DCFS facilitates 3-year-old downstate boy's move in with his father, and now the boy is dead
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A family was promised that 3-year-old Hunter Drew were promised he would be cared for after he left their foster home.
But now, Hunter's loved ones are preparing to lay the boy to rest. They are asking tough questions of the state's child welfare system.
CBS 2's Chris Tye has been reporting on the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services for years. On Thursday, a family argued a judge's decision to place the boy with a biological father he had never met was a decision that cost him his life.
"Hunter was the life of the party," said Hunter's uncle and former foster father, Keil Quigley. "He always had a smile. He had beautiful blue eyes."
Hunter's eyes saw a lot of hardship in three short years. His father was out of his life at birth, and his mother gave up guardianship.
His uncle was his foster father until this August.
"As this story unfolds, it just paints an uglier and uglier photo," Quigley said.
Sources tell CBS 2 the DCFS located Hunter's estranged father, and commissioned a paternity test to ensure they had the right person since the two hadn't met.
They had a series of monitored visits and developed a service plan – and under a judge's order, Hunter moved in with his father.
This was despite the father's girlfriend making clear — in front of DCFS worker – that she "didn't want any more f***ing kids in her house," Quigley said.
Hunter moved into his father's home this August. Last Thursday, he died.
Ashley Bottoms of downstate Carlinville is Hunter's father's girlfriend. She is now charged with involuntary manslaughter.
Prosecutors say she was "breaking up a fight between two juveniles and threw [Hunter]... in such a manner away from the fight that caused [Hunter's] head to strike a ledge... leading to blunt force trauma and a brain bleed, thereby causing the death."
Prosecutors further said Bottoms "drove [Hunter] in a vehicle for over three hours without obtaining medical care which during said time the minor died of the head injury."
A DCFS spokesperson said:
"A court ordered that the child be reunified with his father in August, after a service plan and home safety checklist was completed. A case worker visited the home six times in September and October to ensure the child was in a safe environment."
"They promised me up one side and down the other that they would be all over him to make sure he was safe, comfortable, and getting the medical attention he required," Quigley said.
Quigley said biological parents should be a first choice for care with all else being equal, but this case proves its more complicated than that.
"This is unacceptable," her said. "They can't keep stepping in and deciding they're the state, so therefore, they know what's best."
Quigley has guilt - saying he should have been a bigger thorn in the side of DCFS.
We asked the department if they agreed with that judge's decision to reunify Hunter with his father. They didn't get back to us.
We also didn't hear back from inquiries to the biological father and his girlfriend's attorney.
Hunter will be laid to rest next week.