Relatives Angry Over Death Of Boy, 4

Child Died Of Heart Failure Over Weekend

BOSTON -- Investigators are hoping an autopsy Tuesday will reveal what exactly killed a 4-year-old boy who was in the custody of the Department of Social Services. In the meantime, the boy's parents are upset about the mysterious circumstances surrounding his death.

Dontel Jeffers died of heart failure over the weekend after his foster mother brought him to the hospital.

NewsCenter 5's Gail Huff reported that DSS took custody of the boy in December and placed him in a group home run by St. Mary's Church. Then, for reasons unknown to the family, Dontel was taken out of that group home and placed in a private foster home in Dorchester.

Armed with a search warrant Monday, police combed the foster home at 5 Ballou Ave. in Dorchester Monday, looking for evidence of possible abuse. Dontel was placed there more than a week ago on Feb. 24. The Boston Herald, citing unnamed sources, reported that appeared the boy was tied up and beaten to death. He died of cardiac arrest at Caritas Carney Hospital about 1:30 Sunday afternoon.

"They are giving us conflicting stories, and we, the family members, don't buy that," Dontel's cousin Vincent James said.

The boy's extended family was told Dontel was jumping on a bed Saturday night and fell, hitting his head on a radiator. It wasn't until the next day that the foster mother took him to the hospital with a swollen head.

"They didn't take him to the hospital same time he fall. Take him up, get him to the hospital. They did not do nothing. They wait until another day," said a weeping Agatha Jeffers, Dontel's grandmother.

Since November, extended family members have been trying to gain custody of the boy, who was described as hyperactive.

"He was very energetic and happy, cheerful, you know, and he always liked to play with other kids and be around kids," Phillipa Jeffers, another relative, said.

The boy's father is in prison and his 24-year-old mother was in a drug treatment program.

DSS Commissioner Harry Spence said he was launching a full investigation into the case.