Death puts focus on CPS policy

Sarah Stevens

Romley asks agency to consider safety before family cohesiveness

Karina Bland
The Arizona Republic
Mar. 27, 2003 12:00 AM

Eleven-year-old Sarah Stevens suffocated just weeks after hospital staff pleaded with Child Protective Services to keep the girl from her mother.

Recently released police and coroner's reports do not say how Sarah suffocated Oct. 9. Her death is called "undetermined."

Her mother, Erica Stevens, shot herself to death as police stood outside their Phoenix apartment door. Sarah lay dead on the bed beside her.

People who knew the little girl blame CPS for not keeping Sarah from her mother. And, on Wednesday, Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley released a report that demands kids' safety, not keeping families together, be the top priority for state child welfare efforts.

"Too many children have died," he said, dedicating the report to the 28 children in the past five years who had prior cases with CPS but died of abuse or neglect anyway.

Sarah's case raises questions about mental illness and whether, in and of itself, it is an indicator of whether a parent might harm a child.

Related link • Special report: CPS under fire

The medical examiner's report says Sarah was asphyxiated. While the coroner calls Erica Stevens' death a suicide, it rules Sarah's death "undetermined."

A note written by Stevens, 40, says mother and daughter decided to kill themselves because they were terminally ill from exposure to toxic molds. Autopsies showed both were healthy.

"We put tissues up our nostrils, and pieces of washcloths in our mouths and used gray tape (the thick kind) to mask our noses and mouths, bind our hands and feet, and die. It worked for her, not me," the mother wrote in a suicide note.

People who knew Sarah said she would not have killed herself.

Sarah likely was in a stupor, based on the level of Valium in her blood, according to the coroner.

Ellen Nusbaum, whose daughter was Sarah's friend, questions whether a little girl in a stupor could have stuffed tissues into her nose and a washcloth into her mouth, placed duct tape over her own mouth and nose and bound her own hands and feet.

Police found no wadded-up tissues, used washcloths or duct tape in the apartment.

"It's ludicrous to believe that a perfectly healthy 11-year-old was capable of concocting such a horrible demise and then acting on it," Nusbaum said. "Whether she was killed in cold blood by her mother or manipulated into going along with the idea by Erica, she was still murdered."

Officials at Sarah's school reported her to CPS in early September. They said CPS wanted evidence of abuse before getting involved.

Then, on Sept. 22, Sarah was hospitalized for a suicide attempt. CPS workers came to the hospital, and staff there warned against returning the girl to Stevens. They said the mother was unstable and questioned whether Sarah had been fed the drugs and alcohol.

CPS spokeswoman Karin Kline could not comment on this case, citing confidentiality. CPS records of dead children are public, though only if the death resulted from abuse or neglect. Because Sarah's cause of death was undetermined, her file remains sealed.

Romley's report recommends making all CPS records public unless there are compelling reasons to keep them closed. A governor's commission is studying that idea.

Kline said that in general, a parent's mental illness alone does not warrant removal of a child. By state law, CPS can take a child only if there is an imminent risk of harm or a parent is not caring for the child.

To take a child for emotional abuse, a doctor or psychologist must support that finding and prove a link between the child's behavior and the parent.

"It just makes it very difficult to intervene," Kline said.

A mental disorder doesn't make someone any more prone to violence than anyone else, said Dr. Jerry Dennis, medical director for the state Division of Behavioral Health Services.

"Most people with mental disorders are readily treatable with medication, counseling and other treatment approaches," Dennis said. "It doesn't necessarily make them a bad parent."

There were no bruises on Sarah. But Nusbaum said Stevens was clearly unstable. Stevens talked obsessively about how she and Sarah were dying. And she made odd statements. For example, she insisted there were still working concentration camps in Germany.

In 2001, county health officials inspected the apartment Stevens said was contaminated and found nothing.

A private firm Stevens hired did find that the apartment was infected, and Dr. Michael Gray of Benson diagnosed Stevens and Sarah with mycotoxicosis, a mold-related ailment.

So Will Humble, chief of the state office of environmental health, went with county officials to Stevens' apartment a second time. He also found no health concerns.

The Stevenses moved. Even if they had been ill from mold, Humble said, they could have been treated.

A neighbor in the Stevenses' apartment complex called police on Oct. 9 after he discovered a hole in his wall and a bullet on the floor.

Police knocked on Stevens' door but she refused to open it, telling officers she didn't need help. A half-hour later, officers heard a gunshot.

People who knew Stevens said she refused CPS services and all but financial help. She had $11,147 in her purse.

Phoenix Police Detective Joe Petrosino is closing the case as a suicide and "death unknown." He can't prove Sarah was murdered.

The only real evidence is the note left behind by Stevens that claims a double suicide.

A small abrasion on Sarah's nose could have come from duct tape, though the coroner didn't find tape residue on her. He found a single fiber in her mouth that could have come from a washcloth. And he said the Valium likely would not have left her unconscious.

"Could she have entered into that agreement and put the tissue up her nose and taped her mouth closed after she got sleepy? Yes, I guess so," Petrosino said. "Certainly, no one wants to push Erica into being a child murderer. It's bad enough that she killed herself."