Questions raised about child's death

Hattiesburg American (MS)

Author: NATALIE CHANDLER and ELIZABETH CRISP

LUDLOW - When authorities discovered 4-year-old Austin James Watkins' lifeless body in his home nearly a week ago, his stomach was empty and he weighed just 19 pounds, they said.

On Friday, the day after his funeral, authorities considered holding more of the boy's family responsible, and children's advocates raised questions about whether the state could have done more to save him.

The boy's paternal grandmother, 43-year-old Janice Mowdy, and an aunt, 22-year-old Stephanie Bell, remained in the Scott County jail without bond, charged with murder and felony child abuse. The charges could be upgraded to capital murder.

A motive has not been determined, and Mowdy and Bell insist they did nothing wrong, said Sheriff Mike Lee. Other relatives have granted media interviews describing the abuse, and Lee is trying to determine whether they also will be charged.

"If you've got to sleep on the doorstep of (Mississippi Department of Human Services) or the sheriff's department, that's what you should do in a case like this," he said, adding that his office never received any reports of abuse.

Attempts to reach family members Friday were not successful. MDHS officials said the agency is cooperating with the investigation, and added that state law prevents them from giving specifics about their involvement with the family.

According to Lee, MDHS had taken the boy and three of his young siblings away from their mother about a year ago. The mother still lives in the area, he said, and the father is in the Scott County jail on an unrelated charge.

In October, administrators at the boy's school noticed he looked unhealthy, Lee said.

The child's grandmother, who had custody by then, pulled him and another sibling from the school after administrators began asking questions, Lee added.

Midway Odom Head Start owner Mabel Odom, who runs the boy's former school, would not comment. "I don't want to get involved in this," she said.

The boy's grandmother called 911 on Sunday to report that he was not breathing, the sheriff said.

"The child was skin and bones," he said. "It was absolutely terrible."

He estimates the child was starved "anywhere from two weeks to a week."

"We believe the child had been malnourished from the time the child was given to the grandmother to take care of," he said.

Mowdy and Bell have applied for a court-appointed attorney, he said. They had not been granted one as of Friday.

Mowdy's sister, Brenda Peterson, told WAPT-TV Thursday that the child "didn't even have a backside. He had to stand all the time. He couldn't even sit down."

Peterson told the television station that Mowdy did not like Austin because she did not believe he was the biological child of her son, Kenny Watkins.

Peterson said she knew the child was being abused because another niece told her.

Such cases are rare, and "almost always bizarre," said Dr. Scott Benton, an associate professor of pediatrics and chief of forensic medicine at the University of Mississippi Medical Center.

He said it can take anywhere from a few days to months to starve a child, depending on the child and how much food is given. Benton said that in one case he worked on, a father in an upper middle class family in New Orleans did not want his children to be obese like he was when he was a child.

Austin's death sparked outrage from Children's Defense Fund spokesman Pam Shaw, who said the state has not made MDHS a priority over the years.

"How many children must die before we have an agency that's responsive to the children they take care of? One is too many," Shaw said.

Lori Woodruff, deputy administrator for the Family and Children's Services division of MDHS, said, "We understand that when something this terrible happens, somebody wants to blame somebody. But the it's not just DHS's responsibility .. the community has to team with DHS as a whole."

"Once we close our case, we're not involved unless we get another report of suspicion of abuse or neglect, or unless the family calls for help," she said.

Mississippi settled a lawsuit last year that requires the state to fix its backlogged foster-care program by hiring more caseworkers and limiting their caseloads.

The state has made some progress, said Shirim Nothenberg, an attorney for Children's Rights, the group that sued the state. But it will take five years and at least $34 million to fully comply.

"This death suggests there remains a real need for a strong foster care and child welfare system in Mississippi that does not yet fully exist," Nothenberg said.

Woodruff said DHS has made 3a full-court press lately to hire additional social workers" and reduce caseloads.

Residents of the boy's community are in shock over the death.

"To see something like that happen around here .. it just tears my heart out," neighbor Jeanette Wallace said, her voice trailing.

Wallace, who lives across the street from the family's mobile home, said she often saw Austin's older siblings at the bus stop in the mornings.

"I never saw the little boy," she said. "I didn't even know his name until I heard about this."

The other children she saw looked healthy, she said.

"I can't imagine anybody letting something like that happen to a child," she said.

Wallace said she only saw Mowdy and Bell when they were putting out the trash or checking the mail.

"I never actually met them," she said.

Others in the community said they, too, were familiar with the family but did not know them well.

All described the situation as "sad" and "tragic," though no one else would speak on the record with The Clarion-Ledger Friday.

The boy's father was allowed to attend his son's funeral Thursday. Lee said he is the only family member in jail who has been visibly upset.

The boy's mother, Tammy Watkins, told WLBT-TV this week that she had not seen her son in a year.

"I may not have been the best mama, but I was a mama. I didn't do this and he was healthy," she said.