TX-MOther charged in toddlers death throws herself a pity party

[peeples]

I don't feel ANY sympathy for her, I had 5 kids in six years and had 3 of them at her age with no family support with a boyfriend who worked full time and went to school full time, we went days without even laying eyes on each other.....I was stressed, but never let my babies lay in urine for a week, or even a couple hours....

http://bigcountryhomepage.com/fulltext?nxd_id=527602


Tiffany Klapheke

Last Friday Klapheke says her 22-month old daughter started taking off her diaper around the house, and Klapheke got tired of it, so she let her daughter stay in the crib... in her own urine.

"It was wet and she was laying in the wet spot for like a week"

Klapheke's husband, Thomas Klapheke, is currently deployed oversees in Oman, which his 22-year-old wife says takes a huge toll on her.

"I'm so just stressed out and depressed all the time and i just need help taking care of them and i don't have any help. I don't have any family around or anything,"

[Jan]

What was the cause of death for the child? Did she also not feed her or give her liquids to drink? What shape were her other kids in? She must have heard the child crying, so how could she just ignore it?

[TGIRecovered]

I am so sad for the two surviving kids. Babies need love and compassion to thrive. They clearly have been horribly neglected, probably for longer than the mother has admitted. I wonder how often the Dad was able to call or Skype while deployed . It can't be easy to go from warrior to tender hearted Daddy while dealing with the loss of one of his children. He is going to need a lot of support to care for the 3 yr old and 6 month old who have suffered the effects of neglect.

This mom reminds me of Casey Anthony with her poor me poor me! The military provides help for spouses and children of deployed soldiers. I doubt she even asked for help.

MOO

[Confusion]

http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2012/08/29/a...eath-of-child/

"FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) – Two children are being treated for injuries at Cook Children’s Hospital in Fort Worth, and their mother faces felony injury to a child charges after a police investigation at Dyess Air Force Base in Abilene.

A third child died as a result of the alleged abuse. One of the children being treated in Fort Worth suffered serious injuries"

[katydid23]

It is a LIE that she had no help. She was living on the Air Force base. There are lots of places to turn when a husband is deployed and a mom is having issues with her children. There were dozens of other young moms around her who would have helped if she bothered to ask for it.

[TGIRecovered]

The youngest baby is six months old. They had free health care since they are military. Babies that young have well baby checkups at three and six mOnths don't they? I wonder if mom reported feeling overwhelmed at those times or if she was even taking the kids to regular doc visits at all?

I can't imagine that not one of her relatives ever called to see how they were doIng while Dad was gone? Not even grandmothers? All Mom had to do is tell someone she needed help, even someone who lived far away could have informed Dad so he could call someone on base to get Mom to the doc and check on the babies. Postpartum depression can be treated if that is the problem!

Maybe someone military can answer... Don't families with children make some kind of official plan to make sure things go smoothly while a parent is away? I thought they met with a counselor or something to be sure there were emergency plans, financial arrangements, etc.

I hope that Dad truly did not know. I hope he has what it takes to love these babies back to good health.

[TGIRecovered]

Originally Posted by katydid23

It is a LIE that she had no help. She was living on the Air Force base. There are lots of places to turn when a husband is deployed and a mom is having issues with her children. There were dozens of other young moms around her who would have helped if she bothered to ask for it.

http://www.reporternews.com/news/201...ment/#comments

According to Tiffany Klapheke's Facebook page, the young mother from Georgetown, Ky., inquired in April to her hometown's television station about the condition of an 11-week-old boy who was hospitalized after apparently being shaken.

"This has weighed heavily on my heart all week," she wrote. "I pray he makes a full recovery."

Klapheke's last post was at 4:24 a.m. Tuesday and read: "What caused the big red moon that rose and fell about 30 mins ago? — Dyess AFB TX"

For the record, I live in the area and I heard nothing about a Big Red Moon that disappeared after 30 minutes. She made the 911 call about 12 hours later.

The comment from Sunnybloom, (about the 5-7th comment) mentions a Key Spouse program which helps families of those deployed. She should have been paired with an experienced mom who checks on her weekly to see if she needs anything. Comments says that some moms don't want to be checked on and avoid their KS. Also mentions Parents Night Out once a week.

[Dstevenson_1956]

I vote that young Mothers have Psychological test or at least be evaluated before birthing multiple children whom they can not take care of;even if they are married.

