Quadriplegic girl's sad story ends in death
BEN SCHMITT
FREE PRESS
When Shylea Thomas' biological mother stood to lose her daughter five years ago, she skipped the court hearing terminating her parental rights.
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"That tells you all you need to know," Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton said Thursday of the neglect endured by the 9-year-old quadriplegic girl found dead early Wednesday in a storage facility near Flint. "We don't know where the girl's mother is."
Shylea's aunt and adoptive mother, Lorrie Thomas, is in Flint police custody. Leyton said Thursday that his office wanted to get everything in order before announcing charges today against Thomas that could include felony murder, evidence tampering for hiding the body and welfare fraud.
"What we have here is a neglect case so severe that it resulted in child abuse and subsequently, to a death," Leyton said.
Social workers learned of the abuse at 2:30 p.m. Monday when they received a phone call from a relative outside of Lorrie Thomas' home in Flint. The caller told workers that Thomas was not caring for Shylea and other children in the home, leaving Shylea in her bed for hours and not feeding her properly.
A social worker for the state Department of Human Services, Aaron Clum, stated that he verified the well-being of seven children in the home, but could not confirm that Shylea was OK, according to documents obtained Thursday by the Free Press. Shylea's 11-year-old sister also resided at the home, along with four of Thomas' children and two children of Thomas' 15-year-old daughter, Leyton said.
At 5:15 p.m. Monday, Clum said he called Thomas, who reported that the family was moving from Flint to Virginia and that she had sent Shylea ahead with a friend. Thomas did not provide Clum with contact information.
At 7:30 p.m., another social worker, Maria Putman, visited the Thomas home on East Pierson Road. The two-story, aluminum-sided structure sits on a sparsely-populated block with 11 houses. Most of the homes are separated by one or two vacant lots, and two of the homes are burned out.
Thomas' 15-year-old daughter, who answered the door, said her mother wasn't home and closed the door, Clum wrote in a report.
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On Tuesday, Clum showed up at the home at 8:41 a.m. Thomas again gave the Virginia explanation for Shylea's whereabouts.
"The home did have signs that the family was packing to move," Clum wrote in a report. He left and said he would stay in contact that day.
At 1:41 p.m., Thomas called Clum and gave a phone number for the woman she claimed was caring for Shylea in Virginia. The number didn't work.
At 2:08 p.m., Clum called the Flint School District. He said he was told that there was no record of Shylea ever having gone to school in Flint. At 2:11 p.m., he got a similar answer from Genesee Intermediate Schools.
Prosecutors said they believe Shylea went to a school for children with special needs and was removed in January for unknown reasons.
At 2:30 p.m., a third social worker, Kim Ellies, went to Thomas' home and searched the home with the permission of Thomas' boyfriend. Thomas arrived home and again repeated the Virginia explanation. Ellies, upon collaboration with Child Protective Services, called Flint police.
Police arrived and Thomas again said Shylea was in Virginia.
At that point, investigators interviewed the children. Then they called a Genesee County Circuit Court family division judge to authorize the emergency removal of the children, who were placed in Foster Care by Child Protective Services.
At 4 a.m. Wednesday, investigators said Thomas led them to Shylea's body at the Stor & Lock storage facility, just north of Flint, in Vienna Township.
An autopsy was performed, and Leyton is expected to release the results today when he announces charges.
Brandy Blake, 31, lives two lots from the house and said she never saw Shylea, but saw the girl's aunt and a couple of older girls playing in the vacant lots when the weather was warm. She said the girl's aunt and another man, believed to be her boyfriend, drove a full-sized van.
"We don't bother each other much around here," Blake said. "We don't interact, and I think that's probably how something like this happened. It's so sad."
Vester Thomas lives behind Shylea's house on Fairfax. She said she sometimes saw the girl sitting in her wheelchair on the front porch.
"How could someone do something like that to that child?" asked Thomas, who has lived in her home for 55 years. Leyton said Thursday that Shylea had been paralyzed since nearly suffocating in her bassinet at 3 months old. Her head accidentally got caught between a mattress and the crib-wall pillow, severely limiting her oxygen supply, he said.
Sabrina Williams, 43, lived across the street from Shylea's family. She said she came home Tuesday afternoon and saw several police cars and social workers at the house.
"This is crazy," she said. "I can't believe this."
CONTACT BEN SCHMITT: 313-223-4296 or bcschmitt@freepress.com.