Essex DA Investigating Deaths Of 3 Babies Involved With DCF
LAWRENCE (CBS) – The Essex County District Attorney's Office is investigating the recent deaths of three babies involved with the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families.
The babies died in Lawrence, Methuen and Haverhill.
A spokesperson for the DA said Thursday that the deaths are not considered suspicious at this point in their investigation.
The most recent of the three deaths was in Lawrence, where a 15-month old Ayiana Barrientos died Sunday in foster care. Her foster father called 911 saying she was not responsive when he went to check on her at their home on Howard Street. The child was pronounced dead at Lawrence General Hospital. The foster father told one neighbor the girl came home from daycare last Friday with a high fever. In a statement Wednesday, the DA said the girl "showed no obvious signs of trauma." The medical examiner is waiting for toxicology results which could take weeks.
"They say they're going to take care of the kids but clearly it doesn't seem like they are," said Ayiana's biological father, Jeremy Barrientos. "How did you let that happen? Why didn't you bring her to the hospital the first day you noticed the fever?"
The Methuen and Haverhill cases happened back in April.
On April 25, a three-month-old boy, identified by his family as Peter Michael Smith-Gross, died in foster care died in Methuen. The cause of death has still not been determined, investigators said. The boy was unresponsive and was rushed to Holy Family Hospital in Methuen where he was pronounced dead.
"I had a two-hour visit with my son April 19th, and then he died April 25th," said biological mother Aitia Smith-Gross.
A week earlier in Haverhill, a four-week-old baby boy who was part of an open DCF case died. He was also found unresponsive and later pronounced dead at the hospital. He was living with a biological parent in a shelter, and his death "appears to be the result of co-sleeping," said Health and Human Services Secretary Marylou Scudders.
"I feel like this is getting out of hand," said Smith-Gross. "Because DCF should be going better. They promise to keep children safe and then this happens."
"The involvement of the DA's office is required by law and should not in any way indicate that these deaths are criminal or not," Carrie Kimball, a spokeperson for Essex District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett, said in a statement Thursday. "Also, understand that we are conducting investigations and we consider and look at ALL of the evidence to determine what happened. Nothing is ruled in or out. It is PREMATURE to SPECULATE as to how any of these children died until the Medical Examiner makes their ruling, which you should all know by now, takes time."
Kimball said they are also investigating at least two other baby deaths that have no DCF involvement.
