MA - Bella Bond, 2, found dead, Deer Island, Boston Harbor, June 2015 - #7

[greenbean]

Man. What a shame. What a crying shame this kid, and so many kids, keep slipping through the cracks here in Boston.

 

[BUF]

Man. What a shame. What a crying shame this kid, and so many kids, keep slipping through the cracks here in Boston.

Bella surely was failed by DCF and so many others.

Sad to say, but it's not just Boston. Just check out the WS board. Things really need to change.

 

[wondering25]

Man. What a shame. What a crying shame this kid, and so many kids, keep slipping through the cracks here in Boston.

Respectfully, this was not a case of slipping through the cracks, imo. This was laziness. Reports from 2006 (BEFORE BELLA WAS EVEN BORN) were cut and pasted into Rachelle's record! Case load was around 17 per case worker ( or her case worker) This was just indifference and sloppiness and neglect by the case worker, DCF, supervisors and the like. JMO
Anything i write is just my opinion

 

[greenbean]

Dcf in every state in the union is woefully underfunded and in desperate need of overhaul. That being said, many of the suggestions proffered in this forum concerning addicted or formerly incarcerated parents have been shameful.

Removing children from their biological parents does not guarantee a good outcome. There have been MANY MANY egregious abuse cases concerning registered foster parents.

Heaping the blame for the death of this child at the feet of these overworked, underpaid state-employees seems terribly unfair to me.

The only person responsible for Bella was ultimately, her mother.

 

[greenbean]

http://www.mass.gov/childadvocate/docs/bella-bond-final-report.pdf

I've linked the full report on Bella's DCF investigation above. It's a seven page PDF.

 

[greenbean]

I am on my phone so it's more difficult to format my posts.

I found these statements, taken from the PDF, telling. If it is in quotes it's from the PDF.

"No one in any program or agency was found to have had contact for the eight months between October 2014 and June 2015 when Bella’s body was discovered."

The PDF states that prior to this she was on track developmentally and received regular care. I thought she'd likely have been behind on vaccines. Bella WAS due for a visit when her body was found.

"A higher level of response to the 2012 and 2013 abuse and neglect reports was warranted by DCF.

Ms. Bond had previously lost custody of two older children and her parental rights were terminated by the court. Given this history and the current concern, DCF should have initiated an emergency investigation, rather than non-emergency investigation. A managerial review and legal consultation should have been conducted to determine whether Bella should have remained in her mother's care.
The risk assessments did not accurately reflect risk.

The DCF Risk Assessment tool is completed at the end of an investigation and, based on the information gathered during the investigation process, is meant to capture the degree of risk of abuse or neglect. In both 2012 and 2013, the investigators answered questions in ways that underestimated the risk to Bella. An accurate use of the risk assessment tool should have ranked the risk higher, which should have triggered a managerial review in 2012 and 2013 to discuss whether Bella should remain in her mother's care."

Like, understatements of the year here, folks.

"The lack of sufficient management structure contributed to the poor case judgment.
In 2010, the DCF Regional Offices were reduced from six to four and the director of area positions reduced from 29 to 15. After 2010, DCF area offices were combined with each director of areas supervising two offices. There were fewer regional clinical staff and due to attrition and reassignment, and there were fewer area program managers to provide close review of cases and clinical consultations. The number of families being overseen by the area offices reporting to the director where the Bond family case resided was approximately 1,800 during the 2012-2013 timeframe. These changes could have accounted for some of the problems identified in this report.
The OCA also searched past caseload reports for the area office in which the Bond family case was located. Monthly weighted caseloads during the August-December 2012 case ranged from 15.57 to 16.77 cases per social worker. During the June-September 2013 case, weighted caseloads were between 15.47-16.52 per worker. Weighted caseloads were under 17 for each of the months the Bond family case was open in 2012 and 2013. These findings indicate that high caseloads do not account for some of the issues identified in this report."



So what then, incompetence?

 

[wondering25]

I am on my phone so it's more difficult to format my posts.

I found these statements, taken from the PDF, telling. If it is in quotes it's from the PDF.

"No one in any program or agency was found to have had contact for the eight months between October 2014 and June 2015 when Bella’s body was discovered."

The PDF states that prior to this she was on track developmentally and received regular care. I thought she'd likely have been behind on vaccines. Bella WAS due for a visit when her body was found.

"A higher level of response to the 2012 and 2013 abuse and neglect reports was warranted by DCF.

Ms. Bond had previously lost custody of two older children and her parental rights were terminated by the court. Given this history and the current concern, DCF should have initiated an emergency investigation, rather than non-emergency investigation. A managerial review and legal consultation should have been conducted to determine whether Bella should have remained in her mother's care.
The risk assessments did not accurately reflect risk.

The DCF Risk Assessment tool is completed at the end of an investigation and, based on the information gathered during the investigation process, is meant to capture the degree of risk of abuse or neglect. In both 2012 and 2013, the investigators answered questions in ways that underestimated the risk to Bella. An accurate use of the risk assessment tool should have ranked the risk higher, which should have triggered a managerial review in 2012 and 2013 to discuss whether Bella should remain in her mother's care."

Like, understatements of the year here, folks.

