The soft-spoken 18-year-old had run out of meals for his three youthful siblings.
He informed the Canoga Park Excessive College counselor that his mom was disappearing for days at a time, leaving him and his siblings, ages 11, 3 and 1, with hardly something to eat. He crammed his abdomen with water to stave off the starvation.
The senior, Alvondo Williams Jr., was despatched residence Could 6 with a cooler crammed with bread, milk, sandwich meat and cereal. The counselor then known as the Los Angeles County Division of Youngsters and Household Providers hotline to report attainable neglect in a house with “extra condiments than meals.”
Over the following two days, an LAPD officer after which a DCFS social employee toured the household’s Canoga Park house. Each took the total fridge — stocked with meals the varsity had simply offered — as an indication the youngsters had sufficient to eat, in line with DCFS data obtained by The Occasions.
Regardless of receiving a number of reviews this spring a few household with an absent mom and gnawing starvation, the DCFS by no means opened a case — even after one other faculty counselor known as the hotline on Could 13 to say that Williams’ mom had kicked him out of the home.
The 11-year-old, James, was now caring for the toddler, Penelope, and the 1-year-old, Thyri, the counselor mentioned.
On July 1, Thyri was discovered lifeless, “malnourished” with “sunken eyes,” a detective informed the DCFS. She confirmed indicators of dehydration, “poor food plan” and attainable neglect, in line with the county coroner’s postmortem examination.
James had resorted to feeding his child sister jelly and french fries, in line with a DCFS report.
A DCFS evaluation had decided that the scenario was “excessive” danger, which usually implies that social staff ought to open a case. However, in line with DCFS data, the social employee overrode the advice — a choice that requires a supervisor’s approval.
DCFS social staff are speculated to refer a toddler to a medical skilled in the event that they imagine the kid is malnourished. However the social employee described Thyri as “blissful” and closed the referral earlier than a health care provider noticed her.
“If there’s a scarcity of meals within the residence, and there’s a 1-year-old, that’s extraordinarily harmful,” mentioned former DCFS director Bobby Cagle, who resigned in 2021. “You possibly can’t simply take the phrase of a dad or mum.”
The DCFS mentioned in a press release that it’s legally barred from discussing particulars of a case however that “security is on the coronary heart of our work.”
“Each day, DCFS social staff make tough judgement calls — leaning on youngster welfare finest practices, expertise, coaching and schooling — as to how they will finest assist households whereas dad and mom resolve complicated private points,” the company mentioned.
In January, Williams’ mom give up her job at 7-Eleven and began leaving for days at a time. He didn’t know the place she went.
“She would all the time say that she’s grown and she will be able to go the place she needs to,” mentioned Williams, who now lives on his grandfather’s farm in North Carolina and spoke by cellphone with The Occasions.
His mom, 37-year-old Jennifer Wooden, declined to remark, saying her daughter’s demise was a non-public matter.
Williams mentioned he stopped going to high school in February after his mom refused to present him quarters for the laundromat and he didn’t wish to present up in soiled garments. He spent his days at residence watching gaming YouTubers and listening to dubstep.
When his mom honked her automobile horn, it was the sign for the youngsters to come back decide up meals — usually, containers of potato salad or mac and cheese — from the driveway earlier than she drove off once more. The meals would usually final a day, however she’d be gone for 2 or three, he mentioned.
The longest his mom left, Williams mentioned, was for per week when she went to Las Vegas.
On April 23, the day after Wooden acquired again from Vegas, James known as 911 after an explosive combat together with her, bringing the youngsters onto the radar of DCFS for the primary time this 12 months. The company had obtained reviews from the LAPD in 2022 and 2023 about fights between the mom and her then-partner, in addition to with James, however by no means opened a case, in line with DCFS data.
The Canoga Park house the place Alvondo Williams Jr. lived together with his three youthful siblings. His mom would honk when the youngsters had been supposed to come back decide up meals from the driveway, Williams mentioned.
(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Occasions)
James informed an LAPD officer that his mom had been in Vegas together with her new boyfriend and that there was “little or no meals within the residence,” in line with a report the police made to DCFS.
When a social employee confirmed up later that day, Wooden mentioned she had been gone only some days for work. James grabbed his backpack and stormed out, accusing her of mendacity, in line with the social employee’s report.
At some point, Williams weighed himself on the dimensions in his mom’s rest room and realized he had misplaced 20 kilos.
At a breaking level, he known as his grandmother in North Carolina.
“He informed me how they’d been dwelling. I mentioned, ‘You return to high school and inform them what occurred,’” mentioned Oneida Williams, 85. “‘They’ll ship someone to you.’”
On Could 6, as Williams was unpacking the cooler of meals he obtained from faculty, a police officer arrived.
The college counselor had informed the kid safety hotline that Williams, raveled with a hoop of filth round his neck, had “not stopped consuming” since he arrived and “has requested for meals all the time he has been there,” in line with a abstract of the decision.
However the youngsters didn’t “seem malnourished or sad,” the LAPD officer reported to DCFS.
Williams, 18, at his grandmother’s residence in Norlina, N.C. He moved there in September, after he mentioned his mom kicked him out of their Canoga Park residence.
(Melissa Sue Gerrits / For the Occasions)
Williams was holding “a bag of meals,” and there was canned meals and peanut butter within the cabinet, the officer reported. Williams mentioned he deliberate to feed his sisters sandwiches and fruit that night time, in line with a DCFS report concerning the incident.
