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Jared Nicholas Tutco Jr. was born on October 5th, 2004 at Shore Memorial Hospital in Summers Point, New Jersey to parents Kimberly Tutco and Jared Tutco Senior. Jared Jr. lived with five siblings, some of whom will be referred to using their initials during this story. According to Kimberly, Jared Jr. had serious mental disabilities and was very hard to manage.
Allegedly, he would tear up the floor and carpet in his room, spread his feces on the walls and floors, and refused to wear a diaper. Jared Jr. was officially diagnosed with fragile ex syndrome in August of 2005, a genetic condition known to cause developmental delays. Both Kimberly and Jared Senior had been under the radar for a while when Jared Jr. was born.
For Kimberly, it started as early as 1993. There was a case filed against her with the Skookul County Children and Youth Services. The report involved her oldest child from a previous relationship. Child, who was only 6 months old, had suffered two head injuries within a short period of time. Kimberly’s rights to that child were later terminated and soon after she gave up her parental rights to her other children from that same relationship.
After that relationship ended, Kimberly married Jared Senior. Still living in Pennsylvania, she had two more children. a daughter named BT born on August 31st, 2000 and a son named ENT born on September 15th, 2001. However, the Skookul County CYS had concerns about unstable housing. The family was constantly moving and the children were not getting the medical care they needed.
It was noted that on April 24th, 2002, Kimberly made a phone call to the Dolphin County CYS complaining about the Skookul County CIS being involved with her family. October 15th, 2002, there was supposed to be a court hearing about removing BT and ENT from their care, but the hearing never happened. Kimberly and Jared Senior moved out of Pennsylvania before the court date.
So, Skookul County closed the case. Later, Jared Senior told a Dolphin County case worker that they had moved to New Jersey in 2002 because their lawyer told them Skookul County was about to take their children. Once the family relocated, the New Jersey Division of Youth and Family Services was contacted by Skookul County on October 11th.
Skookul County informed them about the open case and the miss court hearing. They also noted that Kimberly and Jared Senior were not cooperating with the safety plan and had refused to give permission for their records to be reviewed. At the time, Jared Senior, Kimberly, and their children were living in a hotel. Police checked in on them and the children appeared to be safe to them.
That specific referral was closed, but over time, New Jersey’s DYFS received other reports about poor parenting and the parents not following medical directions. Kimberly and Jared Senior soon had another daughter known as ART on August 11th, 2003. However, records show that after being hospitalized for seizures, Art was not given her required medication properly.
Her parents didn’t bring her in for follow-up visits either. Her father had reduced her medication dosage even though the pediatrician told him not to. After another emergency room trip in September of 2004, Diffs removed Art from the home, but later returned her to her parents’ care. After all of these cases, neither of Jared Jr.
‘s parents had a stable life at the time of his birth, because of which the hospital was asked to delay his release to his parents. He was placed in foster care after his hospital discharge and stayed there from October 12th to October 18th, 2004. >> In 2005, Kimberly and Jared Senior moved from New Jersey to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
Neighbors in that area said they hardly ever saw the mother outside their house. One neighbor remembered seeing Jared Senior slap one of his sons who was so thin at the time that his ribs were visible. Jared Jr. returned to live with his parents until July 3rd. But by June 21st, EIFS opened another case on him. A home nurse helping the family became worried that he wasn’t gaining enough weight and might not be getting properly fed.
At 9 months old, his weight was dropping. The nurse told the doctor that Jared Jr. weighed 14 lb 2 oz on June 30th. By July 1st, his weight dropped once again. By July 3rd, he weighed just over 13 lb. At that point, the doctor called the family and said Jared Jr. needed to go to the hospital.
Jared Senior said they didn’t have a car. The doctor suggested calling an ambulance. He refused and hung up the phone. Jared Jr. was admitted to Shore Memorial Hospital on July 3rd through DYFS intervention. He weighed 13 lb 7 o when he was admitted. By the time he was discharged on July 11th, he had gained over a pound, weighing 14 lb 11 oz.
