How Could You? Hall of Shame- Evander Lee Daniels case-Canada-Child Death UPDATED

This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.

From Canada, foster mother Eunice Wudrich, 46, is charged with criminal negligence causing death and exposing a child to life-threatening endangerment in the June 8, 2010 bathtub drowning of 22-month-old Evander Lee Daniels. She will have a judge and jury trial.

“Saskatoon provincial court Judge Peter Kolenick determined Tuesday that the Crown has enough evidence for the charge to go to trial at Court of Queen’s Bench. No date has yet been set for the trial.

The toddler’s father wept quietly during the hearing, and outside court Chris Martell said he looks forward to having the facts come to light at trial.

“It’s a long road ahead. I hope the story comes out and everybody learns what happened (and) for a tragedy like this never to happen to anybody else,” Martell said.

Defence lawyer Mark Brayford said it will be up to the jury to decide if Wudrich bears criminal responsibility.

A horrible accident that results in death is not always a criminal act, he said, using fatal motor vehicle accidents as an example.

The 22-month-old boy drowned in a bathtub at the home east of Saskatoon. The toddler had also sustained scald burns, according to an autopsy report.”

Saskatchewan foster mom committed to trial in child’s death
[The Star Phoenix 10/4/11 by Betty Ann Adam]

REFORM Puzzle Piece

Update: “A 47-year-old woman accused of criminal negligence in the death of a  22-month-old foster child is due to stand trial in Saskatoon Court of Queen’s  Bench this week.

Eunice Wudrich was charged about two months after the toddler, Evander Lee  Daniels, drowned in a bathtub at the Aberdeen-area foster home she operated with  her husband in June 2010. Police said the boy had also suffered extensive  “scald-type burns” to his body.

Wudrich pleaded not guilty to criminal negligence and endangering the life of  a child. She has not been held in custody while awaiting her trial, which is  expected to last about three days.

Speaking to reporters soon after her arrest in 2010, defence lawyer Mark  Bray-ford said Wudrich cared a lot about the little boy and felt “terrible”  about what happened.

Brayford said Evander was placed in the tub that day with only a few inches  of water and was old enough to walk and get in or out of the tub and adjust the  taps by himself.

He said Wudrich’s nine-year-old daughter was in her bedroom and the other  children were milling around and watching TV in the bungalow’s living room while  Wudrich was in the kitchen.

Brayford said the girl came out of her room to greet her father, who had just  arrived home, when she told her parents the water was running in the bath.

He said Wudrich and her husband went into the bath-room and found the hot  water tap had been turned on, filling the tub with scalding water.

Evander’s father, Chris Martell, expressed doubt about the drowning  explanation, saying he had questions about the cause of his son’s burns.

Four other foster children who were living in the home at the time of the  incident were immediately removed.

Results of an investigation into the death by the Ministry of Social Services  have never been made public.”

Trial begins in Saskatoon for woman charged in foster child death

[Leader Post 1/7/13]

Update 2: “The 48-year-old former foster mother, who is now standing trial on a charge  of criminal negligence in the death of a 22-month-old boy placed in her home by  Social Services, was caring for six children in a small bungalow on an acreage  near Aberdeen when tragedy struck on June 8, 2010.

Five of the kids – including the deceased, little Evander Daniels – were  foster children under four years of age.

The three-bedroom house also contained multiple pets: three adults dogs and  three puppies, a cat, at least one rabbit, and at least two chinchillas. Outside  in a barn and kennel building, Wudrich and her husband Dennis kept about 20  horses, at least one donkey, four or five sheep, an alpaca and at least 20  breeding dogs.

On most weekdays, Dennis Wudrich left around 7 a.m. to work as a  refrigeration mechanic for Honeywell, leaving Eunice alone at home with the  children and the animals until 3 p.m. or later.

Evander’s drowning in a bathtub full of scalding water happened sometime  between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m., shortly after Dennis Wudrich arrived home at the end  of a long day.

On the witness stand in Saskatoon Court of Queen’s Bench on Monday, Dennis  Wudrich said at least three of the toddlers were in the living room watching TV,  and Eunice was showing him some bruises one of the children had recently  acquired – something the couple watched closely and were careful to report to  Social Services, as required – when their eight-year-old adopted daughter came  into the kitchen and said she could hear water running in the bathroom, just a  few steps away.

His wife immediately said, “Evander,” Wudrich recalled.

