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Inquirer Investigation: 'Bury Your Mistakes'
Bowens and four other residents recalled that in a meeting several weeks before the baby died, a DHS worker asked neighbors to care for the child.
"Who would leave it on the neighborhood to care for a child?" asked Timika Bowens' mother, Irene.
DHS officials said that it wasn't their policy to ask neighbors to care for a child, and that if that had happened, it would have been inappropriate.
Neighbor Blanche Jacobs, 41, recalled a day when Currie made a startling confession to her. " 'I don't know how to love my baby,' " Jacobs said Currie told her. " 'Ms. Blanche, please tell me how.' "
In one of her few references to a specific case, Ransom-Garner insisted that neighbors had not relayed their concerns to DHS.
"People have a lot to say after a child death," she said.
But in interviews, neighbors said it should have been clear to anyone, after a few moments of conversation with Currie, that the young mother was in trouble.
"Anyone who would see her, who talks to her, interacts with her, would know right away she couldn't care for that child," Timika Bowens said.
"They should have done their job."
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