[TGIRecovered]

Originally Posted by Confusion

http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2012/08/29/a...eath-of-child/

"FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) – Two children are being treated for injuries at Cook Children’s Hospital in Fort Worth, and their mother faces felony injury to a child charges after a police investigation at Dyess Air Force Base in Abilene.

A third child died as a result of the alleged abuse. One of the children being treated in Fort Worth suffered serious injuries"

2nd comment on the dfw cbslocal site from "Family Friend" mentions previous CPS involvement, but alleges the mom always talked her way out of it. ( It is just a comment, no idea if it is true , not to be taken as fact!!!)

[not_my_kids]

Originally Posted by Dstevenson_1956

I vote that young Mothers have Psychological test or at least be evaluated before birthing multiple children whom they can not take care of;even if they are married.

Why just the young ones, and who would be the judge, prior to the birth of a child, of whether a mother can take care of her children? This type of blanket comment is the type that does absolutely nothing to address the issue, as it makes no sense. MOO.

[mazajo]

So very sad. I saw on facebook that today is the dad's birthday

I too had three babies in three years when I was that age, plus an alcoholic worthless husband, and little outside help. There is no excuse.

Fly with the angels, little one!

[peeples]

http://bigcountryhomepage.com/fulltext/?nxd_id=527842


Preliminary autopsy results indicate that Tamryn Klapheke, the youngest child, was suffering from dehydration and malnutrition consistent with a prolonged lack of basic care. Physical injuries, including chemical burns, appear to be postmortem and possibly related to the conditions in which the child was exposed (human waste).

There is no indication of injuries from trauma.

The physical health of the two surviving children, ages three and six months, is improving at Cook Children's Medical Center in Fort Worth.

It is expected that they will be moved out of the Intensive Care Unit in the near future. Unless there is a downturn in their improving physical health, no further updates on their conditions will be released.

As with Tamryn, the two surviving children appear to have suffered from severe neglect.

[Paul]

About the moon comment, when the moon is up in the sky it's just white and boring and not noticeable (except to astronomers). And it's more likely to be obscured by clouds, or a roof if you're indoors.

But when the moon gets down to the horizon, that's when it looks bigger. And in Texas it can look mega-big. And when the sun is still completely hidden you get some dramatic moon colors.

The moonset time for Abilene TX was 4:10 AM on August 28, 2012. So when she posted at 4:24 AM and said "about half an hour ago", well, that matches up perfectly with when it would have suddenly been very noticeable.

Source: timeanddate dot com

[FrayedKnot]

So I am trying to sort this out.

Did the child die of starvation by lying in her crib for a week in her own waste?

Isn't a 22-month-old capable of movement? Couldn't/wouldn't she have climbed out of the crib? Was she restrained or perhaps in a coma after a shaking or beating?

I am just not feeling the "passive toddler lying in her crib and quietly dying" scenario. Something else is going on here.

[pistolina]

Originally Posted by FrayedKnot

So I am trying to sort this out.

Did the child die of starvation by lying in her crib for a week in her own waste?

Isn't a 22-month-old capable of movement? Couldn't/wouldn't she have climbed out of the crib? Was she restrained or perhaps in a coma after a shaking or beating?

I am just not feeling the "passive toddler lying in her crib and quietly dying" scenario. Something else is going on here.

I agree FrayedKnot. My youngest is 15 months and there is NO way I could leave her in her bed for the day much less a week. And in a bed covered in waste at that. Poor girl. My heart breaks for her.

[not_my_kids]

"She was doing it all the time and I just got tired of always changing the sheets so it was on there a little bit longer than it should have been," she said about her deceased daughter's exposure to human waste. "And so, it was wet and she was laying in the wet spot for like a week."
http://www.reporternews.com/news/201...toddler-shows/

A little longer than it should have been...like a week.

[Lois Lane]

BBM

Tiffany Klapheke is still in jail.

Carp hitting the fan re CPS...

ABILENE, Texas (AP) — Texas Child Protective Services placed three employees on leave Friday in the wake of the death of a nearly 2-year-old Abilene girl whose mother claims she was too stressed by her husband's deployment to care for her children.

The workers — a regional director, an investigation supervisor and a caseworker — were cited in a search warrant affidavit earlier this week as being suspected of tampering with evidence. But no charges have been filed against them.

Memos released by the agency late Friday show that top CPS officials told the three employees that they were on "emergency leave" pending the results of an Abilene police investigation into the Aug. 28 death of Tamryn Klapheke.