After leaving the hospital, he was placed back into foster care and remained there until April 6, 2006. >> Shortly after Jared Jr. was returned to his parents, another referral was made. On July 7th, Diffs reached out to Dolin County. They worried the family wasn’t getting the same kind of support in Pennsylvania as they had in New Jersey.
Dolin County decided not to investigate the report, saying they didn’t have enough information about where the family was living. The next time the family came to the agency’s attention was on January 9th, 2008. Steel Elementary School staff submitted a report about BT, the oldest daughter, who was seven at the time.
The report said BT had poor hygiene and often looked dirty. She said she was scared of her father and claimed her mother touched her inappropriately. Her teacher said Jared Senior called every week and came off as intimidating. The other child, a n told the school staff his dad was scary like a monster. The case was open for investigation and was supposedly completed by February 8th, 2008.
But according to grand jury testimony, none of the documents from that investigation were filed and they couldn’t be found. So the outcome of that case is unknown. >> Another referral came in on February 3rd, 2010, again from Steel Elementary School. Court documents refer to this child as DT, but I think this is a mistake and that they are actually referring to BT, who was one of Jared Jr.’s older sisters.
The reason we believe this to be the case is because after he was born, his parents had two more daughters. One was born in 2008 and another in 2011. Only Jared’s sister BT would make sense to be the one referred to by an elementary school because she was the only sister who was in school at the time.
The other two children have never been referred to by their initials in court documents, and one wouldn’t have even been born yet at the time of this referral. Also, I know all these initials are confusing, but we’re not going to name these surviving children. All other official sources have also redacted their names.
And furthermore, the goal should be to protect these children’s identities. I know there are plenty of cases where the media names all the surviving children or that one of the surviving children was in the spotlight for some reason, but the goal should be to protect these children’s identities. And I’m glad the media has not named these children either.
That said, when we have a case that has a ton of abbreviated names or aliases, we will have a who’s who up on the screen multiple times throughout the video so you can better follow along. Now, BT was hearing impaired and used sign language. She had a fever the day before and when the school tried to contact her father to pick her up, there was no response.
Next day, BT still had this fever. When asked if her dad had done anything, she signed the word slap. She seemed upset and school staff were scared to send her home. The agency assigned a case worker to look into it. February 8th, the case worker went to the school and spoke to BT with help from a teacher who could interpret sign language.
ET didn’t share anything and didn’t say whether her dad or anyone else had hurt her. Few days later on February 12th, the case worker went back to the school to talk to ENT. He said he didn’t know anything about his sister being hit. He did mention that their younger brother, Jared Jr., sometimes got his hand smacked, but said there was no other physical discipline.
February 18th, the case worker made a planned visit to the family’s home on Green Street in Harrisburg. During that visit, she saw BT and Art. Kimberly said Art had severe brain damage from a seizure back in 2007 and was now confined to a hospital bed at home. The case worker noted that BT showed behavior similar to what she had seen before in children with autism and suggested Kimberly take her to a doctor for evaluation.
Kimberly also explained in regards to BT’s fever that BT had felt better the next morning, that she had checked her temperature at home and it was normal, so she sent her to school. Before closing the investigation, the case worker wrote in her report that she still needed to observe Jared Jr. Kimberly said he was at a friend’s house.
There’s no record showing whether the case worker checked every room in the home that day. The next day, February 19th, another case worker went back to the house. This time, they saw Jared Jr. who appeared clean and had no visible issues. The report said he seemed slightly mentally delayed, but they didn’t feel that there was any concern.
Based on that, the agency closed the investigation. December 9th, 2010, Dolphin County CYS got another report about BT. The person making this report said BT had been showing up to school dirty for the past year or more and often wore the same clothes for several days. Despite this, the agency did not investigate this report.
It was marked as information only. The case worker passed it along to a supervisor. Nothing else was documented about this report. It’s also unclear whether the case worker reviewed any of the earlier referrals or was aware of the family’s history with child services in New Jersey or Skoo County. Then on October 23rd, 2013, a new report came through Pennsylvania’s Childline.
