LA County left the child in the care of his 11-year-old brother. Now, he is dead

This soft-spoken 18-year-old has run out of food for his three siblings.

She told a counselor at Canoga Park High School that her mother had been disappearing for days, leaving her and her siblings, ages 11, 3 and 1, without food. He filled his stomach with water to stave off hunger.

The officer, Alvondo Williams Jr., was sent home on May 6 with a cooler full of bread, milk, sandwich meat and cereal. The counselor then called the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services hotline to report possible neglect in a home with “more condiments than food.”

Over the next two days, an LAPD officer and then a DCFS social worker visited the family's Canoga Park apartment. Both took a full refrigerator — full of food the school had just provided — as a sign that the children had enough to eat, according to DCFS records obtained by The Times.

Despite receiving several reports this spring about the family's missing mother and hunger pangs, DCFS did not press charges — even after a school counselor called on May 13 to say Williams' mother had kicked him out.

James, 11 years old, was now caring for a younger child, Penelope, and Thyri, 1, the counselor said.

On July 1, Thyri was found dead, “malnourished” and “eyes down,” the detective told DCFS. He showed signs of dehydration, “malnutrition” and possible neglect, according to an autopsy.

James had turned to feeding his sister jelly and french fries, according to the DCFS report.

A DCFS analysis had determined that the situation was “high risk,” meaning social workers should open a case. But, according to DCFS records, the social worker overruled the recommendation — a decision that requires supervisor approval.

DCFS social workers should refer a child to a medical professional if they believe the child is malnourished. But a social worker described Thyri as “happy” and closed the referral before a doctor could see her.

“If there's a lack of food at home, and there's a one-year-old child, that's very dangerous,” said former DCFS director Bobby Cagle, who resigned in 2021. “You can't just listen to a parent's voice. ”

DCFS said in a statement that it is not legally permitted to discuss the details of the case but that “safety is at the heart of our work.”

“Every day, DCFS social workers make difficult judgment calls — relying on child welfare best practices, experience, training and education — about how to best serve families as parents navigate complex personal issues,” the agency said.

In January, Williams' mother quit her job at 7-Eleven and began traveling days at a time. He didn't know where he went.

“He always says he's grown up and can go where he wants,” said Williams, who now lives on his grandfather's farm in North Carolina and spoke to The Times by phone.

Her mother, Jennifer Wood, 37, declined to comment, saying her daughter's death was a private matter.

Williams said she stopped going to school in February after her mother refused to let her sit in the laundry room and didn't want to show up in dirty clothes. He spent his days at home watching gaming YouTubers and listening to dubstep.

When his mother honked her car horn, it was a signal for the kids to come get food — usually, bowls of potato salad or mac and cheese — before she left again. The food would last a day, but he would be gone for two or three days, he said.

Williams said the longest time her mother left her was the week she went to Las Vegas.

On April 23, the day after Wood returned from Vegas, James called 911 after an explosive fight with her, bringing the children onto the DCFS radar for the first time this year. The agency received reports from the LAPD in 2022 and 2023 about fights between the mother and her then-partner, and James, but did not press charges, according to DCFS records.

James told the LAPD officer that his mother was in Vegas with her new boyfriend and that there was “very little food in the house,” according to a report police sent to DCFS.

When the social worker arrived later that day, Wood said he had only been away for work for a few days. James grabbed her backpack and ran out, accusing her of lying, according to the social worker's report.

One day, Williams weighed herself on the scale in her mother's bathroom and noticed she had lost 20 pounds.

During the breakdown, he called his grandmother in North Carolina.

“He told me how they lived. I said, 'Go back to school and tell them what happened,'” said Oneida Williams, 85. “'They can send someone to you.'”

On May 6, when Williams was taking out the cooler food he received at school, a police officer arrived.

A school counselor told the child protection hotline that Williams, who was confused by the soil with a ring around his neck, “had not stopped eating” since he arrived and “begged for food the entire time he was there,” according to the brief. of the phone.

But the children did not “appear malnourished or unhappy,” an LAPD official reported to DCFS.

Williams, 18, at his grandmother's house in Norlina, NC He moved there in September, after he said his mother kicked him out of their Canoga Park home.

(Melissa Sue Gerrits / For the Times)

Williams was carrying a “food bag,” and there was canned food and peanut butter in the drawer, the officer reported. Williams said he had planned to feed his sisters sandwiches and fruit that night, according to a DCFS report on the incident.