Police launched a rare investigation of the Texas child protection agency after the girl died at an Abilene hospital. Abilene police Chief Stan Standridge has said his department began investigating the local CPS office after "certain CPS supervisors" refused to cooperate with officers investigating the death.

Agency spokesman Patrick Crimmins had said the CPS caseworker assigned to investigate allegations of medical neglect against Klapheke had closed the case soon after being promoted to supervisor and just six days before Tamryn died. In doing so, the employee violated CPS guidelines that require a final face-to-face visit and someone else to sign off on the closure, he said.

http://www.sfgate.com/news/texas/art...es-3965792.php

Dyess man charged in case involving Klapheke
By Christopher Collins christopher.collins@reporternews.com 325-676-6721

Friday, October 19, 2012

A Dyess Air Force Base airman was charged with four offenses Friday, three of which were in connection with the case of Tiffany Klapheke, according to a statement released by Dyess.

Senior Airman Christopher Perez, 23, was charged under the Uniform Code of Military Justice with failure to report child abuse or neglect, adultery, and child endangerment in the Klapheke case.

(The fourth charge against Perez is unrelated to Klapheke.)

Child Protective Services investigated the Klapheke household four times dating back to April 2010. Three of the four investigations were "ruled out," meaning CPS no longer suspected neglect was going on. A fourth investigation was administratively closed.

http://www.reporternews.com/news/201...pheke/?print=1

Abilene detectives opened an investigation Tuesday [October 16] on Denny, Whitaker and McDaniel for possibly tampering with or withholding the Klapheke's neglect case evidence, a third-degree felony.

No charges have been filed.

DFPS is conducting an internal investigation, and the state's inspector general is also investigating.

http://www.reporternews.com/news/201...esman-toddler/

Yesterday, yet another CPS employee was suspended in relation to the Klapheke case.

WICHITA FALLS — The program administrator for the Child Protective Services office in Wichita Falls has been placed on emergency leave in connection with an investigation into CPS in Abilene that involves possible tampering or withholding evidence from an investigation.

Marleigh Meisner, a spokesperson for CPS, confirmed that Geneva Schroeder was put on paid emergency leave Monday. She said she can’t discuss the reason because of the ongoing investigation.

Patrick Crimmins, a CPS spokesperson in Austin, said Schroeder is the highest ranking executive in the investigations program in the region and reports directly to the Region 2 and 9 director.

http://www.timesrecordnews.com/news/...e/?partner=RSS



Kudos to the Abilene PD for doing their job.

Kudos to Terri Langford of the Houston Chronicle for breaking the story.

Kudos to the CPS investigators and caseworkers who do their jobs.

Shame on CPS administrators for allowing things to get to where they are.



My frustration is extremely local.

[Lois Lane]

Original reporting by Terri Langford (Sunday, October 14):

http://www.chron.com/news/houston-te...es-3948135.php

Additional follow-up:

But it's the behind-the-scenes action, in which police said CPS workers were told by super*visors not to cooperate with officers investigating the case, that now takes center stage and could affect hundreds of other cases in the Abilene region.

"The evidence suggests that the conduct being investigated predates the Klapheke investigation," Chief Stan Standridge told the Houston Chronicle, which reported Monday that a CPS investigator quietly closed a previous case involving Tamryn and her sister six days before the girls were found.

The search warrant affidavit details suspicions that CPS regional administrator Bit Whitaker; program director Gretchen Denny, who has since relinquished that post and been reassigned; and CPS supervisor Barbara McDaniel, who was later reprimanded by CPS; tampered with evidence involving the Klapheke investigation.

Specifically, the affidavit states that another CPS worker, Rebecca Tapia, "was ordered not to release any information or photographs to medical staff or law enforcement" after Tamryn's death and while investigators were at the hospital with the surviving sisters.

"Rebecca did not provide a photograph because she was directed by a supervisor not to provide a photograph," Standridge told the Chronicle.

According to the affidavit, Abilene detectives interviewed 12 CPS employees in the weeks since Tamryn's death and believe that several supervisors "have intentionally and knowingly concealed, altered or destroyed records and other documentation material to this investigation because of the damaging nature of the documents."

(The search warrant affidavit can be found at the following link.)

http://www.chron.com/news/houston-te...ng-3954342.php

BBM

This is just one of 12 regions. Other reporting in the Chronicle suggests the underlying staffing issues are not isolated to this region.