According to the report, one of the children told the person making the referral there was ongoing family violence at the home between his parents. He said he often got dragged into their arguments and felt pressured to choose sides. He explained that whenever he sided with his mother, his father would yell, curse, and get in his face or even hit him.
The child said his father would pick fights with him and used him as a target for his anger. Though he couldn’t say exactly when these things happened, he admitted to wanting to run away on October 21st because of all of the fighting. He said that when his dad found out, he went off on him. The child didn’t report any injuries or pain, but he said he was scared to tell anyone what went on at home because he thought his dad would hurt him.
A case worker was eventually assigned to investigate. On October 24th, she visited the home and told the parents she needed to see all of the children. In response, Jared Senior went upstairs to the third floor. About 15 minutes later, he came back down carrying Jared Jr. to the second floor. His head was wet. When asked, Jared Senior said the boy had poured iced tea on himself.
Later, on October 31st, the case worker met with ENT at his school. He was 12 years old at the time. He told her that the iced tea story wasn’t true. He said that Jared Jr. had feces all over himself from his diaper and that their dad had been trying to clean him up. He added that his dad didn’t care about Jared Jr. anymore. >> As the case worker continued looking into the family, she learned several things that stood out to her.
Both parents were unemployed and stayed home with the children. The family would mostly survive on government benefit checks, which were being received monthly. ENT didn’t have a bedroom or even a bed. He slept on the living room couch. He also said that his dad would punch holes in the walls during fights. The case worker saw patched up areas in the walls and confirmed with both parents that Jared senior had done this before.
ENT also said his dad smashed phones during fights. Kimberly denied it, but Jared Senior confirmed that it happened. Case worker also found out that both Art, who was 10, and Jared Jr., who was nine, were not enrolled in school at all. During a home visit on November 1st, the case worker asked both parents to sign release forms so she could access the kids’ medical records and talk to their doctors.
Kimberly got upset and asked why those were needed, saying, “This is how things get twisted. She insisted she took the kids to the emergency room when they were sick, then threw the release forms and started yelling at the case worker.” She asked if she should get a lawyer. Neither she nor Jared Senior ever agreed to let the agency see their children’s medical records.
Family became more and more difficult to work with for the caseworker. At one point, an emergency meeting was held at the agency. They were adamant about getting Kimberly and Jared Senior to agree to a family plan. When asked how serious she thought this situation was, caseworker rated it a 9 out of 10. The plan included trying again to get the medical release form signed, making sure the two school-aged children were enrolled in school, checking with Skookul County and New Jersey agencies about past involvement with the family, and contacting law
enforcement about any DV reports. They also decided to assign a different case worker to take over. They thought that assigning a male case worker from a rural background similar to Kimberly and Jared Senior might help get better cooperation from the family. Kirsten Johnson, who was a highranking official at the agency, later testified that the new case worker had a completely different take on the family situation than the first case worker.
This new case worker didn’t seem to share the same level of concern. There was no discussion between the old and new workers or their supervisors about why their views were so different or how they were supposed to even resolve that. Even though the first case worker wasn’t handling the case anymore, she did visit the home again with a new case worker during the handover.
She also wrote up a full report summarizing everything. Despite knowing all of the concerns, this new case worker and his supervisor did not follow up to make sure that the children were enrolled in school. They also couldn’t get the parents to sign the medical release forms, which meant the agency had no way to check whether the children were really getting the care that they so desperately needed.
They continued making visits to the home. They saw the children during those visits and also checked in with BT at her school. During one visit, the supervisor again asked Kimberly to sign medical releases. She refused, but said they could look through the binder she had created with her kids’ medical records.
Instead of requesting those records directly from the doctors, the agency accepted the binders. Neither the supervisor nor the new case worker went up to the third floor of the house. In fact, the supervisor later admitted she never went beyond the first floor and the case worker didn’t even know the house had a third floor.
Because they never got access to the medical records and couldn’t verify anything the parents were saying, the agency decided to close the case on December 20th, 2013. They also never followed up with the school district to see if the two children who weren’t in school had ever been enrolled, even though they had asked the family to do so.
