From the Chicago Tribune: Days after the body of a 1-year-old Joliet Township girl was found under a couch in a house infested with bedbugs and with roaches climbing the walls, a Will County judge demanded to know what child welfare workers had done to help the family.
During a hearing Tuesday to determine where to place the deceased girl's three older brothers, Judge Paula Gomora said that in previous visits to the home caseworkers missed obvious signs of trouble.
"What did they do to help the family and to help these children?" Gomora asked, incredulously. "Quite honestly, from what I saw, I don't know how any caseworker could've walked into that house and let those children stay."
She did not receive any immediate answers.
Semaj Crosby was found dead inside her home Thursday morning, shortly after midnight. The girl had been reported missing Tuesday evening by her mother. Authorities, who initially believed the girl wandered off, searched the Joliet Township neighborhood Tuesday night and throughout the day Wednesday.
Around 11 p.m. Wednesday, investigators gained consent from Sheri Gordon, the girl's 32-year-old mother, and her attorney to search the house. After an hour, investigators found Semaj's body under a couch.
A statement last week from the Department of Children and Family Services said a DCFS investigator was at Semaj's home the day she disappeared. A Will County sheriff's spokeswoman last week said DCFS had contact with the family 16 times since last year.
A DCFS spokeswoman said the agency had been in contact with the family since September, including four unfounded investigations for neglect and two pending investigations for neglect that were opened in March. Officials also stated they did not see cause to remove the children when they visited the home last week.
"There were no obvious hazards or safety concerns at the time," the statement issued last week read....
She pointed to documents from the county's land use department, noting the house had been deemed uninhabitable because of a broken stove. The inspector's report also included eight other citations for general conditions of the home. Gomora also pointed to other court documents noting there were roaches "crawling up the walls" and bedbugs in the home.
The judge appeared disgusted, and she demanded access to child welfare records to better explain what happened.
"That didn't happen in a couple of days," Gomora said of the squalor. "That was a long-standing problem."
This poor little girl had to live in horrible conditions and even the social workers on the case couldn't give a crap. Unless the social worker was Helen Keller, this poor child should have been removed from the house a long time ago.
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