Toddler buried as children play

Boy died of beating in foster home

The Denver Post

As pallbearers placed Miguel Arias-Baca's 3 1/2-foot coffin in a hearse Tuesday, the carefree sounds of children playing hopscotch, football and tag during recess at the school next door drowned out the quiet sobs of mourners.Those two disparate images sum up the tragic life of Miguel.

At age 2 1/2, he was an ordinary toddler who liked lollipops and Pepsi and playing with other kids. But he spent much of his short life under the eye of the state's child-protection system.

And in the end, authorities say, Miguel was beaten to death while in the care of that system. He died in a hospital room two weeks ago with no family members around him.

"When the sun sets this evening, and we see the sky change from orange to red, we believe that Miguel is with God," the Rev. Melvin Thompson said at Miguel's funeral mass Tuesday at Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Church in Lakewood. "But we have great sorrow that Miguel did not have the chance to live and enjoy this great Colorado sky as an adult."

Adams County social workers took Miguel and his 14-month-old brother, Oswaldo, from their mother last fall because she was using drugs. The county used a private agency to place Miguel and Oswaldo in a Westminster foster home in October.

But Miguel's grandmother, Anita Baca, said she showed social workers bruises on Miguel when she visited him at the county social services office. She said she thought the toddler was being abused in his foster home.

On Feb. 1, the foster parents rushed Miguel to the hospital. They said he fell off a toilet while they were potty-training him. Miguel died the next day.

The autopsy showed Miguel had been fatally beaten. And police say they plan to ask the district attorney to charge foster father Ricky Haney, 37, with first-degree murder. Critics of the system say Haney and his wife, who both have recent arrest records and suspended driver's licenses, should never have been foster parents.

It took police and social workers more than a week to track down Miguel's biological mother. She went to a court hearing Thursday in hopes of being reunited with her children and instead was told Miguel had died.

On Tuesday, Miguel's family placed blue carnations and white roses on the toddler's coffin as it was lowered into the ground at Golden Cemetery. They declined to comment.

"This young boy, Miguel, was taken very unexpectedly and unreasonably from this world," Thompson said. "Cherish the times he fell and scratched his knee, the times he laughed. Cherish every one of those moments. Life is a superb gift to every one of us."

Patricia Callahan's e-mail address is Pcallahan@denverpost.com.