How Could You? Hall of Shame-Elizabeth Dawn Stone 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 Valle Vista, Arizona, foster mother “Elizabeth Dawn Stone, 30, was indicted on a manslaughter charge in the Sept. 25 death of 8-month-old David Whatahomigie.
The boy had been under the foster care of Stone and her fiance for about three months before he accidentally drowned. Whatahomigie was taking a bath with a 3-year-old child when Stone left them unattended for three to five minutes, according to reports.
The baby was pulled from the water and rushed to Kingman Regional Medical Center where he was pronounced dead. The reports indicated that Stone had cared for some 50 foster kids without incident over a six-year period.
The Mohave County Sheriff’s Office investigated the accidental drowning in the community of Valle Vista, about 15 miles north of Kingman. Reports indicate the infant, who suffered symptoms of fetal alcohol syndrome, had been placed in foster care by Hualapai Tribal social service workers.”
Foster mother indicted in 8-month-old boy’s drowning
[Las Vegas Review-Journal 1/4/12]
REFORM Puzzle Piece
Basic safety training should take place during the homestudy process or as a refresher course. Since she had cared for 50 kids prior, maybe there was an assumption that no further refresher training was needed. There is a lot more to this story since the serious charge of manslaughter has been given.
Update: We found more details about the day of the drowning and an article that clearly confirms that the foster mother was with the Hualapi Tribal foster system and not the Arizona state foster care system.
Details
“According to the Sheriff’s Office’s incident report, Stone told authorities she drew a bath in her Valle Vista home for 8-month-old David Whatahomigie and a 3-year-old foster child around 1 p.m. Sept. 25. Whatahomigie was a little fussy once in the water, Stone said, so she went to go retrieve a towel from a hall closet just outside the bathroom.
Stone said that while she was getting a towel, the phone rang and she went to the bedroom to answer it. At the same time, her fiancé came home and she greeted him before they returned to the bathroom and found Whatahomigie face down in the bathtub.
According to the report, Stone estimated she had been out of the bathroom for three to five minutes. That time frame was corroborated by an older child.”
Kingman foster mom charged in baby’s death
[Kingman Daily 1/5/12 by Erin Taylor]
Foster Care System Clearly Identified
The first article that we posted was vague about which system she was placed into.Upon further searching, we found a clarification.
“The county medical examiner initially determined the incident as an accidental drowning and the case was forwarded to the county attorney’s office. A Mohave County grand jury indicted Stone Dec. 22. Stone, who has two children, was a foster parent with the Hualapai Tribal Foster Care System.”
Kingman woman charged with manslaughter
[Mohave Daily News 1/4/12 by Jim Seckler]
Update 2:“A foster mother in northwest Arizona has agreed to a plea deal in the accidental drowning death of a 8-month-old boy.
Elizabeth Dawn Stone, 32, and her fiance had been caring for David Whatahomigie for about three months before his September 2011 death.
David was taking a bath with a 3-year-old child when Stone left them unattended for three to five minutes to take a phone call, according to reports. The baby was pulled from the water and rushed to Kingman Regional Medical Center where he was pronounced dead.
The reports indicated that Stone had cared for some 50 foster children without incident over a six-year period.
The Mohave County Sheriff’s Office investigated the accidental drowning in the community of Valle Vista, about 15 miles north of Kingman. Reports indicate the infant, who suffered symptoms of fetal alcohol syndrome, had been placed in foster care by Hualapai Tribal social service workers.
Stone’s deal requires probation and up to one year in the county jail when she is sentenced Dec. 6 for negligent homicide.”
Foster mother pleads guilty in accidental death of 8-month-old
[Las Vegas Review Journal 10/7/13 By Dave Hawkins]
Of course there is always more to the story that is left unsaid…….. For instance, why would anyone need to justify a manslaughter Charge with labeling the child as '"FAS"?, who's excuse is that? Her own words or the Mohave County Sheriff's who made the report? The poor little baby boy was a human, someone's child! Children aren't diagonosed when taken out of their biological parents custody. So why should they be labbeled as such? What happened to confidentiality of the cdhildren that are with the Foster System? The Confidentiality of an Native American child that is enrolled in a Rederally Recognized Tribe? & Placed Under The U.S. Governemnt Social Service Program?
This whole investigation is a crock of bs! Anyone would have saw directly through that derogatory statement & apply the correct charge of Murder!
WE all know she neglected the poor lil boy. & another thing, Ms. Stone, had plenty of Personnel Complaints that were made to her Supervisors, but none were ever taken into serious consideration, which have resulted in the death of this baby boy. This was something bound to happen with.
Having a "fiance" in the home means less attention towards the children, anyone in their right mind would associate that type of behavior, why couldnt her Supervisors acknowledgte that behavior too?? Thats the real question!
Anonymous, thanks for sharing further information on the case. We found a few more articles and posted that she was not in the Arizona social service program, but the tribal program. We hope that those complaints that you say were filed come to light and cause positive changes for the program and more scrunity before future placements.
In death cases, aspects of confidentiality are no longer in play as it becomes a matter of public interest. Are there specific confidentiality requirements with the Tribe that you could share that the courts are violating?
From the third article we posted, it appears that she had at least 4 children in the home-2 foster children and 2 biological children. Still no word on where the other foster child or biological children are at this time.
We don’t normally do this with a comment full of expletives-we delete it because it violates our terms of service, but we felt that this side of the story needed to be said, so we have pasted it here and indicated where the expletives have been removed.
Comment from “Katlyn Randall
Hi my name is katlyn and i am the aunt of David Watahomigie.If ur ganna put my nephews name out there u better get that [expletive removed] right. He is not,was not and will never be FAS. And i would really appreciate it if people would stop saying that. I am very upset with this case because i feel that in my heart this was no accident. Eveyone knows that u dont leave a baby or child alone in the tub or any where near water, or even unattended at that fact. If she took care of 50 children she should know how to take care of a baby. She has no remorse for her actions for all i know. My poor baby nephew did not deserve to be neglected, which cost him his life. He was not strong enough to get him self out of the water. He was a innocent baby that could not defend himself against this evil woman. The [expletive removed] dont need a slap on the hand she needs to be punished n sent to jail. Think about this baby that had to suffer this slow miserable death. My nephew wasnt taken care of by this lady when he was in her care he was sick and malnourished,my sister was asking to have her child back for a long time and they didnt do any thing about this. If i was there i would have took him away from elizabeth. I can not even begain to imagine if that was my daughter in her care. People make mistake but i can tell u this was no mistake. Where is this lady's common sense at? please put ur self in that babys shoes and his mothers shoes. I have tried to put myself in dawn shoes , but there is never an excuse of why u leave a baby alone near water. Dont ever try to justify his death with [expletive removed] when you know that u should have been taking care of him.”