What is CPS Doing???

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-24-2009
What is CPS Doing???
27
Sun, 10-04-2009 - 9:59am

Mother of newborn stabbed and baby stolen.  Baby found.  CPS takes baby and 3 siblings!!  What?


http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-10-03-newborn-kidnapping_N.htm?csp=34


NASHVILLE — A kidnapped infant who was rescued Friday night in the Tennessee-Alabama border town of Ardmore is with a foster family and has not yet been returned to his parents, while the woman being held in the abduction was charged with federal kidnapping Saturday.

Also taken into the custody of the Tennessee Department of Children Services on Saturday were the infant's three siblings.


"It's for the children's safety," said DCS spokesman Rob Johnson. "I can't tell you how long. It will all be reviewed by a judge."


Police said 8-day-old Yair Antonio Carrillo, who was kidnapped from his South Nashville home Tuesday, is in good condition.


The baby's mother, Maria Gurrola, told police that a woman posing as an immigration agent came into her East Ridge Drive home Tuesday afternoon, stabbed her and stole the newborn. Gurrola, who suffered multiple stab wounds and a collapsed lung, was released from the hospital on Thursday.



The baby is with a foster care family, Johnson said.


"It's a happy resolution to this case," Johnson said. "We're working actively to reunite them but we don't know when."


Jose Antonio Carrillo has not seen his son but is relieved that he is safe. "We were ecstatic when so many of the agents came by last night to tell us they had our son," Carrillo said Saturday. "We cannot wait to see him."


Carrillo had taken the only picture of his newborn son on his cellphone. That image was widely circulated during the search.


"I think that picture really helped," Carrillo said. "That one photo was e-mailed everywhere."


Gurrola and the family all have the same thought: Thank God and the police, said Norma Rodriguez, Carrillo's cousin.


"Our supplications were answered," Rodriguez said as she waited for a carpet cleaning crew working in the home that was the scene of the abduction. "The police said they worked around the clock and this was a great result," Rodriguez added.


Tammy Renee Silas, 39, of Ardmore, was formally charged with federal kidnapping Saturday.


In the federal complaint against Silas, Gurrola told federal investigators she heard Silas on the phone after attacking Gurrola say "It's done. She's dying," in Spanish. Gurrola then ran to a neighbor's house for help. When she returned, the suspect and baby were gone.


The break in the case came as a task force of Metro police detectives and special agents from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and the FBI developed information on a Kia Spectra seen Tuesday afternoon following the child and his mother from a Wal-Mart parking lot, Metro police spokesman Don Aaron said. Investigators used technology to enhance the numbers on the Kia's license plate and determined that it was a rental car.


They learned that Silas had rented the car at Nashville International Airport early Tuesday.


Investigators traced Silas' rental car records back to her home in Alabama. When investigators knocked on the door of her home on Friday night, a man answered the door. Silas appeared shortly after with the baby in her arms and agreed to talk.


Silas surrendered without incident and was taken into custody about 10 p.m. Friday.


My Harrison, special agent in charge of the Memphis office of the FBI, said the baby is undergoing a routine medical exam and will be reunited with his family as soon as possible.


Harrison said she could not talk about a motive or what Silas has told police because of the ongoing investigation.


Silas has been arrested previously in Nashville for drug offenses, according to Metro Police spokeswoman Kristin Mumford. She has an outstanding warrant from California on a similar drug charge, Mumford said.

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-24-2009
Tue, 10-06-2009 - 3:56pm

Thank you for the update.


This case was bothering me.... cause I just felt like the woman was innocent and never deserved to have her kids taken away.


zz

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-20-2007
Tue, 10-06-2009 - 4:29pm
I felt the same way you did.....that the mother was innocent. Then when i read the news that they may have been trying to sell that baby I was so distraught. Glad to see they didn't.
iVillage Member
Registered: 04-21-2004
Tue, 10-06-2009 - 4:50pm

It's just that CPS makes some really stupid decisions, and I don't usually trust them.


That's why there's a judge involved. Also remember that for every case you hear about in the news, there are hundreds, if not thousands of cases you'll never hear about because the agency was able to intervene and stop abuse, investigated and found allegations to be false, removed children from horrific situations, worked with families going through troubled times and helped them avoid future problems, took food, fuel, clothes, or other aid to families in distress, etc.


FWIW, many social services agencies would be happy to have a few volunteers to help out. That might give you a better idea of everything CPS deals with and how well they usually do. Judging 50 individual state agencies based on a handfull of well publicized mistakes is a bit like giving up on medicine because there are a few botched surgeries in the news.


In this case, the article doesn't give us enough to go on, but given the huge hassle and expense involved in taking custody of a child, its pretty safe to assume that the child wouldn't have been put in foster care unless there were serious questions about the home environment. God knows people would be all over CPS if they returned a child to

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martinisnsushi - the two most important food groups!

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-24-2009
Tue, 10-06-2009 - 5:41pm

I hear what you're saying.


And I used to be a social worker.

Community Leader
Registered: 04-05-2002
Tue, 10-06-2009 - 6:31pm
Exactly. And, when they do err on the parents' side and something happens, they are also heavily criticized. You can't have it both ways when you can't read people's minds. You either play it safe, watch the kids and investigate in which case people howl that it's unfair to the parents. Or, you give the parents the benefit of the doubt in which case if something goes wrong, people howl about their not doing their job. Either way, they can't be 100%. Do you want to protect all children at the risk of being too careful or protect all parents at the risk of losing some children?










iVillage Member
Registered: 08-24-2009
Tue, 10-06-2009 - 7:14pm

And, when they do err on the parents' side and something happens, they are also heavily criticized.


Many of the past few stories I've read... well, CPS didn't just "err" on the side of the parents, they proved to be ignorant as hell.


Two very recently, one in Houston, one around Dallas.

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-21-2004
Tue, 10-06-2009 - 7:29pm

I will note again that at any given time, there are tens, if not hundreds of thousands of open investigations by various state CPSs across the country. Pointing out th eexceptions to the rule that make th enews shouldn't damn all the folks out there doing a good job.


Name any profession that

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martinisnsushi - the two most important food groups!

Community Leader
Registered: 04-05-2002
Tue, 10-06-2009 - 7:56pm
The thing is, as martinisushi pointed out, there are thousands of cases. We know the obvious.





iVillage Member
Registered: 08-24-2009
Tue, 10-06-2009 - 8:44pm

I didn't damn all CPS workers.

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-24-2009
Tue, 10-06-2009 - 8:49pm

Hindsight is perfect.