How Could You? Hall of Shame-Arianna Hunziker case-Child Death UPDATED and Lawsuit

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 Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, foster parents Sherrie and Bryce Dirk have been charged with murder of Arya  (unknown last name), a 3-year-old foster daughter.

“Sherrie Dirk, 33, was arrested Thursday evening. Bryce Dirk, 31, was arrested late Friday morning. Bail is set at $2 million each.

According to a petition to terminate the parental rights of the Dirks’ four other children, police were called to the couple’s Brooklyn Park home on Nov. 6 [2017] because the 3-year-old was not breathing.

Police said Sherrie Dirk had wrapped the girl with three sheets between 1:30 and 2:30 p.m. and left her in a room with the door closed. The child was left unattended until just before the 911 call at about 6:30 p.m., when Bryce Dirk entered the room. One of the sheets was found around the girl’s neck.

When police arrived, the child was found severely dehydrated. Police said that since the girl had arrived at the couple’s home, she lost weight and had gone from the 98th percentile in weight to the 13th percentile weeks before her death.

A Hennepin County grand jury indicted the couple on charges of first- and second-degree murder that include allegations of child abuse, endangerment, neglect and malicious punishment.

Brooklyn Park Police removed the other children from the home the night the girl was found dead. They have been placed in protective care, and the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office filed a Child in Need Of Protection and Safety petition so the county could have immediate jurisdiction over the children and keep them in protective care.

The petition was later amended to termination of parental rights after further investigation by police and Hennepin County Child Protection.”

Brooklyn Park couple charged with murder in death of foster child

[Valley News Live 7/21/18]

“The 3-year-old girl had been living with the couple since arriving at their home in September 2016. Brooklyn Park police removed four other children from the home the night of the girl’s death and prosecutors put the children in protective care after filing a Child in Need of Protection and Safety (CHIPS) petition that was later amended to a termination-of parental-rights petition.

On Facebook, Sherrie and Bryce Dirk have separately posted photos of them with the girl since her death.

The Dirks, through what appears to be a family member, set up a GoFundMe page asking for $3,000 to help with funeral expenses. More than $5,000 was donated. “Any left over funds will be used for the kids,” one of the updates said.

Photos of the girl smiling with the Dirks were posted on the website, but there was no mention about how or when she died.

One of the updates that came from Bryce Dirk said: “Words can not express the free giving so many of you demonstrated. To have a relief from the financial burdens and to focus on what was truly the most important part at the time, to honor my little girl was more than I can express.””
Brooklyn Park couple charged with murder in death of 3-year-old foster child

[Star Tribune 7/23/18 by Stephen Montemayor]

REFORM Puzzle Piece

Update:“A Brooklyn Park couple was indicted by a grand jury July 19 for first-degree murder in connection with the death of their 3-year-old foster daughter.

Sherrie Dirk, 33, and Bryce Dirk, 31, were indicted for first-degree murder while committing child abuse and second-degree murder while committing the underlying felonies of neglect, child endangerment or malicious punishment of a child, after a child in their care was found dead Nov. 6, 2017.

Sherrie Dirk was arrested the evening of July 19, while Bryce Dirk was arrested the morning of July 20. Prosecutors will seek to have bail set at $2 million for both of the accused.

The Dirks’ four other children were taken into protective custody the night the child was found dead. The county filed a child in need of protection and safety petition, which was later amended to a termination of parental rights after further investigation.

Brooklyn Park police officers were dispatched at approximately 6:30 p.m. to the Dirk residence at … on a report that a child in the residence was not breathing. Police and paramedics arrived to find the 3-year-old deceased.

According to the petition to terminate parental rights, sometime between 1:30 and 2:30 p.m., Sherrie had allegedly wrapped the girl with three sheets, one of which was wrapped around the girl’s torso, one around the legs, and one around both the torso and legs. After this, she was left alone in a room with the door closed.

No one checked on the girl’s wellness until shortly before the pair called 911, at approximately 6:25 p.m., when Bryce found the child unresponsive with a sheet wrapped around her neck.

The medical examiner said that the child’s body showed signs of severe dehydration. While in the Dirk’s care beginning September 2016, medical records indicated that the child’s weight had dropped from the 98th percentile to the 13 percentile in the weeks before her death.

Brooklyn Park police officers reported “suspicious and conflicting stories,” about the amount of time in which the child had been left alone, according to the petition. The other children that were in the house at the time also gave investigators differing stories about the parents’ actions that day.

Sherrie later told investigators that she believed the child had died because of how she had been wrapped in sheets.”

Brooklyn Park couple indicted for first-degree murder in death of foster daughter
[Hometown Source 8/7/18 by Kevin Miller]

Update 2:“A MONSTER foster mum tied a three-year-old girl up with bed sheets to stop her moving then left her to starve to death.
The foster mum then left the terrified little girl alone in a room with the door shut where she died an agonising death from hunger and thirst.

