he couldn’t talk verbally.
The kids then reported that they’d been crushed. One mentioned the beating was together with his pants down and “with numerous objects”. He mentioned a paddle was used “till it broke after which his dad and mom used an extension wire”. The beating with the string, he mentioned, made him bleed.
Nancy Gutierrez, a spokeswoman for the Washington Division for Kids, Youth and Household, declined to touch upon any motion the company may take after the house go to, citing privateness rules.
Trainer interviewed
After {the teenager} died, Vancouver police questioned his excessive and center college lecturers as a part of their investigation.
Karreon attended Mountain View Excessive College, the place certainly one of his lecturers, Sayra Bann, instructed police investigators that the boy attended college often and was skinny. She mentioned he was “very meals motivated” and ate the whole lot that was given to him. She mentioned he ate till he vomited and “would eat the vomit.”
She instructed police that Karreon was incontinent and that his dad and mom insisted that he solely put on one diaper a day. She mentioned {the teenager} got here to highschool soiled and soiled.
After the pandemic ended in-person lessons, college workers tried to work with the teenager’s household to get him concerned in on-line lessons. The household, in line with the courtroom file, refused.
A month earlier than his loss of life, the workers provided to prepare a private college within the household dwelling. In line with courtroom information, Adams refused.
The teenager’s center college instructor Cameron Brothers mentioned he was a cute and lively boy who cherished operating and taking part in catch and will throw a basketball “midway by the health club”.
Brothers mentioned that the boy typically got here to highschool in soiled garments and that {the teenager}’s dad and mom didn’t need him to eat at college, however the workers fed him when different youngsters have been consuming.
The instructor instructed the police, “He remembered a time when Karreon got here to highschool crying and ravenous.” He requested one of many boy’s brothers what was happening at dwelling, and the brother mentioned they have been put within the fridge “after they should not,” and their meals was withheld for the rest of the weekend.
When a center college counselor succeeded Adams, she mentioned “It’s as much as you the way you utilize self-discipline,” the courtroom file mentioned.
One of many final lecturers to see the boy was Amanda Toma, his class instructor at Mountain View.
Toma final noticed the boy in individual in March 2020 when he appeared to have “good muscle tone”. She estimated that he weighed between 115 and 120 kilos.
Toma mentioned Adams was “not receptive” to on-line studying for Karreon, so his participation was poor.
The instructor mentioned she final noticed him in a digital assembly on November 20, a few week earlier than he died.
He appeared “very nonetheless and delineated,” and Toma “observed that his cheekbones have been protruding,” the affidavit learn.
The courtroom information don’t reveal whether or not any of the teenager’s lecturers reported their considerations concerning the teen’s welfare to authorities.
Adams was unavailable for remark. The boys’ start mom, Carlisa Washington, couldn’t be reached both.
Large losses within the on line casino
Ripp filed the affidavit in help of a search warrant on Adams’ financial institution information.
In line with courtroom paperwork, the federal government gave Adams $ 4,300 a month to look after the three youngsters.
She additionally acquired a wage working for the nonprofit healthcare group CareOregon.
The police investigation discovered that Adams and her husband have spent a whole lot of hours playing on the ilani on line casino since 2017.
In line with Cowlitz Tribal Regulation Enforcement information handed over to Vancouver police, Adams had spent 1,261 hours on the on line casino and suffered “a lifetime loss” of $ 238,098.
Franks, in the meantime, has spent 977 hours on the on line casino and a lifetime lack of $ 43,078.
On the day Karreon died, his mom spent greater than 4 hours taking part in slots.
“The on line casino made $ 421.68 that day with Felicia Adams,” Ripp famous within the affidavit.
Safety cameras reveal that Franks and Adams arrived on the on line casino three hours after Karreon’s loss of life.
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