TX - Damya Jefferson, 2, stabbed to death, 9yo accused, Dallas, 22 Dec 2006

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Respectfully,
dark_shadows

Wow, that's just terrible!

I babysat all the time when I was 15, but never for so many children. That seems like a lot for one babysitter to handle.

Oh my - what a terrible story. That is too many children for a 15-year-old to be watching!

She wasn't supposed to be babysitting the kids. Her mother was. But according to local papers, the mother left to go play Bingo. The Bingo-playing mother had 13 kids of her own. The news tonight reported that CPS had been called to the home 8 times previously. And the local papers aren't saying the 9 year old is "suspected" of stabbing and killing the 2 year old... the paper is saying he did stab and kill her. It's a tragedy that didn't have to happen. Very sad.

HeartofTexas said:

She wasn't supposed to be babysitting the kids. Her mother was. But according to local papers, the mother left to go play Bingo. The Bingo-playing mother had 13 kids of her own. The news tonight reported that CPS had been called to the home 8 times previously. And the local papers aren't saying the 9 year old is "suspected" of stabbing and killing the 2 year old... the paper is saying he did stab and kill her. It's a tragedy that didn't have to happen. Very sad.

Click to expand...

If you have any links, I would like to read more. Very sad, indeed.

How horrible. I agree that a 15 yr old is to young to handle 13 kids. I babysat from the time I was really young but never for more then 2-3 kids at a time. It really sounds like the kids were watching themselves if they were all upstairs and the babysitter was downstairs.

The poor mother of the little girl. She must have trusted the woman that she left her babies with as she was her friend's mother. She must have known her. If CPS had been called to the home several times though I don't think my kids would have been left there even with the mother at home. I wonder if the mother of the little girl knew the friend's mother planned to go play bingo and leave the kids for a while with the 15 yr old?

Why would a 9 yr old do something so horrible? Has to be a disturbed child that would do something so awful.

I think I can imagine the situation that these poor kids were being raised in and its not too hard to see how by the age of 9 that a kid could be fed up enough to do something horrible. Either the rest of these kids will end up dead, in prison, on drugs, or they'll begin having their 13 kids by the time they're 11 years old.

Although the mother of the little girl would likely know the home was "over populated". That many children is too many for even one adult to care for alone. She wouldn't have been able to get licensed to watch kids in most states even if she stayed there 24/7. I had a coworker who left her kids in a home where they basically stayed in a room with toys and a tv all day and one day a week were left in the care of Jr High (middle school nowadays) aged kids. It wasn't this volume of kids, but I was always bothered by the fact that the children were left without a licensed driver in the home for most of one day every single week. All the parents agreed to it and knew about it. But I fear often children are left in less the ideal care situations mainly due to money and convenience. You get what you pay for. You take the cheap route out with child care and it may wind up costing you horribly and tragically. I don't mean to sound unsympathetic to the mother who lost her child, but I wouldn't leave an infant in the care of someone who already has so many of her own to care for even if I knew absolutely she would not leave the house for a minute.

A 21-year-old man who police said jumped to his death off a 50-foot overpass in East Oak Cliff on Wednesday was the brother of a 9-year-old boy who stabbed a 2-year-old girl to death last weekend.
http://tinyurl.com/yn34ra

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...Child Protective Services investigators removed 11 of Ms. Richmond's children, including the 9-year-old boy, from the home and placed them in foster homes...."From the investigators at the scene, it didn't appear that it was a safe environment for them based on what happened," CPS spokesman Chris Van Dusen said. Agency officials said that there was a history of neglect investigations at the home....Ms. Richmond...did not have a job and received federal Section 8 housing assistance.

Neighbor Gabriel Lowe said that the children often roamed the neighborhood unsupervised and that the home was in disarray. He said he stopped allowing his two sons to play there because of what he saw. "Late at night, I'd see 10 kids playing together in the middle of the street," Mr. Lowe said. "It was pretty dysfunctional. Stuff didn't seem right." Mr. Lowe said he was also concerned by the disheveled way the children were dressed for school.


home was under CPS radar

Caseworkers for the Texas Department of Child Protective Services have investigated the welfare and safety of Detress Richmond's children at least eight times in the last 12 years.



Since 1994, state caseworkers have investigated Ms. Richmond's home at least eight times based on allegations that her children were neglected, not fed or living in filth.

In each case, the allegations were "ruled out," according to Ms. Gonzales.

Instead of removing the children, state workers referred Ms. Richmond to parenting classes as well as helping her find work and food.