She was discovered by foster dad Bryce Dirk, 32, around five hours later with a single sheet wrapped around her neck.

A court in Minneapolis, Minnesota, heard how the tragic youngster’s weight had dramatically plummeted since she moved in with the couple in September 2016.

Dirk has now pleaded guilty to second-degree murder faces up to 25 years in jail when she is sentenced on December 3.

Her husband Bryce Dirk also admitted second-degree murder last month for turning a blind eye to the little girl’s suffering.”

Killer foster mum let toddler starve to death after wrapping her in sheets to stop her moving

[The Sun 10/8/19 by Holly Christodoulou]

Update 3:We finally get a last name for her-Hunziker. “Arianna Hunziker was a chubby and happy toddler before she went into foster care, where she lost 10 pounds in about a year and died while wrapped in bed sheets closed off in a room alone.

Foster parents Sherrie Dirk and her husband, Bryce Dirk, each pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree unintentional murder in the 3-year-old’s 2017 death. They were sentenced Tuesday after strong rebukes from Arianna’s paternal grandparents.”

Brooklyn Park woman gets 32 years in prison, husband gets 12½ for malnourished, neglected foster child’s death
[Red Lake Nation News 12/4/19]

Update 4:“Three-year-old Arianna Hunziker had likely been dead for hours when police found her in November 2017 bound to a bed with bedsheets.

A police investigation revealed that her foster parents, Bryce and Sherrie Dirk, routinely wrapped the girl in blankets so tight that she couldn’t move, then left the child like that for several hours at a time.

Two years later, the foster parents would plead guilty to second-degree unintentional murder. A child abuse expert found that swaddling the girl along with forcing her to go for hours without food or water, left the child vulnerable to “mechanical asphyxia.”

Now, a federal lawsuit filed by the girl’s grandparents, says others are also to blame in her death after they missed or ignored clear signs that the girl was being abused. The defendants include Hennepin County Child Protection workers and medical staff at Allina Health.

One example cited in the suit: Sherrie Dirk brought Arianna several times to Allina Health in the year leading up to her death, with the health provider recording her weight each time. It showed that Arianna’s weight dropped from the 97th percentile for her age down to the 13th percentile during her last doctor visit, a month before her death.

She even shrunk in height, according to the suit.

The dramatic weight and height loss should have been warning signs, it says.

In an email, Allina said: “Arianna Hunziker’s death is a tragedy and our hearts go out to all who loved her. Allina Health providers are trained to recognize and report any suspected cases of sexual or physical abuse. Because this case is pending, we will not be commenting further at this time.”

The lawsuit also claims staff at Hennepin County Child Protection knew the parents were wrapping the girl in blankets to control her emotional outbursts, but never told them to stop that practice.

“There were lots of red flags that should have gotten them involved,” said Arianna’s paternal grandmother, Mary Egan, who filed the suit along with her husband and Arianna’s grandfather, Tom Hunziker.

In a statement, Hennepin County said: “It’s a tragedy when a child dies. Our hearts go out to Arianna’s family. Unfortunately, we are unable to comment on pending litigation at this time.”

Previous lawsuit

The lawsuit comes as the county digs out of another federal lawsuit, filed in 2017, accusing child protection of a multitude of failures, from failing to recognize abuse, to children being abused in foster homes.

The year before the lawsuit, about 3.6% of children in Hennepin County foster care were maltreated, according to the county’s records.

As part of a settlement reached in December, the county agreed to hire a third party to analyze its foster care system and report back what has contributed to the abuse and improvements that need to be made.

Wilder Research was selected to do the analysis, which is expected to be finished by July 2021, according to a county spokesperson.

Foster care maltreatment improved as the lawsuit made its way through the court, going from 4% in 2017 – the year Arianna was murdered – to 2.5% last year.

From ‘happy, smiling’ to outbursts

Arianna and her brother had originally been placed in foster care when she was about 10 months old with their grandparents in May 2015, after the children’s’ parents were accused of neglecting them.

“She was a very happy, smiling little girl. She loved to eat. She loved us,” Hunziker said.

The grandparents worried that they were too old to be long-term care providers for the children. They asked the county for help finding another family to place them with, suggesting other families who were already interested in adopting them.

But the county placed the children with the Dirks instead. Sherrie Dirks was a maternal aunt. Under state law, foster children need to be placed with family members when possible.

The grandparents said after Arianna and her brother went to the Dirks nearly all of their visitation with the two children stopped. They worried that the Dirks were unfit parents to their grandchildren and said they shared their concerns with Hennepin County Child Protection. But they say they were ignored.

Public court reports filed by Hennepin County Child Protection workers show that social workers appeared to have no problems with the children’s foster home. One report dated in August 2017 – three months before her death – said Arianna “continues to do well” with the Dirks. Her adoption had been scheduled for November 9th – just a few days before she died.

In reality, the lawsuit says the little girl turned to eating rocks, pea gravel, dirt, paper and crayons for food.

