Midwest VOCAL

before someone does something about this horrendous child and family welfare system!

The following is a copy of an article printed in the October 1, 2008 edition of The Goshen (Indiana) News:

        Welfare agency questioned about adoptions of slain girls

*Suspect was still collecting stipend after their deaths.

The Associated Press

  WASHINGTON–A Maryland woman suspected of killing and freezing her two daughters was convicted of a misdemeanor and had past financial problems, but was still able to adopt the girls and collect a monthly stipend for their care even after their deaths, officials said.

  The disturbing case has advocates questioning how the District of Columbia’s troubled social services agency evaluates potential adoptive and foster parents.

  Renee Bowman told investigators the frozen child-sized remains police found in her basement freezer over the weekend were those of her two daughters–age 9 and 11–both adopted from D.C. Bowman, 43, is suspected of killing them and has been charged with first-degree child abuse in the beating and neglect of a third adopted daughter, who is 7. The corpses were discovered after the 7-year-old apparently escaped through a bedroom window and was found wandering in a wooded area.

  Bowman was a foster mother to all three before adopting them in 2001 and 2004.

  “There is pressure across the board to get those adoption numbers up,” Richard Wexler, executive director of the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform, said Tuesday. “My question is, did the D.C. workers have the time to look at it case by case?”

  It is the latest tragedy linked to the D.C. Child and Family Services Agency, which has been reeling since the January discovery of the decomposing bodies of four young sisters in a home that had a past report of abuse.

  It is unclear when Bowman became a foster mother. Bankruptcy could disqualify a person from becoming a foster parent, Wexler said.

  Calvert County deputies made the gruesome discovery of the frozen remains Saturday in Lusby.

  And I, personally, have to wonder if “getting adoptive numbers up” is worth all this. God, save us all.

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