On January 21st, 2014, Hershey Medical Center made a call about art. She had been admitted to the hospital a few days earlier on January 17th. When she arrived, she looked unclean. Her fingernails were dirty and not trimmed. She was unable to care for herself and was taken to the hospital by ambulance.
The family didn’t have a car and had several other children at home, but even though they could have taken the bus, they didn’t come visit her at the hospital. Art couldn’t speak and needed a lot of medical care. Her hospitalization was for a fast heart rate and a fever, but the hospital staff were still worried. The nurses who had worked with her before refused to return, saying the family was too difficult to work with.
The hospital didn’t tell the family about the report and made plans to have another nursing service, Central PA nurses, take over her at home care. When the hospital was preparing to send ART back home, they called Kimberly and Jared Senior. They first said they didn’t have the right medical supplies to care for their daughter, but the hospital confirmed that they did have those supplies.
Then the parents said she couldn’t come home if she needed oxygen, claiming a doctor from St. Christopher’s Hospital said it wasn’t allowed. The hospital followed up with that doctor and confirmed that ART could safely come home with oxygen. When the parents were told this, they agreed to have her discharged.
Between 2013 and 2014, Jared Senior had been locking Jared Jr. in the front bedroom of the third floor of their house, allegedly to stop him from falling down the stairs. According to him, Jared Jr. was kept locked up because he would throw things when let out. On July 27th, Jared Senior said he last saw Jared Jr.
in the same bedroom. He did not see his son again until July 29th. Yeah, you heard that correctly. He claimed he locked his son in a bedroom and didn’t check on him for two whole days. When he finally did, that is when he found Jared Jr. dead. He said he had tried to resuscitate Jared Jr. when he still found him warm. However, Jared Senior did not tell his wife about what happened.
He continued to hide it from her by pretending to check on his son every now and then. He would often use mothball and bleach to hide the smell, but soon Kimberly began complaining about the odor. Jared Senior then contacted a family-based worker who advised him to call the police. On August 1st, Jared Senior finally told his wife that their son was dead and moved Jared Jr.
‘s body to the floor of their second floor bathroom. At 10:35 p.m., Kimberly called Harrisburg police. They arrived. Kimberly told them what Jared Senior had told her. Claimed that Jared Senior was primarily responsible for taking care of their son, that she hadn’t gone up to see Jared Jr. in his room for many years.
She explained that she was mainly responsible for taking care of their very sick daughter, Art, and didn’t go near Jared Jr. because she was worried about carrying bacteria back to their daughter, who relied on her for everything. However, later on, Kimberly admitted that she saw her son a day or two before he died.
Kimberly spoke to a reporter and explained that when she asked her husband why he never told her their son had died, he admitted he had been too scared to speak up because of the other children in the house. When police entered the front bedroom on the third floor, they saw that the door was shut and with either a towel or a blanket pushed against the bottom.
Moth balls were scattered in the hallway just outside. Inside, there was no furniture except for a television that had been bolted to its stand. The walls and floors were smeared with a thick layer of feces. And behind the TV stand, there was a dried pile. Both the light switch and the inside door knob were also covered in human waste.
The light didn’t work, and in the center of the room, they found a stuffed rabbit toy in a blanket, both of which were filthy. The room was filled with flies, and the door knob had been installed backwards so that it locked from the outside, making it impossible for someone inside to leave if the bedroom door was locked. On the same day, Jared Senior was taken into custody and charged with abuse of a corpse and endangering the welfare of children. His bail was set at $500,000.
Kimberly had not been charged with anything at this point. She insisted she was not involved in what happened and didn’t understand why her husband kept it from her. She claimed she asked about Jared Jr. every day and night, checking if he had eaten and how he was doing. Was always told that he was fine. However, on September 29th, 2014, Kimberly was also arrested.
This time, the charges include criminal homicide and endangering the welfare of children. >> 3 News First at 4. >> Good afternoon. I’m Heather Warner >> and I’m Evan Forester. A Harrisburg mother is charged with criminal homicide after a son was found starved to death last month. The boy’s father is also charged with homicide.
