KARA – Kids At Risk Action | invisiblechildren.org
William Evans was seven years old. He had a developmental disability. He was found dead at a duplex in Cincinnati.
When Hamilton County officials were asked how a thing like that happens, one of them gave an answer that should stop you cold. Families who abuse children move often. They move to avoid relationships. They move to avoid connections. And a child nobody knows is a child nobody reports.
That is the whole failure in one sentence. Our entire child protection system waits for a phone call from somebody who knows the family. So the families who hurt children learn to make sure nobody does.
Then there is the other kind of failure, the kind where everybody knows and nobody moves. In Idaho, ProPublica found that almost every year since 2015, children in a faith-healing sect have died of conditions a doctor could have treated. Not hidden. Not unreported. Documented, year after year, and the state lets it happen.
Those are the two ways we lose them. A family that disappears, and a state that looks away.
What follows is a year of these stories, gathered from news coverage across the country and sorted by state. Some are murders. Some are foster homes. Some are audits finding that the agency charged with protecting children cannot say how many of them died. Rhode Island reviewed thirty fatalities. Nevada lost sixteen children who had already been in contact with its own child welfare agency. Connecticut found that most of its worst cases involved families the department already knew. West Virginia ordered a report on child deaths and got back three bullet points.
Read one and it is a tragedy. Read them together and it is a system.
The Cases
Arizona
Tucson father charged with murder, sexual abuse in infant’s death – KOLD. Deputies responded to a report of a possible drowning of a five-month-old. The father was charged with murder and sexual abuse.
California
Four years after death, problems persist at Alameda County’s child welfare system, report finds – The Mercury News. Sophia Mason died in 2022. Four years and multiple investigations later, a new report finds the same failures.
Prosecutors seek death penalty for SoCal woman accused of fatally starving adopted daughter – LA Times. A lawsuit alleges county social workers failed to properly investigate abuse reports and that school staff failed to act.
14-year-old girl, father wanted after baby found dead on side of road in Monterey County – ABC7. A teenager is suspected of killing her newborn. Her father is accused of impregnating her.
D4vd hearing details high hopes and brutal end of girl at heart of murder case – The Guardian. Charges in the death of teenager Celeste Rivas Hernandez include child sexual abuse and mutilation of human remains.
Connecticut
CT DCF data reveals case interactions in over two dozen child fatalities and life-threatening cases – NBC Connecticut. Many of the state’s most serious abuse and neglect cases involved families the Department of Children and Families had already dealt with.
Connecticut governor candidates call for change after report on deaths of children known to DCF – CT Insider. One candidate called for an overhaul, the governor urged more support, and a third blamed the governor.
District of Columbia
D.C. man pleads guilty to beating two-year-old child to death – Department of Justice.
Georgia
Cherokee County mother second person charged with murder in death of 2-year-old son – CBS News. Police found the toddler unresponsive. A second adult was charged later.
Mother’s boyfriend accused of hiding body of missing 2-year-old found dead in Marietta – CBS News. Dairon Keith, 23, called 911 to report Messiah Harris missing and is accused of burying the child’s body.
Idaho
Children in a faith-healing sect keep dying. The state lets it happen. – ProPublica. Almost every year since 2015, Idaho children in a faith-healing sect have died of treatable conditions. The state has not stopped it.
Illinois
Illinois mother charged with murder in death of her 2-year-old – NBC News. Prosecutors say Corie Walsh had spoken of harming her three other children.
Mother charged with murder of 2-year-old son in Frankfort was invested in Clancy trial – CBS News. Local detail on the same case from Will County prosecutors.
Police remain quiet months after suspicious death of young child found unresponsive in his bedroom in Crystal Lake – Lake and McHenry County Scanner. Crystal Lake police released 73 pages of reports under FOIA and still have not said what happened.
Kentucky
Three indicted in 2022 death of 7-year-old boy housed at Louisville foster care facility – WDRB. Court documents say two employees at Brooklawn Child and Family Services placed the boy in a restraint before he was rushed to the hospital.
