Starving Vancouver teen visited by child welfare worker just days before his death, court records show
Seven days earlier than a Vancouver teenager starved to loss of life late final 12 months, Washington little one safety businesses obtained 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 subsequent day to examine on Karreon Walker-Franks and his two youthful brothers.
Karreon apparently remained in Adams’ care even after one in all 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 lifeless. He weighed about 65 kilos.
Based on courtroom data, Adams routinely refused to feed the boy and ordered his lecturers to not give him meals. He solely attended on-line courses sporadically, in line with a search warrant affidavit filed with the Clark County Superior Courtroom. It’s unclear from the courtroom data what position Frank performed in Karreon’s care.
Based on 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 doubtless exacerbated the circumstances that led to Karreon’s loss of life.
Adams, also called 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 stated no arrests had been made within the case. Kapp stated the opposite boys in Adams’ care had been eliminated by state officers the day after their eldest brother died. They’re now 13 and 15.
The warrant searched Adams’ monetary data exhibiting that she had misplaced tens of hundreds of {dollars} on the close by Ilani On line casino on Interstate 5 over the previous 4 years. 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.
On November 27, Adams took the boy to the emergency room at PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Heart in Vancouver, the place he was pronounced lifeless 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 residence in Vancouver, that police had been knowledgeable of the doubtless suspicious circumstances surrounding his loss of life.
Funeral residence employees reported “issues about Karreon’s look,” the courtroom data stated.
The Clark County Medical Examiner’s workplace responded and carried out an post-mortem which revealed irregular bone and hair progress and lesions most certainly attributable to hunger, Ripps affidavit stated.
The kid welfare data included within the affidavit present that the state obtained two studies in 2017 of Adams’ meals restriction for the youngsters. 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 advised little one welfare authorities that Adams “has withheld meals from the boys for years and that they have to steal meals if they will,” in line with Ripp’s affidavit.
In the identical interview, Brown advised authorities that Karreon collapsed from malnutrition. She advised officers that Adams eliminated doorknobs from a bed room to verify the youngsters could not depart.
Kaytena Gonzalez, a toddler care employee, interviewed the youthful brothers on the household residence 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 information, he couldn’t talk verbally.
The kids then reported that that they had been overwhelmed. One stated the beating was together with his pants down and “with numerous objects”. He stated a paddle was used “till it broke after which his mother and father used an extension wire”. The beating with the string, he stated, made him bleed.
Nancy Gutierrez, a spokeswoman for the Washington Division for Youngsters, Youth and Household, declined to touch upon any motion the company may take after the house go to, citing privateness rules.
After {the teenager} died, Vancouver police questioned his excessive and center college lecturers as a part of their investigation.
Karreon attended Mountain View Excessive Faculty, the place one in all his lecturers, Sayra Bann, advised police investigators that the boy attended college usually and was skinny. She stated he was “very nutrition-motivated” and ate every part that was given to him. She stated he ate till he vomited and “would eat the vomit.”
She advised police that Karreon was incontinent and that his mother and father insisted that he solely put on one diaper a day. She stated {the teenager} obtained to high school soiled and soiled.
After the pandemic ended face-to-face courses, college workers tried to work with the teenager’s household to get him concerned in on-line courses. Based on the courtroom file, the household refused.
A month earlier than his loss of life, the workers supplied to prepare a private college within the household residence. Based on courtroom data, Adams refused.
The teenager’s center college instructor Cameron Brothers stated he was a cute and lively boy who liked operating and enjoying catch and throwing a basketball “midway by means of the gymnasium.”
Brothers stated that the boy usually got here to high school in soiled garments and that {the teenager}’s mother and father didn’t need him to eat at college, however the workers fed him when different youngsters had been consuming.
The instructor advised the police, “He remembered a time when Karreon got here to high school crying and ravenous.” He requested one of many boy’s brothers what was happening at residence, and the brother stated they had been put within the fridge “once they should not,” and their meals was withheld for the rest of the weekend.
When a center college counselor succeeded Adams, she stated “It’s as much as you the way you employ self-discipline,” the courtroom file stated.
One of many final lecturers to see the boy was Amanda Toma, his class instructor at Mountain View.
Toma final noticed the boy in particular person in March 2020 when he appeared to have “good muscle tone”. She estimated that he weighed between 115 and 120 kilos.
Toma stated Adams was “not receptive” to on-line studying for Karreon, so his participation was poor.
The instructor stated she final noticed him in a digital assembly on November 20, a few week earlier than he died.
He seemed “very calm and delineated,” and Toma “observed that his cheekbones had been protruding,” the affidavit stated.
The courtroom data don’t reveal whether or not any of the teenager’s lecturers reported their issues in regards to the teen’s welfare to authorities.
Adams was unavailable for remark. The boys’ start mom, Carlisa Washington, couldn’t be reached both.
Ripp filed the affidavit in assist of a search warrant on Adams’ financial institution data.
Based on courtroom paperwork, the federal government gave Adams $ 4,300 a month to look after the three youngsters.
She additionally obtained a wage working for the nonprofit healthcare group CareOregon.
The police investigation discovered that Adams and her husband have spent lots of of hours playing at Ilani On line casino since 2017.
Based on Cowlitz Tribal Regulation Enforcement data 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 enjoying slots, on line casino data made accessible to the police.
“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.
– Noelle Crombie; ncrombie@oregonian.com; 503-276-7184; @noellecrombie
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