Hopefully, this region is the worst.

Hopefully.

[Lois Lane]

Tiffany Klapheke also had a "paramour," CPS records show. Spokesman Patrick Crimmins verified the man was in the home when Tamyrn was found dead. Base officials identified him as an active duty service member.

http://www.chron.com/default/article...es-3948135.php

Klapheke's husband, Thomas, filed for divorce last week [two weeks ago]. His attorney's office said there would be no comment on the case.

http://www.chron.com/default/article...ed-3952911.php

[MsFacetious]

Well of course... it's perfectly logical that you would have time for an affair, but not time to change your baby's sheets.
I'm guessing that is who was charged with failing to report it.

[MsFacetious]

CPS workers also confirmed there had been "neglectful supervision" of the girls by Tamryn's mother, her boyfriend and father.

--------------------------

Tamryn's sisters now are in foster care together.

"We are providing a great deal of support and services to the father, and everyone involved in the case has agreed that this is what is best right now," Crimmins said.
"He is visiting both girls in the home regularly, and our hope is that the family can be reunited."

http://www.chron.com/default/article...es-3948135.php


Dad is listed as divorced on facebook, but is still friends with Mom. So is his family.

[lizzybeth]

When I first read the mother's statement that she had no one to help her I thought it was strange that she also said she attempted suicide and a friend came to her aid. I was thinking why didn't this friend come to the aid of the children. Now it makes sense, the friend was her boyfriend...of course he didn't care about the welfare of children by her husband (not saying ALL men are this uncaring).

This little angel saved the lives of her siblings. This abuse could have gone on and on until their deaths.

I feel heartbroken for the this little one and her father. I hope he gets all the help he needs to cope with the loss of his daughter and in taking care of his two surviving children. The help their "mother" claims she never got.

[Lois Lane]

An Article 32 hearing for Senior Airman Christopher Perez, slapped with three charges by Dyess Air Force Base officials last week in connection with the case of a woman's alleged abuse and neglect of her daughters, is scheduled Monday.

The hearing, similar to a preliminary hearing in civilian courts, will begin at 9 a.m., according to a statement from Dyess on Thursday.

Perez was charged Oct. 19 under the Uniform Code of Military Justice with failure to report child abuse or neglect, adultery and child endangerment.

http://www.reporternews.com/news/201...ase-of-womans/

[Lois Lane]

ABILENE, Texas (AP) — Detectives will present evidence "in the weeks ahead" about whether a state child protection agency may have hindered a police probe into a Dyess Air Force Base toddler's death, a West Texas police chief said Friday.

Abilene Police Chief Stan Standridge said the McLennan County District Attorney's Office in Waco recently was appointed as the special prosecutor over the case of possible evidence tampering involving Child Protective Services.

Klapheke, a 22-year-old civilian, remained jailed Friday on $500,000 bond. Her attorney did not immediately return a call Friday seeking comment. The Taylor County District Attorney's Office will prosecute her case.

Last month, Senior Airman Christopher Perez was charged in military court with adultery, child endangerment and failure to report child abuse in relation to Klapheke's case. Perez allegedly was Klapheke's boyfriend, according to Dyess officials. An Air Force hearing to determine if there is enough evidence against Perez for a trial is set for Nov. 19.

http://www.sfgate.com/news/texas/art...#ixzz2C1xgQFIr

Other related news is the resignation of Department of Family Protection Services commissioner Howard Baldwin.

http://www.chron.com/news/houston-te...ne-4021722.php

[peeples]

More details of the abuse... it's sickening

http://www.ktxs.com/news/KLAPHEKE-CA...z/-/index.html

home where the children lived had human and cat feces everywhere

Perez indicated he noticed Tiffany would lock T*** and T*** in their room,

Klapheke told Vickers that she suffered from insomnia, and for that reason she went out with her friends to eat, while Perez was at home unable to see the children who were locked in.

3-year-old T*** was very dirty, walked with limp and couldn't stand straight. T***, who was six months old at the time, had bruising under her eye. Soto said Tiffany claimed she planned on bathing the three kids before T*** died.

Soto said the pantry and refrigerator in the home were stocked full of food. Soto said Perez told him T***** would ask for food and other items. He gave her what she asked for, even though that upset their mother.

Tiffany Klapheke accused Perez of spoiling the girl.