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Inquirer Investigation: 'Bury Your Mistakes'
DHS referred the case to a private contractor, paid by taxpayers to train Redmond in parenting skills, according to DHS records.
"Most of the time they came, [Viola] was at work," testified Rosetta Redmond, the baby's grandmother, at her daughter's sentencing hearing.
On Dec. 8, 2004, DHS closed the case, deeming the children safe at the grandparents' house.
Two months later, Viola Redmond and her boyfriend, Damor Davis, decided to move into their own apartment.
Rosetta Redmond testified that she had repeatedly warned DHS that the couple intended to move out. A caseworker promised to get back to her, she said, but never did.
Not long afterward, Viola Redmond's sister, a parole officer, made an anonymous call to DHS to report that "the child may have a broken bone in her face."
The call arrived at the DHS hotline at 10:12 a.m. July 15.
It was too late.
Across town, Bryanna was buckled over in her bed, slipping into shock after a death blow to her stomach.
Davis testified that he had found the child in that condition when he returned home from work about 6 a.m., and met Viola on her way out the door.
