How Could You? Hall of Shame-Branden Burkhardt case-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 Peoria, Illinois, on March 4, 2011 “9-month-old Peoria child [Branden J. Burkhardt] in foster care died …from asphyxiation after apparently being left alone for about nine hours. ”  The foster parents are Deandrea and Roshanda Washington. He was left in the crib with a pillow, toy and possibly a bottle from Noon until 9:30PM. They believe that the baby made noise at 3PM but did not check on the child until 9:30 PM when Branden was found to be unresponsive.

As of March 22, his death is still under investigation and no yet criminal charges have been filed.

His biological mother lives in Iowa.

Baby left alone for 9 hours dies of suffocation
[Journal Star 3/5/11 by Patrick Oldendorf]

Baby death now a homicide investigation
[Journal Star 3/22/11 by Matt Buedel]

Update: “Dawn Burkhardt has had a life of bad: bad checks, bad boyfriends, bad stints in jail.

But the worst came March 4 when her 9-month-old son, Brandon Jordan, died at the home of his foster parents.

“I was just getting out of jail for not paying a fine, and DCFS (the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services)told me, cold heartedly, ‘Dawn, your son’s dead,'” she said.

“It didn’t sink in. The more I think about it, the more it hurts, the more pain and suffering I’m going through,” she said.”They took a baby from a parent that’s fully functional.”

Ms. Burkhardt, 29, is no stranger to DCFS. She has had six children; DCFS has placed two in foster care. Two live with an aunt and another is with its father. In June, DCFS also took Brandon from Ms. Burkhardt and placed him with foster parents,Deandrea and Roshanda Washington, in Peoria.

Now, Brandon is dead.He died from asphyxiation, according to Peoria County Coroner Johnna Ingersoll, who said the babyapparently had been left alone in his crib for nine hours.

“It is under investigation with the Peoria Police Department and the Peoria Coroner’s Office,” Ms. Ingersoll said Wednesday. “An inquest will likely be within the next couple of weeks.

“Perhaps it may be necessary to delay the inquest if the investigation is not complete within the next couple of weeks,” she said.”But, hopefully, it will be.”

DCFS spokesman Kendall Marlowe confirmed the agency began investigating Brandon’s death on March 5. He also said two other foster children living in the same Peoria home have been placed with another foster family.

The court granted temporary custody of Brandon to DCFS on June 17, 2010, Mr. Marlowe said. Custody is granted based on either abuse or neglect, he added.

There have been subsequent hearings on Brandon’s status since his foster care placement, Mr. Marlowe said. Those hearing’s files, he noted, generally are not open to the public.

Ms. Burkhardt said she left the Quad-Cities last year after an abusive relationship with Brandon’s father.

“He’s in prison right now,” she said. “He’s a very bad person. I don’t bring him up. I had a baby by him, but when I got pregnant by him, I had already left him.

“But, things got worse,” Ms. Burkhardt said. “He started beating on me, showing up at places I was at.”

So she moved.She got a bus ticket to Peoria, where she contacted and resided at a domestic violence shelter.

“I felt if I didn’t leave town, me and my baby wouldn’t be alive,” she said.

Ms. Burkhardt said that, after Brandon was born at OSF St. Francis Hospital in Peoria, he was taken from her by DCFS and put into foster care.

“DCFS took my child away at the hospital,” Ms. Burkhardt said.

“I don’t see how I can be unstable,” she said. “It (the shelter)was a domestic violence place.They provided transitional housing, transportation if needed, clothing. They helped you get to the food stamp place to sign up for cash assistance. I had not had a chance to get everything situated.”

Currently in Illinois, there are 15,540 children in foster care, according to Mr. Marlowe. That’s down markedly from 1997, he said, when the state had more than 52,000 kids in state care.

“We’ve made tremendous progress through adoptions, guardianships, in reunifying children with their families,” he said. “There is a large body of research showing children do better when they maintain ties to community and maintain their family ties to the family.”