Maine
Legislative committee votes to launch another investigation into a child’s death – Maine Public. Braxtyn Smith died in February 2024 after what prosecutors described as years of severe abuse by family members.
Massachusetts
Lindsay Clancy said she heard a male voice ordering her to kill her children, psychologist testifies – CBS News.
Michigan
Eight people, including six children, found dead in Michigan residence on fire, some with gunshot wounds – ABC News. The Ottawa County Sheriff’s Office called the scene complicated and complex.
Deaths of Grand Haven family, including 6 kids, determined to be murder-suicide, deputies say – CBS News. Follow-up on the Ottawa County case above, now ruled a murder-suicide.
Baby found dead at Electric Forest was a girl, record says – WOODTV. A newborn was found dead at a music festival in Oceana County. The record puts the date of death on or about June 27.
Minnesota
Minnesota man killed his wife and child at daycare after killing another relative, police say – PBS NewsHour. The Hopkins daycare killings.
Mississippi
Nolan Wells’ state autopsy completed amid investigation into teen’s death – ABC News. The death of the Mississippi teenager remains under investigation. An earlier independent autopsy returned cause and manner as undetermined.
Missouri
6-year-old shot by another child dies at Lawrence County home – FourStatesHomepage. Bridger Ransom Boggs, 6, died in rural Lawrence County. The death is under investigation as a homicide.
Nevada
Report on child deaths has welfare agencies asking: do we need new laws or more resources? – The Nevada Independent. In 2025, sixteen children who had contact with a Nevada child welfare agency died, mostly from abuse or neglect. Another thirty-nine were seriously injured.
New York
Police investigating death of 2-month-old girl in Borough Park, Brooklyn – ABC7 New York. The infant was found unconscious at a home on 48th Street.
North Carolina
ICE asks North Carolina to hold man accused in toddler’s bathtub death – Fox News.
North Dakota
Erhart bond set at $3 million; father tried to stop the attack – KFYR. Two children dead and one seriously injured. A 22-year-old Mandan woman faces murder, attempted murder, and child abuse charges.
Ohio
Local child’s death raises alarms over abuse of kids with disabilities, gaps in reporting – Local 12. William Evans, 7, was found dead at a Cincinnati duplex. Officials note that families who abuse often move frequently to avoid the relationships that would lead to a report.
Pennsylvania
Mandatory child death review program gets fraction of requested funding as counties struggle – US News. The state health department received $242,000 to help county teams review child deaths, a review the state itself requires.
Rhode Island
RI child fatality review finds persistent issues, calls for sweeping DCYF reforms – WPRI. The Office of the Child Advocate released a 372-page report reviewing thirty child fatalities.
Tennessee
6-year-old girl dies after being left in hot daycare van, says family – Action News 5. She was left on the van for hours in summer heat.
Texas
Missing 2-year-old girl found dead after Amber Alert issued – ABC11. Aryana Trevino-Martinez was found dead near her San Antonio home.
West Virginia
Lawmakers clearly dissatisfied with ordered DoHS report on WV child deaths – West Virginia Watch. The state’s first ordered report on child deaths came back as three bullet points.
What to do with this
Now do something with this.
Pick one. Not all of them, one. Whichever story you could not stop reading, or the one from your own state, or the one about the child who was the same age as somebody you love.
Send it to your state representative. Not a form letter, not a petition. The link, and one line in your own words about why you could not let it go.
Legislators hear from lobbyists every day and from constituents about child protection almost never. A single email from somebody in the district gets read. Ten get a bill written. That is not optimism, it is how the work actually gets done.
You can find your state representative at openstates.org by entering your address.
And if you do send one, tell us. We keep track of which stories move people, because that tells us what to write next.
Mike Tikkanen is founder of KARA (Kids At Risk Action) and a CASA guardian ad litem in Hennepin County.
