Red flags unheeded before foster child died

24
Jan/10


four hours before sunrise on a foggy Sacramento night, a woman's wail pierced the silence of a suburban street. Flames crackled to life. Neighbors awakened, and some rushed outside. others watched from their windows.

"My baby, my baby," the woman howled in the darkness.

At 3:27 a.m. on Jan. 11, 2008 – seven minutes after the first emergency call – Engine 15 from the Sacramento Fire Department was first to arrive at the stucco home on Sweet Pea Way. there, a neighbor with a garden hose already had made the sickening discovery.

A 4 1/2-year-old child lay dead on the living room floor, her tiny body grotesquely burned.

This was where Amariana Antoinette Crenshaw, a little girl with big brown eyes who loved to dance, ended her journey through the child welfare system. She had spent more than half of her short life being protected by Sacramento County, taken from her biological parents and placed into foster care.

Now she was dead, the victim of what a deputy county attorney would later describe as a "random act of violence" and an "unforeseeable, unpreventable tragedy."

On the second anniversary of Amariana's death, police still have no suspects, and a spokesman says their criminal investigation has stalled. but a Bee investigation raises new questions about how the child wound up in harm's way, despite being surrounded by legal protectors from the county, the state, the juvenile court, her foster-family agency and, of course, her foster mom.

The official story is this: Around 3:20 a.m., a Molotov cocktail – possibly two – ignited on or near the little girl as she lay sleeping on the first floor of her foster mother's vacant rental property. Sacramento police and federal arson investigators say they are confident that the homemade devices came in from outside.

Within 24 hours of the fire, the 39-year-old foster mother, Tracy Dossman, was cleared as a suspect. Dossman remains a certified foster provider and currently has five children in her care, ages 10 to 18. She has adopted Amariana's older half sister.

There is, however, much more to the story.

Amariana Crenshaw's short life and terrible death produced thousands of pages of investigative reports, government records and court transcripts. yet no single agency, it seems, had a complete view of the girl's life and the red flags that littered her pathway. often, one agency seemed unaware of another agency's concerns.

When The Bee followed the paper trail through 16 agencies – local, state and federal – a complex picture emerged.

Before her death, Amariana suffered a series of injuries in foster care. She was placed with a foster mother whose ex-boyfriend, a convicted cocaine dealer, listed both the foster home and the rental property as addresses in court and other public records.

Acrimony and public feuding dominated the relationship between Amariana's biological parents and her foster mother. Meanwhile, the foster mother – with a history of violations against her home – had a close relationship with Sacramento County Child Protective Services. In fact, a CPS supervisor was buying the Sweet Pea Way house at the time of the arson fire.

In death, Amariana herself left a tangle of unanswered questions. even her autopsy report turns out to be anything but clear-cut.

The evening after the fire, Curtis Crenshaw was returning to Sacramento after celebrating his son's 21st birthday in the Bay Area.

Crenshaw, Amariana's biological father, said he adored his only daughter. he still refers to her as his "angel" and his "little princess." he remembers how she loved the Barbie doll he gave her.

The child's biological mother, Anisha Hill, had called the girl "Ana" since birth. Hill considered Ana a happy and playful child, though somewhat quiet – except around music, when she would break into gleeful dance, especially to her favorite song: "Tell me when to go," by E-40.

Hill and Crenshaw no longer were together. yet here she was, calling him on a Friday on his cell phone.

Call The Bee's Marjie Lundstrom, (916) 321-1055. Bee researchers Sheila A. Kern and Pete Basofin contributed to this report.

http://www.wedding-day-beauty.com/red-flags-unheeded-before-foster-child-died