Mr. Marlowe said he could not comment specifically on Brandon’s case. But he noted that every Illinois foster parent goes through a criminal background check and a DCFS background check.

DCFS takes numerous variables into account when determining a child’s safety, he said.

“The difficulty is, neglect is very closely linked to poverty,” Mr. Marlowe said. “Parents highly impoverished who may not mean to harm children may still place them in a neglectful situation.”

Ms. Burkhardt believes Brandon was betrayed by the system. And she said she feels she’s getting the run-around from authorities.

Until Thursday — when she said she was told to leave — Ms.Burkhardt had lived at the Humility of Mary homeless shelter in Davenport. She said she is working on her GED and plans to enter the massage therapy field.

For now, she and her current boyfriend, Tyrone Stewart, stay at shelters while seeking some footing. She said that, without Mr. Stewart, “I don’t think I would be able to handle this.”

On Thursday afternoon, the two were at Vander Veer Botanical Park as parents and grandparents passed, holding their children’s hands or pushing them in strollers. Although children played close to where she on a bench, their two worlds were miles apart.

Ms. Burkhardt shared that she doesn’t even know where Brandon is buried.

“Somewhere in Peoria,” she said, her voice crackingslightly as she reached back for a memory of her son, trying to connect with a reality that never was.

“I was planning on getting Brandon back and making a healthy home for him,” she said.

“He never got a chance to know his mother,” she said.”Part of me feels guilty; my son didn’t get a chance to live in this world.

“My son cannot rest until something is done,” she said. “I just want my son to have some justice.”

Davenport woman’s baby dies while in foster care
[Quad Cities Online 4/1/11 by Stephen Elliott]

Update 2/April 24, 2012: Branden’s case was cited in the 2012 DCFS Office of Attorney General report to the state found at this link . More details are revealed about the night he died.

Substance exposed: No

Cause of death: Suffocation

Reason For Review: Child was a ward

Action Taken: Full investigation pending

Narrative: Eight-and-a-half-month-old infant was found unresponsive around 9:30 pm. in his crib by his 27-year-old foster mother. She screamed for the 26-year-old foster father who called 911. The baby was taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead. A child protection investigation was conducted. The foster mother was indicated for death by abuse and for inadequate supervision and cuts, bruises, welts to a 3-year-old foster child in her care. The 3-year-old and her 1-year-old sister were removed from the home. Investigation revealed that the foster mother had placed the baby in his crib around noon with a bottle. She checked on him at 3:00 and he was playing in his crib and appeared fine. She did not check on the baby again until 9:30 in the evening after eating dinner with the foster father who had returned home from work about an hour earlier. During the investigation, the 3-year-old reported being hit by the foster mother for pooping on the floor. The girl was taken for a medical evaluation that revealed multiple linear marks, loop marks and pattern bruising on her upper thigh, buttocks, and lower back. She and her 1-year-old sibling then had skeletal surveys which were negative. The foster mother admitted to placing multiple blankets in the crib to restrict the baby’s movement and to cover up the crib so that he would sleep. She admitted to not checking on the baby for at least six hours and to leaving the 3-year-old alone in a bedroom for four to five hours. The foster mother was arrested for felony child endangerment, but no charges were filed.

Prior History: In July 2009 the foster parents began caring for the foster mother’s two younger sisters whose adoptions had disrupted. In January 2010 the couple became licensed to care for four unrelated children. At the end of January the 1 and 3-year-old sisters (then a newborn and 2-year-old) were placed with them. After the mother’s sisters departed in June 2010, the deceased, then a newborn, was placed with the couple. Workers visiting the home did not express any concerns about the foster parents. The deceased was the fifth child born to his mother. He entered foster care because of his mother’s history. She has surrendered her parental rights to three of her children, had her rights terminated on one child, and has one child in foster care in another state. The foster parents had expressed interest in adopting the deceased.”