The soft-spoken 18-year-old had run out of food to feed his three younger siblings.
He told a counselor at Canoga Park High School that his mother disappeared every few days, leaving him and his siblings, ages 11, 3, and 1, with little to eat. He filled his stomach with water to stave off hunger.
Senior Albond Williams Jr. came home May 6 with a cooler filled with bread, milk, sandwich meat and cereal. The counselor then called the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services hotline to report possible neglect in a home with “more condiments than food.”
Over the next two days, Los Angeles Police Department officers and then DCFS social workers inspected the family’s Canoga Park apartment. According to DCFS records obtained by the Times, both students pulled out refrigerators filled with fresh food provided by the school as proof that the children were getting enough to eat.
Despite receiving several calls this spring about families going hungry without mothers, DCFS never filed an incident — another school counselor called the hotline on May 13. after Williams’ mother called him and told him she had kicked him out of the house.
Counselors say 11-year-old James is currently looking after toddlers Penelope and 1-year-old Tiri.
On July 1, Tiri was found dead with “malnutrition” and “sunken eyes,” detectives told DCFS. She showed signs of dehydration, an “poor diet,” and possible neglect, according to the county medical examiner’s autopsy.
According to the DCFS report, James was feeding his infant sister jelly and French fries.
DCFS’ analysis determines this situation to be a “high” risk, which typically means the social worker will need to file a lawsuit. But social workers ignored that recommendation, a decision that required supervisor approval, according to DCFS records.
DCFS social workers are supposed to refer a child to a medical professional if they believe the child is malnourished. But the social worker described Tiri as “happy” and terminated the referral before a doctor could see her.
“If you have a 1-year-old and you don’t have enough food in your home, that’s very dangerous,” said Bobby Cagle, a former DCFS board member who resigned in 2021. ”
DCFS said in a statement that it is legally prohibited from discussing details of the incident, but that “safety is at the heart of our work.”
“DCFS social workers rely on child welfare best practices, experience, training, and education to make difficult decisions every day about how to best support families while parents navigate complex personal issues.” ,” the bureau said.
In January, Williams’ mother quit her job at 7-Eleven and began going out every few days. He didn’t know where she went.
“She always said she grew up and could go anywhere she wanted to go,” Williams, who now lives on her grandfather’s farm in North Carolina, told The Times by phone.
Her mother, Jennifer Wood, 37, declined to comment, saying her daughter’s death was a private matter.
Williams said she stopped going to school in February because her mother refused to give her accommodation at the laundromat and she didn’t want to go to school wearing dirty clothes. He spent his days at home watching gaming YouTubers and listening to dubstep.
When the mother honked the car horn, it was a signal for the children to come get food from the driveway (often potato salad or containers of macaroni and cheese) before driving away. The amount of food normally lasts for one day, but it will be gone in two or three days.
Williams said the longest her mother went away was a week in Las Vegas.
On April 23, the day after Wood returned from Las Vegas, James called 911 after getting into an explosive fight with his girlfriend, bringing the children to the attention of DCFS for the first time this year. DCFS records show the agency received reports from LAPD in 2022 and 2023 about fights between the mother, her then-partner, and James, but never filed an incident.
The Canoga Park apartment where Albond Williams Jr. lived with his three younger siblings. Williams said the mother honked her horn when her children were supposed to come into the driveway to pick up food.
(Myung Jay Chun/Los Angeles Times)
According to a police report filed with DCFS, James told LAPD officers that her mother was in Vegas with her new boyfriend and that there was “very little food in the house.”
When a social worker showed up later that day, Wood said she had only been out for work for a few days. According to the social worker’s report, James grabbed her backpack and jumped out, accusing her of lying.
One day, Williams weighed herself on the scale in her mother’s bathroom and noticed that she had lost 20 pounds.
When he reached his breaking point, he called his grandmother in North Carolina.
“He told me how they had lived,” said Oneida Williams, 85. “He said, ‘Go back to school and tell me what happened.’ Maybe they can send someone.”
On May 6, Williams was opening a cooler of food he received from school when police arrived.
According to the summary, a school counselor told the Child Protection Hotline that Williams was disheveled with a ring of dirt around his neck and had “not stopped eating” since arriving and “was constantly asking for food the entire time he was there.” ” he is said to have said. of a call.
However, the children “did not appear malnourished or unhappy,” an LAPD officer reported to DCFS.
Williams, 18, at her grandmother’s home in Norlina, North Carolina Williams moved there in September after her mother said she had been kicked out of her Canoga Park home.
(Melissa Sue Gerrits/For the Times)
Officers reported that Williams was carrying “bags of food,” and there were canned goods and peanut butter in the cupboard. A DCFS report on the incident said Williams intended to give the sisters sandwiches and fruit that night.
