Social services under spotlight over children-in-freezer horror
A woman suspected of killing and freezing her two daughters had a misdemeanour conviction and past financial problems, but was still able to adopt the girls and collect a monthly allowance for their care even after their deaths, officials said.
The disturbing case has sparked questions on how Washington DC’s troubled social services department evaluates potential adoptive and foster parents.
Renee Bowman told investigators the frozen child-sized remains police found in her basement freezer over the weekend were those of her two daughters aged nine and 11 – both adopted from Washington.
Bowman, 43, is suspected of killing them and has been charged with first-degree child abuse in the beating and neglect of a third adopted daughter, who is seven.
She was a foster mother to all three before adopting them in 2001 and 2004.
“There is pressure across the board to get those adoption numbers up,” Richard Wexler, executive director of the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform, said.
“My question is: did the DC workers have the time to look at it case by case?”
It is the latest tragedy linked to the Washington Child and Family Services Agency, which has been reeling since the January discovery of the decomposing bodies of four young sisters in a home that had a past report of abuse.
In the Bowman case, officials in Washington and Maryland say they had no information about any abuse, either before or after the adoptions.
But Bowman had a 1999 misdemeanour conviction for threatening to hurt someone, according to court records. Bowman also appeared to be financially unstable, filing for bankruptcy in 2000 and in 2001.
It is unclear when Bowman became a foster mother. Bankruptcy could disqualify a person from becoming one, said Washington city council member Tommy Wells, a former social worker. Bankruptcy might not automatically keep a person from adopting, but it should be considered, he said.
Calvert County deputies made the gruesome discovery of the frozen remains on Saturday in Lusby, about 50 miles south east of Washington.
After adopting the three “special needs” children – a broad category that includes any child over five – Bowman received a monthly stipend of about €1,679 from a federal programme for adoptive parents, Washington acting attorney general Peter Nickles said. He said Bowman was apparently being paid even after the children had died.
Before Bowman was allowed to adopt, she was cleared by the FBI and police and passed a background check, which includes a home study, officials said. Bowman worked as an appointment scheduler at a surgery centre in north-east Washington a couple of times, the last ending in 2000, a spokeswoman said.
“She had a stable home, her health evaluation, all of those things checked out,” city government spokeswoman Mafara Hobson said.
Bowman’s background was checked by a contractor, the Baltimore-based Board of Child Care of the United Methodist Church. The organisation’s president did not immediately return calls seeking comment last night.
Nationally, many social services agencies have probationary periods, during which workers visit homes before adoptions are final, said Mr Wexler. However, he said that might be waived if an applicant had already been observed as a foster parent, as was the case with Bowman.