He rushed to the bathroom, saw water running from the bathtub faucet, and  reached over to turn off the taps. That’s when he saw Evander face-down and  motionless in the tub. Dennis said he reached into the scalding water and pulled  the boy out while yelling, “Eunice, phone 911 – I think we have a dead  baby.”

The child’s skin was red and was coming off on his hands as he tried to  perform CPR, Dennis testified.

Outside court, Evander’s father, Chris Martell, told reporters he is now  hearing the details of what happened that day for the very first time. He said  he forgives Wudrich, but still has questions about his son’s death.

He had concerns about the large number of kids in the foster home even before  his son’s death, Martell said.

“We tried our hardest to get him out of that home for the last couple of  weeks before he passed,” he said.

Social Services resource worker Danene Scott, who oversaw the Wudrich foster  home, told court the couple had previously been foster parents in Alberta and  began fostering preschool-aged children in Saskatchewan as soon as they were  approved in December 2008. Home assessments did not identify any concerns, she  said.

Ministry officials had recommended a maximum of three children be placed in  the foster home at a time, but the couple often agreed to take four or five,  court heard. They had been approved to hire someone to help look after the kids  for 15 hours a week, but were unable to find anyone suitable.

In the weeks before Evander’s death, a social worker approached them about  taking a sixth child – an infant – but they were reluctant, and the baby was  placed elsewhere, court heard.

Wudrich’s mother, Marlene Bailey – herself a former foster parent – said she  spoke to her busy daughter by phone multiple times a day.

“It was hard to control them. She loved kids, so she did the best she could.  … She was never reckless, and she always cared for those kids. My daughter has  cried every day since it happened,” Bailey said.

“I told her not to take any of them in the first place … because I didn’t  want her to get into trouble like she is now.”

Prior to Evander’s death, Social Services was never informed that Eunice  Wudrich had a long-standing hearing impairment, Scott said.

“The fact that she’s hard of hearing can’t be that big an issue,” defence  lawyer Mark Brayford told reporters outside court.

“I mean, Social Services approved her and had a chance to deal with her and  speak to her and obviously had conversations with her and felt that her hearing  was perfectly adequate to be both a parent and a foster parent.”

The major issue in the trial is “when an accident moves up the sphere to what  is a very serious criminal offence of being wilfully and wantonly negligent to  the point that you’ve committed a crime,” Brayford said.

“Just think of all the times when someone unintentionally hurts a child.  That’s not a crime simply because someone who is either your child or a child in  your care gets hurt or dies.

“If you have five toddlers, you can’t simply be sitting on the edge of the  tub with the other four toddlers running around the house. You’ve got to be  moving back and forth. So the question is, how long is it between checking from  child to child, and if you get distracted along the way by, say, something going  on with one of the other children, how long can you be distracted – and if you  are, is it negligence?”

“There is no question my client is responsible for Evander’s death. Did she  commit a crime when she made that mistake? That’s for this judge to decide,” he  said.

Wudrich’s trial is expected to conclude later this week.”

 

Testimony underway in trial of foster mother accused in toddler’s death

[The Star Phoenix 1/8/13 by Lori Coolican]

Update 3: “A Saskatchewan judge has ruled that a foster parent is not guilty of criminal negligence in the drowning death of a nearly two-year-old boy.

Eunice Wudrich was overcome with emotion as the judge read his verdict.

Twenty-two-month-old Evander Lee Daniels drowned in a bathtub at Wudrich’s home in the Aberdeen area in June 2010.

He was found with scald wounds on his body.

Wudrich was charged with criminal negligence causing death, but the judge said in his ruling that there’s a difference between distraction and negligence.

During Wudrich’s trial, court heard that she was tending to another foster child when Evander drowned just minutes after she put him in the tub.

The judge also said hopes this case will create enough publicity so that parents and foster parents make sure to take good care of their children.”

Saskatchewan woman found not guilty in drowning death of foster child

[The Canadian Press 2/1/13 ]

“”It is to be hoped that the tragic series of events which gave rise to Evander’s  death will send a message to all parents, foster parents and childcare providers  that incidents like this can and do happen, and one has to be eternally vigilant  to ensure that harm or death is not caused to our children, who are the most  vulnerable members of our society,” said Justice Neil Gabrielson. [It is common sense to not leave a 22 month old in a bathtub alone. I can’t believe that this is not in basic foster parent training. This lack of guilty sentence sends a message that you won’t be prosecuted for gross negligence. It also does not reprimand the foster care placing agency for placing 5 children under the age of 4 with a family that has one woman caring for 44 + animals and 5 toddlers and a nine year old by herself during the day. That is the definition of insanity.]

