Who killed boy is a mystery
Who killed boy is a mystery
9 people at home during tot's beating
January 26, 2007
JACK KRESNAK
FREE PRESS
Nine people -- three children under age 4, a 12-year-old girl, three teenagers and two adult women -- were present in a Detroit home when a young foster child was severely beaten and burned last week, according to court records from a hearing Friday.
But Detroit police still don't know who killed 2-year-old Isaac Lethbridge.
A juvenile court hearing Friday on the status of two adopted children of foster parent Charlise Rogers provided some new details about what happened in her home on Greenlawn the day Isaac died -- Aug. 16. But the hearing answered few questions about the tragedy that has left Isaac's birth family bereft and prompted the state to shut down a foster care agency.
"What we have here is the death of a child, and nobody knows what happened to the child," Wayne County Family Court Chief Referee Kelly Ramsey said, adding that she recognized Rogers from another recent foster care case.
After the hearing on the state's petition to have Rogers' parental rights to two adopted children terminated, Rogers said she doesn't know what happened to Isaac other than he was put down for a nap and found unconscious 45 minutes later, when she called 911.
"All of us were there," Rogers said.
The foster mother's attorney, Marc Shreeman, said Rogers recently passed a privately arranged polygraph test that showed she is telling the truth when she says she doesn't know what happened to Isaac.
Nevertheless, Ramsey denied Shreeman's request to allow Rogers to visit the two adopted children, a 12-year-old and a 1-year-old girl. The children have already been removed from the home by the state. Ramsey also denied a request to let the two visit each other while the investigation into Isaac's death continues.
Besides those two, Rogers has one other adopted daughter, who is 18. Rogers had been caring for four foster children -- Isaac, his 4-year-old sister and two 16-year-old girls who are unrelated.
All of those children, plus an adult woman Rogers called a caretaker, were in the home when Isaac was fatally beaten, according to Rogers.
Isaac's sister and the two other foster children were removed from the home by the state Department of Human Services immediately after the boy's death and placed in other foster homes.
Ramsey decided to allow the state's petition, which asks the court to take jurisdiction over the two minor adopted girls, to move forward, and a hearing is scheduled for Thursday.
In the petition, a Child Protective Services investigator, Teresa Collins, wrote in graphic detail about Isaac's death: A doctor at Children's Hospital of Michigan in Detroit who tried to revive Isaac and declared the boy's death said he had second-degree burns to 80% of his chest and abdomen area, fresh bruises on his forehead and right ear and old bruises on his chin, left shoulder, left upper arm, left thigh, right ankle and buttocks.
An autopsy report showed he died of multiple blunt force injuries and burns, and that he had a broken clavicle.
Collins' petition said Isaac's sister showed similar injuries: bruises along her spine to her buttocks, as well as bruises on her thighs and her ankles.
Although Rogers said only she, her adopted children, her foster children and the caretaker were in the home that day, the petition said there are allegations -- she did not say by whom -- that other adults may have been living in Rogers' home.
Those include her 29-year-old son who has convictions for theft and domestic violence and a 33-year-old man with convictions for unarmed robbery and theft, as well as a history of domestic violence, the petition said.
Last Saturday, the DHS began interviewing foster parents and foster children assigned to the Lula Belle Stewart Center, a Detroit foster-adoptive agency that licensed Rogers' home.
On Wednesday, the DHS said it was closing down the center and temporarily assuming management of its cases.
Contact JACK KRESNAK at 313-223-4544 or jkresnak@freepress.com.