Foster child's death ruled a homicide
By CLIFTON ADCOCK
The death of a 3-year-old Muscogee (Creek) Nation foster child was ruled a homicide Thursday by the Oklahoma Medical Examiner's Office.
Kyra Zubah died at St. Francis Hospital on Tuesday after being taken to the hospital from Okmulgee with injuries sustained over the weekend. The state medical examiner ruled that the cause of death was blunt head trauma and the manner of death was homicide.
A full investigation by the office has not yet been completed.
The Okmulgee County Sheriff's Office is investigating the death but had not made any arrests as of Thursday, said Regina Meyer, the attorney for Kyra's biological parents.
Investigators for the Sheriff's Office did not return calls from the Tulsa World on Thursday.
Kyra had been placed in a non-Indian foster home by the Oklahoma Department of Human Services when she was 11 weeks old because of abuse, said Carol Willis of Edmond, Kyra's previous foster-grandmother.
The tribe took jurisdiction in the case in February. In July the tribe's Indian Child Welfare Program took physical custody of Kyra and her younger sister, who lived in the same foster home, after Kyra's former foster mother, Willis' daughter, was charged in Oklahoma County with attempting to obtain a controlled dangerous substance — prescription drugs — by fraud.
From there, Kyra was placed in a tribal foster care home in Okmulgee, Meyer said.
Under the National Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978, Indian tribes may claim jurisdiction over Indian children who are tribal members in foster care and in some custody cases. The act was passed by Congress because a high number of American Indian children were being removed from their homes by public and private agencies, and its intent was to protect the children and promote the stability of American Indian tribes and families, according to the National Indian Child Welfare Association.
The Creek Nation's Web site states that the tribe's "child placement specialists recruit and certify Indian homes to serve as foster care placements for children removed from their homes due to abuse or neglect."
Tribal officials would neither confirm nor deny whether Kyra was under the care of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation's Indian Child Welfare Program and did not respond Thursday to inquiries as to what measures are in place for the tribe to regulate foster homes or whether the foster home Kyra was in had any previous violations.
Creek Nation Attorney General Roger Wiley said the tribe would not comment on the matter, according to tribal spokesman Thompson Gouge.
Conflicting stories surround the events that led to Kyra's injury and death, Meyer and Willis said, but both say it appears that the child was injured late Friday and taken to the hospital on Saturday, where she was later declared brain dead and died Tuesday.
A tribal court had returned custody to the biological parents on Tuesday, allowing them to decide whether to take her off life support and donate her organs, Meyer said.
Both Meyer and Willis said they saw Kyra while she was in the hospital and that she had bruises on her body. Willis said she saw insect bites on the child as well.
Alyson Atchison, Kyra's former foster aunt, said she often played with Kyra and that the loss is devastating. Atchison said Kyra's sister, who was born in April, had also been in her sister's custody before the children were taken by the tribe.
Both Kyra and her sister were in the same Okmulgee foster home when Kyra was injured, she said.
"I'm just heartbroken," Atchison said. "She never had to get in trouble. She was a perfect child. The years she was here, she never did anything wrong. I don't understand it.
"She had a big, wide home — family — here. She was never a 'foster child.' She was our baby. She was loved by everyone at church and an amazing little girl."
Meyer said the biological parents and Kyra's former foster family hope to see justice.
"We're hoping somebody is held accountable for this," Meyer said. "It's tragic. Kyra should be home. She should be alive, and she's not."