The police visit coincided with the mother’s visit. The mother arrived with macaroni and cheese, potato chips, and chicken.
She “immediately put down the food and left,” the officer told DCFS. He said he didn’t talk to her.
Williams had just returned from school with more food when a social worker stopped by the next day.
“They showed up literally five minutes after I got home from school,” Williams said. “When they came, it looked like we had food.”
The social worker said the refrigerator and freezer were “stocked” with “plenty of food,” according to notes from the visit.
A social worker met with the mother that day, who told her that Mr. Williams was “ridiculous” and that she was tired of his “bad attitude.”
That night, Wood kicked Williams out of his apartment.
“Pack your things and leave,” he recalled her yelling at him.
A week later, the child protection hotline received a second call from Canoga Park High School. Counselors say Williams is living in a homeless shelter and James is currently caring for her two youngest children.
The counselor said, “I can’t imagine what my brothers are like.”
James was a computer whiz who attended online school and was diagnosed with autism and a behavioral disorder. He frequently ran away from home, according to the DCFS report.
Canoga Park High School counselors called the DCFS Child Protection Hotline twice about Williams and his younger siblings. DCFS never filed a lawsuit.
(Myung Jay Chun/Los Angeles Times)
Williams said she knew the 11-year-old was unsuited to care for young children and infants. But his mother kicked him out and he was exhausted.
“I didn’t want to leave them and I knew it was wrong,” Williams said. “But I really couldn’t do anything.”
Williams stayed at a homeless shelter until September, when he graduated from high school and headed to North Carolina, where he spent much of his childhood. He said no one from DCFS contacted him again.
According to a DCFS investigation into the hotline call, no social worker visited the apartment after being alerted by the school that the 11-year-old boy was responsible. A social worker’s attempts to speak with Canoga Park High School were “unsuccessful.”
Social workers also did not examine Ms. Wood’s claims that a roommate or family friend helped care for the children while she was away.
Her roommate, a security guard in his 30s, told a social worker after Mr. Tiri’s death that he always came home at 8 p.m., left at 4 a.m. and did not care for the children.
On May 22, social workers concluded their investigation, deemed the allegations of neglect “inconclusive” and terminated the referral.
“The mother practices appropriate parenting skills and provides adequate feeding, clothing, medical care, and supervision for the children,” social workers wrote in the final report.
On Saturday, June 29, James gave his baby sister French fries, he later told a DCFS social worker.
According to the DCFS report, James gave her “the last bottle of milk” and jelly “because he knew she would eat it.”
By then, Tiri was paler than usual and unable to crawl or stand on her own, James said. Her stomach looked weird and “sucked in.” He noticed a bumpy “black spot” on her head.
Sunday, she had nothing. The milk had run out and the mother had warned her not to give the baby water.
On Monday morning, he sent an email to his mother asking for money to buy milk. This was the third time he had asked since his mother left on Saturday night. She transferred the money that afternoon.
On his way to the store, he went to check on Tiri. He found her in her crib with her head turned back and her eyes open, according to a DCFS report. Her arms were stiff.
Thiri had been dead for 18 hours when police were called to the apartment, the coroner told LAPD detectives. Her forehead was bruised and had severe diaper rash and sores.
Inside, LAPD officers found overflowing trash cans and piles of unwashed clothes and dirty diapers, according to a DCFS report. The floor was covered in cat feces and the crib was saturated with urine. The refrigerator was empty.
Williams said she still doesn’t know exactly how her baby sister died. An autopsy was inconclusive, and the Los Angeles Police Department continues to investigate.
(Melissa Sue Gerrits/For the Times)
Los Angeles Police Department arrested Wood on July 11 on suspicion of child neglect. She was released four days later, but was not charged with any crime.
Prosecutors are waiting for more information from the coroner’s office about how Tiri died, said a person familiar with the investigation who was not authorized to discuss the case publicly. An autopsy did not determine the cause of death.
Los Angeles County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, whose district includes Canoga Park, called Tiri’s death “an absolute tragedy.”
“I am heartbroken and sick because Tiri and her siblings deserved better. Every child has the right to basic care and decency such as food, child care and support. Yes,” she said in a statement. “We have a responsibility to do better for all children in Los Angeles County.”
After Three’s death, DCFS removed James and Penelope from their mother’s custody.
James is in foster care, and Penelope lives with her father’s cousin in Lancaster. Her father, who lives in Arizona and spoke on condition of anonymity, said he was still trying to “piece together” how his daughter lived in the months before her sister’s death.
He said DCFS told him there was a “travesty” and “a series of neglect” but provided few other details.
Penelope has trouble sleeping and has not been potty trained. She seems comfortable in a dirty diaper.
“That’s how she was raised. It’s awful,” he said. “Who knows what was going on in that house?”
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