>> Yeah, he was arrested when the child was found decomposing in the home several days after his death. Fox 43’s Katie Kyros joins us now live at the Dolphin County Courthouse where the district attorney just held a press conference. >> Yes. Both parents of Jared TCO Jr. are now charged with criminal homicide.
The district attorney says they showed extreme indifference to the value of their child’s life. 9-year-old Jared was found dead at his home on Green Street in Harrisburg on August 1st. He had been dead for several days. His father was charged with concealing the death of a child and abuse of a corpse. and he’s been held in Dolphin County Prison since then.
The boy’s mother, Kimberly Tuck, wasn’t charged until today. The charging documents show the child died of starvation and years of neglect. Police say his body and the room he was kept in were covered in feces. The light was broken and the doorork knob was turned out so that he could never escape from the room.
The investigation also shows signs of neglect in the boy’s five siblings. Police say Kimberly TCO had a history of abuse with a baby from a previous relationship years before. They say she lied that she hadn’t been up to her son’s room in years, but she later admitted she had seen him days before he died. The investigation shows that Dolphin County Children and Youth Services had repeated warnings about what was happening to Jared.
Records show the boy’s brother told a caseworker what was happening to Jared last October. I’ll have more on what he said and the other warnings that case workers received that came to nothing at 5:00. We’re live in Harrisburg. I’m Katie Kyros, Fox 43 WPMT. >> Dr. Wayne K. Ross, a certified forensic pathologist, carried out Jared Jr.
‘s autopsy. On August 5th, his body was scanned at Penn State Hershey Medical Center. At the time, Jared Jr. measured 42 in tall and weighed just 16.9 pounds. Dr. Ross confirmed there was no body fat anywhere, which pointed to starvation. He also found clear signs of dehydration and malnutrition. During the exam, dried fecal matter was stuck to the bottoms of his feet along with strands of blue carpet fibers.
His hands and underneath his fingernails also had feces on them. Dr. Ross concluded that the cause of death was starvation and child maltreatment syndrome with dehydration and malnutrition playing a role. His death was ruled a homicide. The coroner’s office also reached out to Dr. Andrew T. Stewart, a forensic dentist.
He examined Jared Junior’s teeth and found several of them were infected. One tooth had an abscess that had broken through the bone. Two others had opened pulp chambers, which would have caused serious pain for anybody, especially a child. Dr. Stewart said the condition of his teeth showed clear dental neglect, that he had likely been in a lot of pain.
Investigators tried to find any dental records for Jared Jr., but found nothing. There’s no sign that he ever received any dental care. >> After the police discovered Jared Jr., they were immediately worried about the other children living in the home. The situation was so bad that they decided to take the remaining children into protective custody.
Art needed urgent help. She was completely bedridden, couldn’t move on her own, and needed care around the clock. Her heart rate was very slow and her body temperature was lower than normal. She was taken to Penn State Hershey Medical Center. Dr. Lorie Frasier, who led the child protection team at Hershey, described what she saw when ART arrived.
She explained that the girl was 10 years old and had severe brain injuries that left her fully dependent on others. She couldn’t eat by mouth and had to be fed through a tube in her stomach. She needed someone to turn her in her bed, bathe her, and change her diapers. She couldn’t do anything by herself. Dr.
Frasier said that art looked like she was about to go into shock, which could have ended her life. Her heart rate, breathing, and blood pressure were all dangerously low. She was revived and admitted right away. Dr. Frasier said she had been a pediatrician for 30 years and she had never seen a child in such poor condition. Art was extremely dirty.
Wax from her ears had come out onto her face. Her eyes were sealed shut with dirt and fluids, and her skin had thick layers of filth and scales. Her hair was matted with grime. The only clean area was her diaper, which showed someone was at least changing it, but the rest of her body had clearly not been washed in a long time. When Dr.
Frasier first visited her, nurses had already tried to clean her, but after six baths, the smell was still overwhelming. Records showed that she had been to Hershey before, so doctors could compare her weight. In just one year, she had lost about 15 pounds. Since she didn’t eat normally, someone had to feed her a special formula through her feeding tube. That clearly wasn’t happening. Dr.