Arianna would pick at her skin and pull her hair. She didn’t want to leave school and go back home with her foster parents. They were classic signs of child abuse, yet were ignored by child protection, according to the suit.

After she started having severe outbursts, the suit says the parents responded by wrapping Arianna in bedsheets – what they called “swaddling” – so that she could not move for hours, which was how she was found the day she died.

After her death, Arianna’s social worker said in an internal email to other social workers that she had never before heard the parents talk about swaddling the girl.

But the lawsuit says that’s not true, saying there were “numerous records” in Arianna’s file that showed the Dirks were swaddling the girl for behavioral and sleep purposes.

Arianna’s doctor and nurse at Allina also ignored red flags, according to the suit, saying they knew she had several signs of child abuse but failed to act.

In addition to the sharp weight loss, the suit claims that they knew about the swaddling, but “failed to investigate what that meant, particularly given that swaddling a child (Arianna’s) age in any form is not consistent with pediatric medical standards of care.”

Two weeks before her death, Sherrie Dirk called Allina and asked for help with the girl.

She attempted to get behavioral medication for her, something that was denied by several other doctors due to her age. However, after initially rejecting it, an Allina doctor prescribed her an ADHD medication a month before her death, according to the suit.

A child abuse expert who reviewed the case found that after her death, Arianna lost even more weight after her final doctor visit on Oct. 19, dropping to the fifth weight percentile for her age, according to criminal records.

While an autopsy found that her ultimate cause of death was undetermined, severe dehydration and being severely underweight were listed as contributing factors, records show.

The child abuse expert also found evidence of “multiple physical injuries” – concluding that what Arianna suffered through was “clinically diagnostic of child torture,” according to criminal records.

Arianna’s grandparents say they are going to court hoping to force additional changes in the way local child protection officials monitor foster care.

Their lawsuit claims officials failed to protect Arianna as she was “starved, dehydrated, bound, immobilized, and abandoned in a home littered in trash and smelling of urine.”

“There are too many children that get harmed or killed,” Hunziker said.

“She was a voiceless three-year-old and the county had a responsibility to protect her,” Egan said.”

KARE 11 Investigates: Hennepin County, Allina missed abuse before girl’s death, lawsuit claims
[Kare 11 10/20/20 by Brandon Stahl]

Update 5:“Hennepin County will pay more than a million dollars to settle a lawsuit brought by the family of Arianna Hunziker, a toddler who was murdered by her foster parents while under the supervision of the county.

Hunziker was just 3 years old when she was found “severely malnourished and dehydrated”. She’d been bound to her bed with sheets which had been wrapped around her neck and body.

Her foster parents, Sherrie and Bryce Dirk were convicted of Arianna’s murder. Sherrie Dirk was Arianna’s aunt and Hennepin County had placed the little girl and her brother with the family.

“There were a lot of red flags,” said Hunziker’s paternal grandmother Mary Egan.

Egan and Tom Hunziker had been caring for Arianna and her brother prior to her placement with the Dirks.

“She was a very happy, smiling little girl. She loved to eat. She loved us,” Hunziker said.

But the couple believed their grandkids could have a better life with younger caregivers. They had hoped to remain part of the kids’ lives but say the Dirks cut them out.

They later learned of the severe abuse Arianna endured.

The grandparents told KARE 11 when they filed the lawsuit that Hennepin County had failed to properly protect the girl and that Allina Healthcare staff had failed to notice tell-tale signs that she was being neglected.

“I just think they were ignoring, really, signs of child abuse and weren’t stepping up and protecting her,” Egan said.

As part of the lawsuit settlement, Hennepin County will pay $1.3 million — much of the money going to Arianna’s surviving siblings. The county has already agreed to major foster care reforms as part of a different class action lawsuit.

“The fact that the county stepped up and was willing to show a level of accountability really matters,” said the family’s attorney Jeff Storms.

In a statement, Hennepin County told KARE 11: “Arianna’s death is tragic. The county expresses its deepest sympathies to Arianna’s family, friends, service providers, and all others who have been impacted by her passing. One of the county’s greatest duties is to protect children, and the county and its personnel feels this loss very deeply. The county has made historic investments into its children and families programming in recent years and will continue to do so.”

The lawsuit against Allina continues.

According to court documents, Arianna routinely saw Allina providers. And yet no one sounded the alarm about signs Arianna was harming herself — or her extreme weight loss while in the Dirks’ care.

As a toddler, instead of growing, records show she dropped from the 98th percentile in weight to the 5th percentile in just a year. And she didn’t get any taller.

“For the light to not go off about this extreme weight loss which is really indicative of starvation, severe starvation, that’s very tragic,” Storms said.

Allina issued a statement to KARE 11 saying: “Arianna Hunziker’s death is a tragedy, and our hearts go out to all who loved her. Because this case is currently in litigation, we will not be commenting further.”

Storms says Arianna’s family doesn’t want to see another child suffer the way she did. They want mandated reporters, like healthcare workers, to pay more attention to signs of neglect.”