The brutal death of Amy Dye: Kentucky social workers ignored months of abuse ...

It seemed like a storybook ending to a troubled life: 5-year-old Amy Dye, removed from her Washington home two years earlier and shuffled among relatives and foster care, had a chance for adoption by a relative in Kentucky.

Her great-aunt, Kimberly Dye, asked to take Amy into her Todd County home, saying she had always wanted a daughter and that her greatest pleasure was to "bask in the joy of motherhood."

Her two sons, Kimberly Dye said, were excited about having a younger sister and had agreed to share a bedroom to give Amy her own room.

"We're so happy you are going to be a part of our family," Dye and her sons, Myles and Garrett, said in a 2006 letter to Amy.

That image was shattered earlier this year when 17-year-old Garrett killed Amy, a slender 9-year-old with caramel skin and bright blue eyes, beating her to death with a jack handle. Garrett, now 18, is awaiting sentencing Wednesday for murder.

And state child-protection records, released last week by a judge, reveal a darker side to life in the adoptive home — one of abuse and neglect allegations that Kentucky social service officials ignored or dismissed as unfounded, despite repeated reports from school officials worried about Amy.

Rep. John Tilley, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said Amy's death has shaken his Western Kentucky region. Concerned about the secrecy of the child-welfare system and the seeming lack of accountability, he said he is considering having his committee look into the matter when the General Assembly convenes in January.

"Clearly in this case there was a systematic failure that has resulted in the death of a little girl," said Tilley, D-Hopkinsville. "This was a senseless tragedy, and I don't think this was an isolated case."

Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd — who earlier this month ordered the Cabinet for Health and Family Services to disclose records in Amy's case that it had fought to keep secret — has harshly criticized the agency for turning a "blind eye" to abuse reports.

(Page 2 of 5)

His Nov. 7 order was blunt: "An innocent, 9-year-old girl was brutally beaten to death after enduring months of physical and emotional abuse in a home approved by the Commonwealth of Kentucky for her adoption."

A history of abuse

As part of his order, Shepherd placed the entire cabinet file in the court record. It includes Amy's adoption records, multiple reports of alleged abuse and the cabinet's investigation after her death.

During her time with the Dyes, Amy repeatedly showed up at school with bumps, bruises and abrasions and was once briefly abandoned in a hotel parking lot for misbehaving, the records said. In the months before her death on Feb. 4, according to the records, she was forced to go outside in freezing weather to fetch clean clothes as punishment for incontinence.

At the same time, problems had mounted for Garrett Dye, who got in trouble for taking a gun to school and spent time in a state juvenile center in 2009 for a drug violation, the records said.

And though Kimberly Dye identified herself as divorced and a single mother when the cabinet investigated her home and approved Amy's adoption, records show her ex-husband, Christopher Dye, later moved in and was active in the care and discipline of all three children.

This occurred despite the fact the state had found that Christopher Dye had beaten Garrett with a belt in 2003, Shepherd's order noted.

"The files contain no indication the cabinet ever took notice of the fact that the same household in which (Amy) was reportedly being abused was the same household in which the cabinet had previously substantiated abuse," Shepherd's order said.

Cabinet officials have fought efforts to release records in the case first sought by the Todd County Standard, the weekly newspaper in the Western Kentucky county near the Tennessee border.

Friday, cabinet spokeswoman Jill Midkiff said state social service officials work hard to protect children and that "It is a tragedy any time a child dies."

"We support the work of our staff when they follow the law, even when tragic events happen that could not have been foreseen," Midkiff said. "When staff does not follow the law, we take appropriate disciplinary action."

(Page 3 of 5)

Kimberly Dye, 46, could not be reached for comment. Christopher Dye, 41, said neither he nor Kimberly Dye wished to comment. Neither has been charged.

Todd Commonwealth's Attorney Gail Guiling told the Todd County Standard that she is waiting for law enforcement to present results of any further investigation to her.

Amy's paternal grandmother, Kris Richard, of Moses Lake, Wash., said she was horrified by news reports that Kentucky child-welfare officials had dismissed earlier allegations of mistreatment in the Dye home.

"I am so angry that any of this took place," Richard said, adding that her poor health prevented her from adopting Amy. "I'm sickened, just sickened by this whole thing."

'She slipped through the cracks'

Born Amythz "Amy" Rayne Lewis in Portland, Ore., in 2001, Amy was premature and weighed less than 4 pounds at birth.

When she was 3, state authorities removed her from her mother, Sharmesha Muldrew, and placed her for a time with Kris Richard, whose son is Amy's father, according to the adoption records.