The officer’s go to coincided with one in all their mom’s visits — she arrived with mac and cheese, chips and rooster.
She “shortly dropped off the meals and left,” the officer informed DCFS. He mentioned he didn’t communicate together with her.
The subsequent day, Williams had simply returned with extra meals from his faculty when a social employee stopped by.
“They confirmed up actually 5 minutes after I acquired again from the varsity,” Williams mentioned. “After they got here, it seemed like we had meals.”
The social employee famous that the fridge and freezer had been “stocked” with “loads of meals,” in line with his write-up of the go to.
That day, the social employee met with the mom, who mentioned that Williams was “being ridiculous” and she or he had had sufficient of his “unhealthy angle.”
That night time, Wooden kicked Williams out of the house.
“It is advisable to pack your s— and depart,” he recalled her screaming at him.
Per week later, the second name from Canoga Park Excessive College got here into the kid safety hotline. Williams was dwelling at a homeless shelter, the counselor mentioned, and James was now answerable for the 2 youngest youngsters.
The counselor mentioned they “can’t think about what the siblings appear like.”
James was a pc whiz in on-line faculty who had been identified with autism and a behavioral dysfunction. He usually ran away from residence, in line with a DCFS report.
Twice, counselors at Canoga Park Excessive College known as the DCFS youngster safety hotline about Williams and his youthful siblings. DCFS by no means opened a case.
(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Occasions)
Williams mentioned he knew an 11-year-old was ill-suited to take care of a toddler and an toddler. However his mom had kicked him out, and he was exhausted.
“I didn’t wish to depart them, and I knew it was improper,” Williams mentioned. “However I actually couldn’t do a lot.”
Williams stayed at a homeless shelter by way of September, ending highschool earlier than heading to North Carolina, the place he had spent a lot of his childhood. He mentioned no one from the DCFS contacted him once more.
No social employee visited the house following the decision from the varsity warning that the 11-year-old was in cost, in line with the DCFS investigation into the hotline calls. A social employee’s try to talk with Canoga Park Excessive College was “unsuccessful.”
Nor did the social employee vet Wooden’s declare that her roommate and a household buddy helped with the children when she was gone.
The roommate, a safety guard in his thirties, informed a social employee after Thyri died that he normally acquired residence at 8 p.m., left at 4 a.m. and didn’t assist with the youngsters.
On Could 22, the social employee wrapped up his investigation, deeming the allegation of neglect “inconclusive” and shutting the referral.
“The mom practices applicable parenting abilities, in addition to offering satisfactory meals, clothes, medical care and supervision for the youngsters,” the social employee wrote in his closing report.
On Saturday, June 29, James fed his child sister french fries, he later informed a DCFS social employee.
He gave her the “final bottle of milk” and a few jelly “as a result of that was what he knew they’d that she would be capable to eat,” James mentioned, in line with a DCFS report.
By then, Thyri, paler than regular, couldn’t crawl or rise up on her personal, James mentioned. Her abdomen seemed unusual and “sucked in.” He observed a bumpy “black spot” on her head.
On Sunday, she had nothing. They had been out of milk, and his mom had warned him in opposition to giving water to infants.
On Monday morning, he texted his mom for cash to purchase milk — the third time he had requested since she left the home Saturday night time. She despatched the cash that afternoon.
As he was leaving for the shop, he mentioned, he went to test on Thyri. He discovered her in her crib together with her head again and eyes open, in line with a DCFS report. Her arm was stiff.
Thyri had been lifeless for 18 hours when police had been known as to the house, a coroner’s official informed an LAPD detective. She had a bruise on her brow and extreme diaper rash with sores.
Inside, LAPD officers discovered overflowing trash cans and piles of unwashed garments and soiled diapers, in line with a DCFS report. The ground was lined in cat feces, and the crib was saturated with urine. The fridge was empty.
Williams mentioned he nonetheless doesn’t know precisely how his child sister died. The post-mortem is inconclusive and the LAPD investigation is ongoing.
(Melissa Sue Gerrits / For the Occasions)
The LAPD arrested Wooden on July 11 on suspicion of kid neglect. She was launched 4 days later and has not been charged with against the law.
Prosecutors are awaiting extra info from the coroner’s workplace on how Thyri died, in line with a supply aware of the investigation who was not licensed to debate the case publicly. The post-mortem didn’t decide a explanation for demise.
L.A. County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, whose district contains Canoga Park, known as Thyri’s demise “an absolute tragedy.”
“I’m heartbroken and I’m sick as a result of Thyri and her siblings deserved higher. Each youngster deserves fundamental care and decency — meals, youngster care, and help,” she mentioned in a press release. “We’re chargeable for doing higher for all youngsters in LA County.”
After Thryi’s demise, the DCFS eliminated James and Penelope from their mom’s custody.
James is in foster care, and Penelope lives together with her father’s cousin in Lancaster. Her father, who lives in Arizona and requested to not be named, mentioned he’s nonetheless attempting to “piece collectively” how his daughter spent the months earlier than her sister died.
The DCFS informed him there “was a travesty” and a “bunch of neglect,” providing few different particulars, he mentioned.
Penelope has hassle sleeping and isn’t potty-trained, he mentioned. She appears comfy in soiled diapers.
“That’s how she was raised. It’s terrible,” he mentioned. “Who the hell is aware of what was happening in that home?”