The couple was caring for five foster children — all of them toddlers under  four years of age — as well as their adopted nine-year-old daughter. Their rural  acreage was also home to more than 20 horses and other farm animals, as well as  more than two dozen dogs. Dennis Wudrich worked outside the home on weekdays,  leaving Eunice with sole responsibility for the children and animals.

On the afternoon of June 8, 2010, she left Evander alone in the tub with  about two inches of water and became distracted for an unknown number of  minutes.

Shortly after Dennis arrived home from work, their daughter told the couple  she could hear water running in the bathroom. Dennis rushed in to find Evander  face-down and motionless in the tub, with hot water running from the faucet. His  body was covered in scalding burns. Efforts to revive him were not successful. A  subsequent autopsy found the cause of his death to be drowning.

During final arguments at the conclusion of Wudrich’s trial in Saskatoon  Court of Queen’s Bench last month, Crown prosecutor Paul Goldstein argued the  48-year-old foster mother was criminally negligent when she left Evander alone  in the bath.”

Foster parent found not guilty of criminal negligence

[Leader Post 2/4/13 by Lauri Coolican/The Star Phoenix]

Update 4:The prosecution is appealing the ruling!

“Crown prosecutors have filed an appeal over the case of foster parent Eunice Wudrich, who was found not guilty of criminal negligence causing death in relation to Evander Daniels, who died while in her care in 2010.

The toddler was found in a bathtub. An autopsy noted scalding burns on his body and determined drowning was the cause of death.

After a trial in January, a Saskatoon judge — in February — found Wudrich not guilty.

The judge said the case was tragic.”

Crown appeals not guilty finding in foster child’s death

[CBC News 2/19/13]

Update 5:Eunice dies.

“She died just as she was getting ready to move on with her life.

Eunice Wudrich was found unresponsive in her vehicle last month after veering off the road on her way home to her farm just outside Saskatoon.

The former foster mother was acquitted almost a year ago of criminal negligence causing the death of her foster child Evander Lee Daniels. The 22-month-old boy drowned in the bathtub on June 8, 2010.

“I will maybe contact you guys in a week or two when I’ve had a chance to actually process this. Just thank goodness,” Eunice told reporters on the steps of Saskatoon’s Court of Queen’s Bench after Justice Neil Gabrielson handed down his verdict on Feb. 1, 2013.

She never got to publically share her thoughts or feelings after the trial. Now, her husband is speaking on her behalf.

The ordeal took a huge toll on Eunice’s health, said husband Dennis Wudrich.

“Emotionally, physically, mentally, she was just devastated,” he said.

Even though the coroner has yet to confirm the cause of Eunice’s death, Wudrich believes she likely suffered a heart attack. He also thinks the stress of the trial may have been a contributing factor.

“In my eyes, she probably aged, like physically, 20 years or so. Mentally, she was always worried,” he said.

Eunice became a foster mother because she wasn’t able to have her own children, Wudrich said. During the trial, it was revealed the foster home was only approved for three children, but Social Services placed five children in the Wudrich’s care. Even though Eunice qualified for an in-home support worker, the trial heard that one was never found.

The foster children were removed from the Wudrich’s home shortly after Evander’s death.

“Kids were her life, and to have that taken away from her, that was another thing that bothered her,” Wudrich said.

He said Eunice did not foster any other children after she was acquitted, and he’s unsure if they would have been able to continue fostering even if they wanted.

But the family still wasn’t off the hook. The Crown launched an appeal shortly after the decision; according to the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal it was dropped in November, but Wudrich said the couple learned about it through the media because they were never contacted by the Crown.

“It took probably three weeks for it to sink in to Eunice. Just about every day she would ask me ‘is it really over?’ and I would say ‘yes, I think it is,'” Wudrich said.

He said his family was finally ready to move on with their life. The couple was even preparing to take their adopted daughter to Disney Land right before Eunice died.

Now, Wudrich is forced to move on without his wife.

“We’re just going one day at a time right now,” he said.

He hopes people will remember Eunice as a kind, caring woman who genuinely loved children despite the tragedy of Evander’s death.

“After we couldn’t foster, just so that she could feel like she could help people, she started doing cleaning for older people that couldn’t do their house cleaning themselves,” Wudrich said.

“I told her ‘the amount you’re charging, you’re basically not even paying for the gas to go in,’ but she said ‘I want to do it.’ That’s the way she was, she just liked trying to help people.””