"The lack of sufficient management structure contributed to the poor case judgment.
In 2010, the DCF Regional Offices were reduced from six to four and the director of area positions reduced from 29 to 15. After 2010, DCF area offices were combined with each director of areas supervising two offices. There were fewer regional clinical staff and due to attrition and reassignment, and there were fewer area program managers to provide close review of cases and clinical consultations. The number of families being overseen by the area offices reporting to the director where the Bond family case resided was approximately 1,800 during the 2012-2013 timeframe. These changes could have accounted for some of the problems identified in this report.
The OCA also searched past caseload reports for the area office in which the Bond family case was located. Monthly weighted caseloads during the August-December 2012 case ranged from 15.57 to 16.77 cases per social worker. During the June-September 2013 case, weighted caseloads were between 15.47-16.52 per worker. Weighted caseloads were under 17 for each of the months the Bond family case was open in 2012 and 2013. These findings indicate that high caseloads do not account for some of the issues identified in this report."



So what then, incompetence?

Incompetence, yes.. and laziness. IMO

 

[justwannahelp]

Matt Stout ‏@MattPStout
OCA: "There was conflicting information about the ability (of Rachelle Bond) to be a good parent." Bond now charged in daughter's death

Matt Stout ‏@MattPStout
OCA: Rachelle Bond was in prison at least 12 times and was jailed while pregnant with #BellaBond. DCF also aware it took 2 kids from her b4

So they are charging Rochelle now too for the death of Bella?!! I hoped they would.

 

[BUF]

So they are charging Rochelle now too for the death of Bella?!! I hoped they would.

I really hope so too. I just looked and couldn't find anything on upgraded charges. I would think that would be big news & have been reported. Maybe that will happen soon.

 

[Angelcolev]

So they are charging Rochelle now too for the death of Bella?!! I hoped they would.

I really, really hope they do. However, IMO, I believe they are referring to her being charged for the Accessory after the fact, it being a charge related to Bella's death, and it's just poor wording on the reporters part.

 

[Dogface]

Haven't been posting on this thread in a bit, but still following. The fact that reports were largely copied makes me sick and so so angry. I can't even type out exactly how I feel, but, if this isn't a wake up call for change, I don't know what would be.

 

[Bootsctr]

I'm not sure how to comment on the "findings." But, if Rachelle was getting the nice apartment because of Bella, it would seem SOMEONE should be in charge of making sure Bella was still alive and living in the apartment on a regular basis - like once a month. Rachelle Bond was abusing the system created to help homeless women AND their children by allowing who knows how many men to live there. She was a known drug addict. She was a known prostitute. She had lost custody of two older children. Hello?? :seeya: If that's not a RED FLAG :copcar: then I don't know what would be a flag that this woman could not be trusted with a child.

No one wants to believe anyone could kill someone else, much less a mother kill her own child, but my gosh... I wonder if the godmother who said she "helped" Rachelle get the free housing for her and Bella told the people in charge of this program that she would make sure that Rachelle stayed on the straight and narrow?? She had to know about the men that Rachelle was bringing into the apartment. She had to know. She said she called anonymously. If she suspected her calls were being ignored (I know she said she reversed the #'s on the tip line), why not take yourself to the local police station and plop down in a chair and tell them that your butt wasn't moving until an officer did a well person check on Bella?? Why not the grandmother? Why not the aunt?

I don't care if Rachelle was answering the door of the apartment wearing a hockey mask and her head was doing a 180 degree turn, she was speaking in Latin and identifying herself as a child of Satan, somebody needed to hold her accountable for Bella's safety.

And what really makes me mad, is I think if there had been a reward for information leading to the identify of Baby Doe, that those who knew Rachelle Bond would have reported her in a heartbeat!!! :gaah:

 

[heartgoesout]

marking spot

 

[greenbean]

I would hardly call public housing "nice."

 

[Bootsctr]

Well, it looked nice in the FB pictures and in the pictures of the refrigerator and other evidence being taken away. I mean, it's a roof over your head. Rachelle wasn't having to live with a bunch of people like at a shelter. It was SUPPOSED to be just Bella and her.

I don't know. Describe it for me. Pictures can't talk.

The next hearing regarding Bella's murderers is November 19th.

 

[heartgoesout]

I'm not gonna lie, I was very surprised how nice the home was.

 

[takeitfromme412]

It was a nice home in a neighborhood that has had much improvement over the past 15 years. In this pictures her home was clean, lots of toys for Bella, well decorated.... to see it would not be something you would think that would set off red flags. That neighborhood is actually fairly cute. People keep their yards nice.

 

[Aleph]

There's some nice new public housing that has been built around Boston over the last ten years or so. The ones in my old neighborhood looked like brand new condos when they were built.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[evie71]

A massive surprise was just how clean and child friendly the home looked in the fb pics and videos. I expected something very different. RB certainly did not hold back when she decorated for Bella's birthday, don't think I've seen so many balloons in one place! The little toddler seat strapped to the chair and the table groaning with cards and presents..............where did it all go so wrong.............?

 

[heartgoesout]

Drugs... that's where it all went wrong. Drugs, and Rachelle's own dysfunctional childhood.