Grandparents of 1-year-old allegedly killed by dad's girlfriend say CYS "dropped the ball"

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- The grandparents of 1-year-old Iris Alfera are sharing their story after the little girl died of acetone poisoning seven months ago. Last week, police arrested her father's girlfriend.

KDKA-TV's Shelley Bortz spoke to the grandparents who tell her they not only want justice for Iris, they want to change the laws so no other family has to go through their pain.

"It's all we're doing, is putting one foot in front of the other," Candise Alfera said. 

"It's just horrible. This is something that shouldn't happen to anybody. That beautiful baby," Frank Alfera said. 

Candise and Frank Alfera hold back tears as they remember the day their daughter Emily called them to say their 18-month-old granddaughter Iris, who lived with them, was unresponsive while in her father's care. 

"She changed our lives, made us the happiest two people in the world," Candise said. "I used tell Emily, 'Oh, I thought I loved you,' I said, 'Oh, sorry, but Iris is this much more' and she would get mad."

Iris died in the hospital four days later on June 29 from acetone poisoning.

Then there was a break in the case. Last week, police charged 20-year-old Alesia Owens, the baby's father's live-in girlfriend, with her death after incriminating web searches for acetone among other harmful substances for children were found on her cell phone.

"It's bad enough to do something like that, but I mean, to research it, but to do it to a baby? I don't understand. I couldn't do that to an animal," Frank said. 

Several months prior to Iris' death, she was rushed to the hospital for ingesting water beads, batteries and a screw. When police told the Alferas they believed that was Owens' first attempt at killing Iris, they immediately contacted Children and Youth Services. But CYS allowed visitations with Iris' father to continue at his home with Owens present. 

"We had to go to court, Child Youth Services, they investigated and they said that it was OK, that he could go back to his regular visitation," Frank said. 

"As far as I'm concerned, Child Youth Services dropped the ball," Frank said. 

Now that an arrest has been made, the Alferas say they're going to let the justice system take over while they focus their attention on keeping baby Iris' memory alive while making certain this doesn't ever happen again.

"We want to change the law to prevent this from happening again. At least change it to the point where they have to have supervised visitation if something is wrong," Frank said. 

"Emily promised, Emily's making it her life goal to make sure the laws changed and that Iris' memory lives on forever," Candise said.