The officer's visit coincided with their mother's visit – she arrived with mac and cheese, chips and chicken.

“He quickly left the food and left,” the officer told DCFS. He said he didn't talk to her.

The next day, Williams had just returned with more food from her school when a social worker stopped by.

“They showed up five minutes after I got back from school,” said Williams. When they arrived, it looked like we had food.

The social worker noted that the refrigerator and freezer were “full” of “lots of food,” according to her visit log.

That day, the social worker met with the mother, who said Williams was “funny” and was fed up with his “bad attitude.”

That night, Wood kicked Williams out of the house.

“You have to pack your things—and go,” she remembers yelling at him.

A week later, a second call from Canoga Park High School came into the child protection hotline. Williams was living in a homeless shelter, the counselor said, and James now has custody of two young children.

The counselor said “they can't imagine what their siblings look like.”

James was a computer science student at an online school who was diagnosed with autism and behavioral problems. He often ran away from home, according to the DCFS report.

Twice, Canoga Park High School counselors called the DCFS child protection hotline about Williams and his younger siblings. DCFS did not file a lawsuit.

(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)

Williams said she knew an 11-year-old was not ready to take care of a toddler and an infant. But his mother had sent him away, and he was tired.

“I didn't want to leave them, and I knew it wasn't right,” Williams said. But I really couldn't do much.

Williams took up residence in a homeless shelter in September, finishing high school before heading to North Carolina, where she had spent much of her childhood. He said no one from DCFS contacted him again.

No social worker visited the apartment following a call from the school that the 11-year-old was in possession, according to a DCFS investigation into the calls. A social worker's attempt to speak with Canoga Park High School was “unsuccessful.”

And the social worker did not dispute Wood's claim that her roommate and a family friend helped with the children while she was gone.

The woman who lives with him, who is a 30-year-old security guard, told the social worker after Thyri's death that she usually comes home at 8 pm and leaves at 4 am without helping the children.

On May 22, the social worker closed her investigation, considering the allegations of “indirect” neglect and closed the referral.

“The mother is practicing proper parenting skills, as well as providing the children with adequate food, clothing, health care and guidance,” the social worker wrote in her final report.

On Saturday, June 29, James fed his younger sister french fries, he later told a DCFS social worker.

She gave him “the last bottle of milk” and jelly “because that's what he knew they had that he would be able to eat,” James said, according to the DCFS report.

At the time, Thyri, paler than usual, could not crawl or stand on her own, James said. Her stomach looked strange and “came in.” He saw a “black spot” on his head.

On Sunday, he had nothing. They had run out of milk, and their mother had warned her not to give the children water.

On Monday morning, he texted his mother asking for money to buy milk – the third time he had asked since leaving the house on Saturday night. He sent the money in the afternoon.

As he was leaving the shop, he went to look for Thyri. He found her in bed with her head turned away and her eyes open, according to the DCFS report. His arm was stiff.

Thyri had been dead for 18 hours when police were called to the apartment, a coroner's official told an LAPD investigator. He had a bruise on his forehead and a large sore diaper rash.

Inside, LAPD officers found overflowing trash cans and piles of unwashed clothes and soiled diapers, according to the DCFS report. The floor was full of cat feces, and the bed was full of urine. The fridge was empty.

Williams said she still doesn't know exactly how her younger sister died. An autopsy is inconclusive and the LAPD investigation is ongoing.

(Melissa Sue Gerrits / For the Times)

The LAPD arrested Wood on July 11 on suspicion of child neglect. He was released four days later and has not been charged.

Prosecutors are awaiting more information from the coroner's office about how Thyri died, according to a source familiar with the investigation who was not authorized to discuss the case publicly. An autopsy did not reveal a cause of death.

LA County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, whose district includes Canoga Park, called Thyri's death “a great tragedy.”

“I am heartbroken and sick because Thyri and her siblings deserved better. Every child deserves basic care and dignity – food, child care and support,” she said in a statement. “We have a responsibility to do better for every child in LA County.”

After Thry's death, DCFS removed James and Penelope from their mother's custody.

James is in foster care, while Penelope lives with her father's cousin in Lancaster. Her father, who lives in Arizona and asked not to be identified, said he is still trying to “put together” how his daughter spent the months before her sister's death.

DCFS told her it was “brutal” and “a lot of neglect,” giving few other details, she said.

Penelope has trouble sleeping and is not potty-trained, she said. He seems comfortable in dirty diapers.

“That's how he was raised. It's bad,” he said. “Who knows what's going on in that village?”