Foster mother arrested in killing of girl, 4
Last year's death resulted from blunt force to head
Kristina Davis
OCEANSIDE – A yearlong investigation into the death of a 4-year-old girl ended Monday night with the arrest of her foster mother, Oceanside police announced yesterday.
Dania Haros, 23, is being held without bail on suspicion of murder and violent assault on a child. She is scheduled to be arraigned today.
Angelina Irene Espalin died Nov. 19, 2006, after suffering blunt-force head injuries, according to the Medical Examiner's Office.
Haros and her husband, Daniel, took the unconscious girl to Tri-City Medical Center in Oceanside at 8:30 a.m., and hospital staff members reported her head injuries to police, Oceanside police Sgt. Leonard Mata said.
She was airlifted to Rady Children's Hospital, where she died that day.
The death was ruled a homicide a few days later after an autopsy was performed.
Investigators said it didn't appear a weapon had been used. Police declined to release more details about what caused Angelina's injuries.
No charges are being sought against Haros' husband at this time, police said.
Angelina and her 2-year-old sister, Ellie, lived with the couple on Maxon Street for five months before the girl was killed, Oceanside police Sgt. Karen Laser said. The couple was in the process of adopting both girls. Their biological mother was in jail at the time.
The tragedy still haunts S'te Elmore, a foster mother who had both girls for nearly a year and was ready to adopt them before they were placed with Haros. She described Angelina as a beautiful, vocal child who took a long time to get close to people.
"We loved them both and wanted them to become part of our family forever," Elmore wrote on her MySpace page. "The system had other ideas though and moved them to what they considered 'the perfect family.' "
The girls had already bounced around from relatives' homes and other foster homes. The caseworker told Elmore that she and her husband already had too many children in the home for the sisters to continue to stay there.
The girls were then placed with Haros, who is bilingual, and her husband, who speaks only Spanish. Angelina spoke only English, Elmore said.
"The day (the caseworker) came to pick Angie up, I told Angie, 'You are going to a new mom and dad, and these people are going to love you and take care of you,' " Elmore said from her Spring Valley home yesterday. "Now, I think about what she went through. It's horrible."
She learned of Angelina's death on the evening news.
"The system failed her. Why did it get to this point without anyone noticing anything?"
Ellie was removed from the home shortly after Angelina's death.
Ann Fox, a manager with the county's Health and Human Services Agency, said an extensive screening process is required for people looking to become foster parents.
Applicants are fingerprinted, checked for criminal history and run through databases that track child abuse history and whether they have applied to be a foster parent elsewhere in the state. They must then go through a questionnaire and interview process and complete 27 hours of classroom training.
"I think we have very good screenings, but we can't predict everybody and everything they will do," Fox said. "We can't answer how this happened, and we are concerned."