TexasRanger
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http://www.wgntv.com/news/wgntv-twins-found-dead-6monthold-twins-found-dead-in-crib-20120510,0,1346066.story?hpt=ju_bn5
Poor babies.
The relative who tried to choke the girl, was watching her at a different house.
The relative is in jail on unrelated charges and the mother has sole custody.
The mother is 19 and she already has FOUR KIDS. :what:
Poor babies.
The deaths of 5-month-old twins in their Little Village home are being investigated by child welfare officials, who say they already had been looking into allegations of neglect involving the babies last month.
Jimmie Whitelow, a spokesman for the Department of Children and Family Services, would not give any details of the allegations.
The babies mother, Victoria Rodriguez, said Thursday evening that DCFS was investigating because the family missed a medical appointment for the twins, who were born premature.
The babies, Julian and Giselle Romero, were found unresponsive in their crib about 10 a.m. in the family's home in the 4100 block of West 25th Street, police said. Autopsies are scheduled for Friday, and police said they were conducting a death investigation.
DCFS also is investigating the deaths and said it has had contact with the family since March of 2011, when the agency determined that an allegation of abuse involving an older child was credible, according to Whitelow.
Whitelow said the allegations were against two male relatives of the child.
He would not provide any details.
Rodriguez said the March allegation involved a relative.
On April 9, 2012 the agency began an investigation into an allegation of neglect against the parents of the babies.
Rodriguez, 19, said that investigation began when she missed an appointment at a medical clinic because their father had gotten his drivers license suspended.
Rodriguez said the twins were born premature and suffered from development issues.
When asked why the twins werent taken from their custody after the April allegation, Whitelow said the investigation was still ongoing.
Well, first of all you have only a pending allegation, and its an allegation from April, of neglect, Whitelow said. That allegation itself might not have warranted the removal of those children.
According to Rodriguez, the March 2011 probe began because a relative tried to choke their child, a girl who was 7 months old at the time.
The relative who tried to choke the girl, was watching her at a different house.
The relative is in jail on unrelated charges and the mother has sole custody.
After the March 2011 incident, the children were placed in the sole custody of the mother, and DCFS began providing support to the family, including homemaking and counseling, in June of 2011, said Whitelow.
Rodriguez said the agency sent supportive services help to them from about October of 2011 until February of this year.
The girl who reportedly was choked is one of four children who still live at the home on 25th Street, Rodriguez said.
No children were ever moved from the home on 25th Street stemming from DCFS investigations, according to Rodriguez and Whitelow.
Rodriguez said she found the twins unresponsive in bed and believes they may have been suffocated accidentally by a blanket.
The twins had woken up early Thursday morning and she put a blanket on them, adding that the blanket did not cover their heads.
When she went to check on them at 8:30 a.m., Rodriguez said the blanket was covering their heads and they werent moving.
I moved the blanket. They didnt move at all, she said. I think that they suffocated.
She said she tried to wake them up by rocking them and splashing cold water on their faces, but they didnt wake up. I didnt know what to do, Rodriguez said.
She said her children were born at St. Anthonys Hospital, were happy and healthy, and would talk to each other. They would have been 6 months old on May 17, she said.
Even if they were apart, they would just hear each other and make noise, Rodriguez said as she watched a video of the children on her cell phone.
Rodriguez said she is unemployed, and the family is unsure how they will pay for the funeral arrangements.
Ana Romero, the sister of the twins father, lives in the same building and said the twins parents were good parents.
They always took care of the kids well, she said.
The mother is 19 and she already has FOUR KIDS. :what: