Raven Nichole Keffer - 2018

17-year-old Raven Nichole Keffer died at the Newport News Behavioral Health Center. It did not cause a lot of problems for either the facility and the employees involved in what can be called neglect as they ignored her sickness.

Probation is hardly punishment and if an employee move to another state to work there, the new employer would properly not discover the lack of professionalism the employee showed at the Newport News Behavioral Health Center

A lawsuit is hardly a punishment either as the facility properly have a insurance company to cover the costs.

It was such a waste that a 17-year-old girl should lose her life in a such tragic way.

We can only offer our support to her family. May she find peace where she is now.

Sources

• 17 yr. old dead at Newport Behavioral Health Center /Fornits Home for Wayward Web Fora)
• Aling Teen seen on Video before her death (Daily Press)
• Universal Health Services: Police Investigating Sexual Assault Complaint at Newport News Behavioral Health Center (Psychiatric Crime Database)

Diane Ramirez - 2019

The circumstances regarding who allowed Morris Small Family Home to be in operation and how they were approved as foster care home seems to remain unclear. Maybe it is just easier to blame the owners at the facility instead of looking at those who were supposed to monitor and supervise the foster home.

There is a risk that an investigation into that area would reveal a really broken system. A system which in the end claimed the life of a on only 17-year-old girl. Diane Ramirez should not had a such tragic end to her life. Suffering while being ignored like she was in just another correctional boarding school while her life slowly ended. She was supposed to be protected by the system and instead it failed her, when it allowed her to be placed at a run-down foster home where the only interest seemed to make it as cheap as possible to have children placed there. Not even the gas for a drive down to a hospital where the poor girl could have been given treatment seems to be in the budget.

Of course now the authorities goes after the employees and owneers of the place and their responsibility cannot be ignored. They should bear the consequences of their actions. But other children could be at risk of ending up in the same senseless way if the system is not changed.

We will pray for her family. May she find peace where she is now.

Sources

• Family of teen who died while in foster care furious after suspect released from jail (ABC 7 Eyewitness News)
• Calif. Foster Mom Charged with Murder, Dad with Sexual Abuse After Teen's Death Prompts Investigation (People Magazine)
• Riverside County foster parents charged in death of disabled teen girl appear in court (ABC 7 Eyewitness News)
• A year after her Spectacular Prom, California teen dies at controversial foster home (The Mercury News)

Jerry Trivett - 2003

Jerry Trivett suffered from an illness which was costly to treat. Tumors grew in his system. His mother couldn't afford proper treatment of the illness and he ended up being thrown around the foster care system. The illness affected his behavior and even foster families often had to return him so he could go to a new place.

He ended up in an over-crowded for-profit facility named High Pointe in Oklahoma. Here he got into a fight with another patients and he got slammed to the ground. He suffered a lot of pain over the next days but his pleas to be taken to the hospital just down the road for an examination was ignored. When they in the end allowed him to be transported to the hospital after losing consciousness they didn't mention the fight, so he was not treated in the proper way.

Maybe he had suffered internal damage and was slowly bleeding to down. We don't know because none tend to have paid an interest in him. Only when he died the system who send him to the facility started to look for fall-guys. While the facility was closed 9 months later only people on the ground suffered consequences due to his untimely death.

It seems that the system was meant to cost him his life. Where were the support for the foster families so they could have taken care of him with extra help to their homes? Where was the support for his birth mother in the first place so she could have taken care of his treatment appointments so he didn't have to be placed in the foster system?

15 years was all he was allowed before he died.

May he find peace where he is now.

Sources:

• From Pennsylvania to Oklahoma - and the end of the line at age 15 (Philadelphia Media Network)
• DHS has far to go to protect these kids About 200 live in out-of-state centers that the Phila. agency still struggles to monitor. (Philadelphia Media Network)

Brendan James Blum - 2007

The mother of Brendan James Blum was forced to put into treatment due to pressure from the authorities. She found what she believed was a fine place run under the guidance of one of the biggest operators of treatment programs for minors. A business often seen on TV-shows like Brat Camp and Dr. Phil.

But for 14 year old Brendan James Blum the facility chosen became a death trap when the employees failed to take action when he fell ill. We don't know the extend of pain this young man had to endure before he finally was granted peace. We do know that had the employees reacted and taken him to a hospital his life might have been spared.

The group home is no longer in operation and the customers - the parents - now know how dangerous residential treatment can be. Unfortunately too late for young Brendan James Blum. His family tried to help him. This huge firm failed both the boy and his relatives.

May he find peace where he is now.


