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Inquirer Investigation: 'Bury Your Mistakes'
Asked about that, Ransom-Garner said she could not discuss the case, even though she had talked about it previously.
Asked whether caseworkers were instructed to interview neighbors during their investigations, she said that they were not prohibited from doing so, but that there were no specific guidelines about it.
A shattering death
Alayiah died three years after a killing that was supposed to change the culture at the Department of Human Services.
In August 2003, 3-year-old Porchia Bennett died after enduring months of abuse at the hands of a couple her mother paid to care for her. DHS acknowledged it erred in the case.
First it lost track of the family before Porchia was born, even though the agency had not resolved a previous abuse investigation.
Then, three days before she died, a DHS worker failed to investigate an abuse report at her house.
In the aftermath, DHS did make some changes. It overhauled the way caseworkers search for families, authorizing the use of databases and private investigators.
So why are children in its system still dying?
One answer, experts say, is that while the agency fixed its tracking system, it failed to adopt proposals for significant changes in how it investigates abuse and weighs risk to children.
