The parents who prayed over their daughter didn't beat her, but the outcome was the same. The state needed to intervene. Part of the problem is the funding priority--it's often so low that the caseworkers that are hired are minimally trained and not professionals in the field. But I daresay even a caseworker trainee would have recognized this child's need for medical attention. The distant family didn't know where the parents were living, it took many days and several calls to narrow the information down. Her death, and making themselves difficult to find, could serve as the prima facie evidence that they knew they were doing something that wasn't quite kosher.

Perhaps the courts have more money for prosecuting than the CPS folks have for caseworkers.

Eli Creekmore. New York Times story here.

Jan. 1, 1988

Child Abuse Cases Draw New Attention

The swollen eyes of a 3-year-old boy, bruised and battered repeatedly by his father despite intervention from state social workers, stare out from a snapshot that continues to haunt people in the Pacific Northwest.

The boy, Matthew Eli Creekmore, was kicked to death by his father, Darren Creekmore, more than a year ago. But the case is just beginning to have national repercussions as legislatures around the country study a sweeping overhaul of the child welfare laws in the State of Washington that came about as a result of the clamor over the child's death.

The rumblings of change come in the aftermath of a 200 percent increase nationally in reported cases of child abuse in the last decade, and they follow public outrage over cases like the Creekmore killing here and the fatal beating of 6-year-old Elizabeth Steinberg in Manhattan last November.

It's a long article, but I'll stop there.