Sources:

• Brendan James Blum (Find a grave)
• BRENDAN BLUM (COALITION AGAINST INSTITUTIONALIZED CHILD ABUSE)
• Victims 2005 - 2009 (Fornits Wiki)

Caleb Jensen - 2007

Caleb Jensen was only allowed 15 years in this life. He was sent to a wilderness program where he got an infection. Believing that his pain was some kind of manipulation the employees of the wilderness program let him suffer with his pain until the infection killed him.

May he find peace where he is now.

His mother created a memorial website. Her last words were:

If You have been following Caleb's story its finally over. I can not share the details of its end nor can I say It's what I expected. I didn't expect any of this, my plan was for my son to grow up, grow out of adolescent mistakes have a good life get married and give me grandbabies. None of that happened. Caleb didn't make it passed 15. He suffered in a lot of pain until he took his last breath in that pain, with me no where around to hold him, to comfort him. That is what kills me in my mind and my thoughts the most, that my baby boy was all alone suffering in pain with no one who knew him good enough to see he was suffering.

We are doing the things I have wanted to do in his memory. First I have ordered his headstone. It is an absolutely wonderful headstone. When it is placed we will have a headstone placing ceremony. All of us will come together in his memory. We will play a song and his sister Heather will sing a song for him. And take a few moments to talk about our memories and the fact that it is all over.

In November we will do the one thing I have planned for six years. All his Brothers and sisters will go to Disneyland in his memory. You see when Caleb and I talked before he left for that last program I told him when he gets home it will be summer. So we will finally go to lagoon as promised. Lagoon is like a tiny little Disneyland. We didn't get to do that. Well, I told my family when this is all over we will all go to Disneyland in Caleb's memory. We will wear shirts with his pic on them, and so that's what we are doing. I am having shirts made and we are making plans now. I'm so excited so is all the kids. We will be there with Caleb in our hearts!!!!

Sources:

• Memorial website
• Wilderness camp charged in teen’s death (Daily Planet)
• Son's death at camp prompts $45M suit (The Deseret News)
• Victims 2005 - 2009 (Fornits Wiki)

Roger Eugene Benson - 2011

Roger Eugene Benson was given 15 years in this life. He was a poor boy that went into the foster system ending up as the ball in a pinball machine living numerous places before he couldn't take it anymore. This death became more noticed by the society than his entire life because he disturbed the rush hour traffic when he jumped off a bridge to kill himself.

People became angered because they were delayed while the authorities cleaned the road for his remains but they really should be angry at the way the foster system is put together. The system is not free of charge for the taxpayers, it does cost a lot of money and it was established to be there for the minors who are supposed to be neglected by their families. It was supposed to give boys like young Mr. Benson a second life, not inflict emotional torment to a point that the minors who are placed in the system choose not to live anymore.

The system failed young Mr. Benson. May he find peace where he is now.



Sources:

• How Could You? Hall of Shame-Roger Eugene Benson case-child death (Rally Ethics for Orphans & At-risk Minors)
• The life and death of a teenager in state care (My Northwest)
• Victims 2010 - (Fornits Wiki)

David Sellers, Shawn Diaz and Ryan McCandless - 1990

Back in 1990 3 boys lost their lives in a downing accident on Convict Lake.

Brave rescue workers also lost their lives while trying to save the boys. It was an awful tragedy.

But not only did 3 families lose their children. They faced problems providing the money to have the children buried.

The investigation after this tragedy did show so many shortcomings in the operation of the facility that the owner was banned from running a facility in California but some years later there were some incidents in another state and soon everyone discovered that the very owner was in business again.

3 young lives were cut short that day. In was just plain unfair.

May they rest in piece.

Sources:

• FAMILIES OF LAKE VICTIMS NEED HELP ... (Newsbank)
• Victims 1990s

Ashlie Cheyanne Bunch - 2008

15 year old Ashlie Bunch had her problems in this world.

Still as it is written in the Seattle times: "Most of the time, Ashlie Bunch seemed to be a normal teenager, enjoying friends, soccer and family trips."

At some point her family sought help for her. Unfortunately DSHS did choose the McGraw Residential Center for her. It turned out to be a fatal mistake.

One day she was found hanging from a cabinet. She had used a shoelace; employees had given despite knowledge given to them about her suicidal mind.

It was as much neglect as it could be. The family sued just to make an example because regardless of how money the suit could produce incidents like this must never happen again.

Ashlie Bunch's young life ended when it was just begun because she was failed by the facility and their employees. It was a senseless tragedy.

May she rest in peace.

Sources:

• Seattle home for suicidal children sued over death (The Seattle Times)
• Ashlie Cheyanne Bunch (Stop DSHS)