Richard said her son suffered a brain injury before Amy's birth and was not involved the child's life or able to care for her. Richard said she wanted to adopt Amy but was advised against it by her physician because of her health problems, including heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes.

Muldrew, who lives near Portland, said in a phone interview that she was shocked by the circumstances of her daughter's death and angry to learn that state officials knew of alleged abuse in the home earlier but did not remove Amy.

Records show Muldrew lost custody of Amy because of domestic violence in her home and agreed to have her rights to Amy terminated in 2005.

"They didn't do nothing for her," Muldrew said of Kentucky officials. "She slipped through the cracks."

In addition to her stay with Richard, Amy went through several foster placements in Washington before Kimberly Dye, who is related through Amy's father, offered to adopt her, according to records.

(Page 4 of 5)

Washington child-welfare officials enlisted Kentucky officials to check out the Dye home and oversee Amy's stay as a foster child, as well as her eventual adoption.

Records show Kimberly Dye received $ 551.60 per month from the state as an "adoption subsidy" for taking Amy.

At the time of the adoption, Kimberly Dye, then divorced, was a single mother living in Trenton, Ky., with her two sons. She told Kentucky officials she and her ex-husband had a good relationship but that he did not live in the home, the records said.

Christopher Dye was known to social service officials because of a 2003 incident before the divorce in which he was found to have abused Garrett — then 10 — by giving him "thirty licks" with a belt for misbehaving at school, according to the records.

School officials made a report to the cabinet after seeing bruises on the boy, the records said. The cabinet subsequently closed the case with no further action.

Kentucky officials approved Kimberly Dye as a foster-adoptive parent in July 2006, and Amy moved into the Dye home. The adoption became final on March 14, 2007, and the state closed its case on the family, the adoption records say.

That same month, the first report of suspected abuse of Amy came to the cabinet — one of a series reported by officials at her school, South Todd Elementary. In future months, the officials would report bumps, bruises and reports from Amy that her brothers had hurt her, the records show.

But social service officials either declined to investigate or declared the allegations unfounded, after Kimberly Dye told them that Amy was "clumsy," fell frequently, bruised easily and sustained injuries when she "plays rough" with her brothers, according to the records.

She also told workers Amy lied and was an unreliable source, the records said.

Beaten to death

Teachers interviewed after Amy's death described her as bright, with excellent grades and "no behavior problems at all," the records said.

But on Feb. 4, the day she died, a teacher reported that Amy came to school upset because she had been caught taking juice and pudding from a friend's lunchbox the previous day.

(Page 5 of 5)

She said her parents were angry and had threatened to send her away from home, the records said.

"They stated they had never seen Amy so upset before," the social worker's report said.

That evening, Christopher Dye sent Amy and Garrett outside to shovel gravel as punishment, Amy for taking the food and her brother for driving his car without permission. Garrett Dye told police he became angry at the girl for chattering, the records said.

"The next thing he knew, he had hit Amy four times in the head with the jack handle, and she was laying on the ground," according to a social worker's interview with a state police detective.

According to the records, Garrett told police he dragged the body into some bushes and "ran inside the home and changed into clean clothes and hid his bloody clothes."

When Amy didn't return to the home that night, the Dyes reported her missing to police, who found her body after searching the property, according to the records. Garrett Dye was charged with Amy's murder two days later.

In the months before her death, Christopher and Kimberly Dye had forced Amy to go outside in freezing weather to get clean clothes when she accidentally soiled herself because of bowel problems, according to records. After her death, police found all the drawers from her dresser containing her clothes outside on a trailer under a tarp, the records said.

The social worker's report said Kimberly Dye reportedly was tired of Amy "pooping on herself" and said "if she was going to act like a dog, she would be treated like one," according to the records.

The records also detail an incident last January in which Christopher Dye admitted that about a month before Amy's death he took her to a hotel in Clarksville, Tenn., and left her alone in the parking lot to punish her for misbehavior.

"He thought this would be a good time to teach Amy a lesson," the social worker's report said.

Christopher Dye said he only left her for about a minute, then returned and found Amy "scared, upset and crying," the records said. The records said he told Amy that if she didn't improve her behavior, "this is what's going to happen."

That incident prompted Kentucky social service officials to substantiate a finding of child neglect against Christopher Dye for being an "inattentive caregiver" and using "unusual discipline." Records show he was notified of the finding Aug. 11, six months after Amy's death. State officials closed the case with no further action planned, the records said.

Richard, Amy's grandmother, said she is haunted by thoughts of "what that poor baby went through."

And she said she still has this question: "What's going to happen to the state of Kentucky?"

Read More @ Source

Criminal Stories Here