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Inquirer Investigation: 'Bury Your Mistakes'
Yet after Marrieon was born last fall, DHS decided to leave the baby in her home and send a contract worker to provide support services, neighbors said.
Three months later, Marrieon was dead.
On Jan. 23, Currie held the infant under hot water, threw him down a flight of stairs, and beat him with a mop handle, according to court records.
She quickly confessed and was charged with murder, records show.
Currie told neighbor Amelia Lewis, 35, that demons had confined her and the baby to an upstairs bedroom, Lewis said.
Neighbors said Currie was incapable of even caring for her dog, which they eventually took away.
"She was always calling people to buy food for the dog when she remembered," said Paul Wons, 45, who worked with Currie's mother and now lives in the Currie house.
Awaiting trial, Currie has been committed to Norristown State Hospital. Psychiatrists initially ruled her unfit for court, noting that she had "stopped eating and drinking" and had been "soiling herself and lying in her own menstrual fluid." Court records refer to her as "severely mentally disabled."
Timika Bowens, 29, who lives across the street, has known Currie most of her life. She can't understand how DHS left Marrieon in her care.
"DHS killed that baby," she said.
