How Could You? Hall of Shame-Genesis Monge case-Child Death

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 Staten Island, New York, 6-month-old foster daughter Genesis Monge died on Monday April 30, 2012 in the care of her unnamed foster parent.

“Genesis Monge, died Monday night, after police responding to a 911 call found her feverish and unresponsive inside the 236 Steuben St. home of her foster mother. ”

“Though police do not believe foul play was involved, the city medical examiner’s office Tuesday said more testing would be needed to determine the young girl’s cause of death.

Ms. Fair said she lost custody of Genesis and her two-year-old daughter, Novella, because of repeated domestic violence incidents between her and her boyfriend, William Monge. Both have arrest records stemming from past domestic violence cases.

“My daughter’s dead and they don’t know how she died,” said the young girl’s father, William Monge. “It wasn’t SIDS … Something happened.”

Ms. Fair also railed against the city’s Administration for Children’s Services, and the Seaman’s Society for Children and Families, the foster agency, and questioned the ACS decision not to place the girls with other family members.

“William has aunts and uncles that would gladly have taken my daughters,” she said. “I really feel that if my girls were with family members, this wouldn’t have happened.”

Police sources say the woman has been a foster parent for more than two decades without any past problems.

ACS representatives issued the following statement this afternoon: “ACS, along with the NYPD, is investigating the terribly sad death of the 6 month-old girl in Staten Island and the circumstances that led to this tragedy.”

A representative of the Seaman’s Society didn’t immediately return a message today.

No one answered the door at the foster family’s home this afternoon.”

Infant’s parents want answers after death in Staten Island foster home
[Staten Island Live 5/2/12 by John M. Annese]

“Sources now tell Eyewitness News the baby had a 105-degree fever and marks consistent with past trauma. The medical examiner says results of an autopsy are inconclusive, pending further study.

“Our kids were never neglected. They were never abused,” Nicole Fair, her mother, said.

The baby’s biological parents insist the only reason Genesis and her older sister, 2-year-old Novella, were in foster care is because of the couple’s constant fighting. And they’d begged to have the children placed with relatives.

“I want somebody to pay for this. If my kids would have been with their grandparents, none of this would have happened,” Fair said.

Novella has been removed from the foster home and is in the custody of the Administration of Children’s Services, which has not responded to our request for comment.

Meanwhile, detectives were back at the home trying to piece together exactly what happened.

“To be honest, I want my daughter back. I can’t have her back,” Monge said.”
Baby dies while in foster care on Staten Island
[ABC NY 5/2/12 by Sandra Bookman]

REFORM Puzzle Pieces

Kinship care was available but she was placed with a stranger.