Photo released by the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office Danieal Kelly In Happier Times image:42229:1::0

Danieal died on August 4, 2006. One of the doctors who worked on her remains said at the time that he had never seen "a child neglected to this extent". Today, almost exactly two years later, nine people are facing charges in little Danieal's (it is pronounced "Danielle") death, including four social workers who were given the privilege and responsibility of ensuring her welfare.

The child's alleged mother, Andrea Kelly, was charged with murder. Ms. Kelly has the dubious distinction of not only being accused of starving her child to death, but the Grand Jury reports that a number of times she actually stopped one of her other kids from calling an ambulance "for his obviously dying sister".

Danieal's father, who did not live with the child, is facing child endangerment charges.

"Callous, indiffernet, unconscionable" are the words that Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne Abraham used when describing how Philadelphia's Department of Human Services handled Danieal's case. Abraham is also quoted as saying:

Danieal did not fall through the cracks. It was a failure of institutional inclination. Saving Danieal was just too much trouble.

Danieal's social worker (a current DHS employee) for the ten months just prior to her death, Laura Sommerer, is facing a child endangerment charge. The Grand Jury report (pdf file) says that the accused failed to notice that Danieal was "deteriorating", even though the social worker visited the family home just five short weeks before Danieal's heart stopped pumping blood through her 42-pound, emaciated, bed sore covered body. The social worker's report from that date? "The children appeared safe and comfortable in the home."

Now, before we all blame this on a poor overworked government employee, it should be noted that at the time of Danieal's death, it is being reported that the accused had a caseload of only 18 families, well shy of the restricted, mandated maximum of 30. You will also all be comforted to know that while obviously, things did not end well for little Danieal, this accused social worker is still employed as a DHS social worker and has been rated "outstanding" in her employee evaluation.

Another DHS employee, Dana Poindexter, is also facing charges of child endangerment. The Grand Jury reports that over a three-year period, the accused failed to look into several reports from "concerned relatives and friends" that Danieal was not receiving medical care, that she was not going to school, that she was not receiving social services or that she was even being taken "outside for air".

He did not complete a single investigation or risk assessment. Indeed, his file on the family was buried at the bottom of a filing-cabinet-sized box, beneath food wrappers and unopened envelopes relating to other children's cases.

The accused is still employed by the DHS as a child protective social worker and has received employee evaluations of "satisfactory" and "superior".

Two other sub-contracted social workers, both employees of the now-defunct company MultiEthnic Behavioral Health, are facing involuntary manslaughter, endangering the welfare of children, forgery, and tampering with public records charges. It is alleged that Julius Murray and Mickal Kamuvaka falsified documents to cover up the fact that anyone hardly ever actually checked on Danieal. The Grand Jury report says it best:

On the afternoon and evening of Danieal’s death, [the accused] convened what was in essence a forgery fest in her office. She summoned [the other accused] and other employees, sat them at a table, and directed them to concoct almost a year’s worth of false progress reports, to substitute for all the work that had never actually been done. The only reservation she expressed was that FBI ink testing technology might later be able to expose the fraud.

Three other people are facing charges of perjury after testifying to the Grand Jury that they all saw Danieal during the summer of 2006 up to and including August 3rd (that would be the day before her festering corpse was taken from the house) and that she appeared to be "happy and well-cared for".

Danieal didn't have a chance.


**CAUTION** If you actually go through the pdf file, there are some very disturbing, graphic pictures of Danieal taken during her autopsy.