Sask. foster mom dies nearly a year after child death acquittal [CMJE 1/24/14 By Bre McAdam]

Update 6: “Social Services Minister Donna Harpauer apologized Wednesday to the father of a toddler who died in foster care five years ago.

Harpauer said the provincial ministry failed Evander Lee Daniels, who drowned in a tub of scalding water in an overcrowded foster home, and failed the child’s parents and community.

“This home was overcrowded and should not have been,” Harpauer said at a Wednesday news conference where she responded to a critical report released at an earlier news conference by Saskatchewan Children’s Advocate Bob Pringle.

Pringle found supervisors and front-line staff within the Ministry of Social Services (MSS) repeatedly violated policies and that the 22-month-old boy’s death on June 8, 2010 could have been prevented.

“The non-compliance is related to workload (and) to the quality of supervision,” Pringle said.

He issued nine new recommendations and reiterated seven from two previous death investigation reports, aimed at improving policies and ensuring they are followed.

Pringle is required by law to use a pseudonym in his report, but the child’s real name has been widely publicized.

“Mark’s story demonstrates how tragic events can occur when there are repeated failures to follow policy, and when oversight mechanisms fail to address matters of persistent non-compliance,” Pringle wrote in the report, entitled ‘No Time For Mark: The Gap Between Policy and Practice.’

His office waited for the court process and child welfare agencies to complete their reviews before using that information in its own investigation. The foster mother, Eunice Wudrich, was charged with criminal negligence causing death and was found not guilty in 2013 after a trial. The coroner ruled the death was accidental. Wudrich died last year.

Among the “countless occasions when MSS practice did not meet the requirements of policy” were when social workers placed Daniels with four other children in a foster home approved for three, and when they failed to monitor his care and ignored deficiencies in the home and case file, Pringle found.

Pringle also found senior management failed to ensure a case assessment and foster home assessment were done.

“There was an absence of critical thinking when matters were reviewed and approvals were provided with insufficient information to make decisions,” he wrote.

His recommendations include the ministry creating a policy for notifying natural families when a child in custody has died.

Martell wept as he recalled a social worker telling him his son was dead and then walking away. The next day, RCMP and ministry staff met with the parents, but they provided such sparse information that family members were not prepared when they eventually saw the burns on the child’s body.

Pringle said there still aren’t enough social workers to follow policies requiring case studies for every child.

Harpauer said the government is making headway, with fewer children in care and fewer overcrowded homes.

She said the ministry has added 93 front-line social workers since 2008-2009, but she acknowledged there was no money for front-line workers in this year’s provincial budget.

“What we need is following policy and ensuring our policy is strong. We can have as many workers but they need to be following policy,” she said.

Pringle said 78 per cent of the 1,200 children in Saskatchewan foster homes are aboriginal.

“It’s a disastrous over-representation. The same over-representation is in the youth justice system as well, related to a whole bunch of things, including, frankly, racism and discrimination,” he said.

Pringle said his years as Children’s Advocate have convinced him that governments would do more to keep children out of foster care if there were as many non-native families in crisis.

Harpauer said aboriginal children aren’t treated any differently than non-natives.

She said she plans to attend a memorial ceremony on June 12 at Sturgeon Lake First Nation, where the ministry has agreed to apologize to the family and community at a feast that will honour Daniels and another toddler from that community who died in a foster home six months later.

That child’s death was the subject of another special investigation by the Children’s Advocate.

The First Nation has requested the presence at the ceremony of the ministry supervisor they feel was ultimately responsible for the failures that led to the fatal accident, said Eleanor Brazeau, executive director of the band’s Child and Family Services.

Beyond that, Brazeau said she wants the government to start fulfilling its agreement to meet with First Nations leaders before changing policies on child and family services.

She’d also like the government to prove its claim to be partnering with aboriginals by including First Nations leaders at meetings of the province’s seven-ministry Child and Family Agenda meetings.

Her agency has had success reducing the number of children in foster homes by providing more supports for families before a crisis that forces child apprehension, Brazeau said.

“We came up with a plan … working with parents before they enter the system.

“I am all for the federal government (and) the ministry pumping more resources into this type of resource because it is working if you do intervention.”

Brazeau said Evander’s death still haunts her.

“When I’m in a hot tub of water I think about (Evander) because he was scalded from head to toe.” she said.”

Countless’ policy violations in foster child death: Saskatchewan Children’s Advocate[The Star Phoenix 5/20/15 by Betty Ann Adam]