Frasier also mentioned that due to her condition, her spine had started to twist badly, pressing up against one of her lungs. Once Art’s condition improved, she was also placed with a foster family. Three of the siblings were kept together, while the other two were placed with different families. Children had regular sibling visits once a week and on every third Saturday, sometimes more.
Children began receiving various services based on their needs and locations. But despite everything, the children are reportedly doing well in foster care and have been able to connect with their older half siblings through Skooc CYS. While looking into Jared Jr.’s death, the grand jury also started examining problems within Dolphin County CYS.
They found the agency itself was struggling with how it was organized and how it handled cases. In March of 2014, just months before Jared Jr.’s death, CYS started to change how it operated. For this change, the agency was split into three main parts: intake, inhome protective services, and permanency.
Each part had its own director in charge. When someone reported possible CA or neglect, the intake division would get the case first. That department had smaller units inside it. CPS and General Protective Services. Depending on how serious the situation was, the case would be sent to either the CPS or GPS unit for investigation.
CYS finished their investigation and found problems, but the children weren’t in immediate danger. The case would be passed on to the inhome services division. These case workers would then work with the family directly. It would make a service plan, help set goals, and check in regularly, usually every six months, to see how things were going.
Based on the progress, they would decide whether to close the case or keep helping the family. On the other hand, if children were removed from their home, the case went to the permanency division. These case workers worked not just with the child and the foster family, but also with the biological parents. Their main goal was to help reunite families.
But in some cases, when it was clear that going back home would not be safe, they would work on ending the parents legal rights so the child could be adopted. In court, both Jared Senior and Kimberly entered not guilty p during their preliminary hearing on December 10th, 2014. During the trial, one piece of evidence presented was a photo of the filthy stuff Bunny found in his room.
Erica Martelli, former case worker, remembered it clearly. She said that one cannot forget the feces covered stuffed bunny, knowing it was likely the only source of comfort that Jared Jr. ever had. During the hearings, the judge, John Cherry, was especially harsh towards Kimberly, saying how we don’t even keep animals like that.
He also told her he couldn’t understand how she let this happen. Kimberly claimed she was being hurt and scared. She said she wished more than anything that her son could come back so she could tell him how sorry she was for not protecting him. Her lawyer described her as a battered woman, someone controlled and hurt in ways that didn’t leave visible bruises.
Jared Senior tried to explain his actions in court, crying and saying his mental health issues pushed him into isolating his son in that filthy upstairs room. He told the court that he was not a monster and that he loved his child and tried his hardest. But even his own lawyer admitted that this was a complete failure in parenting.
>> Prosecutors asked for the highest possible punishment, but the judge gave the couple slightly less time in exchange for their guilty p. On October 26, 2015, both parents plead guilty to thirddegree murder, two counts of child endangerment, and one count of aggravated assault. On sentencing day, Jared Senior went first.
Judge John Cherry gave him 21 to 42 years in prison. Minutes later, Kimberly entered the same courtroom. The judge sentenced her to 20 to 40 years in prison. Told them that they were both equally to blame. The prosecutor Shawn McCormack said that the sentences were fair. He said that the day was about seeking justice for Jared Jr. and his sister.
They accomplished that in the only way the system could, by locking away the two people responsible for Jared Jr.’s death for most of their lives. After Jared died, no one came forward to claim his body. Following state law, if a body isn’t claimed within 10 days, the coroner must arrange for cremation or burial.
Coroner Graham Hetrick said he spoke to Kimberly once shortly after receiving Jared’s body, but then didn’t hear from her again for at least 19 days. That’s when he made the decision to have Jared’s body cremated. During their conversation, Kimberly seemed unsure about what to do. She may have been struggling financially and unsure if she could afford a burial, but Corer Hetrich gave her the names of two agencies that help families in situations like this.
But he said she never got back to him. He wasn’t sure why, whether she was sick, overwhelmed, or something else. But since no one followed up, he had to move forward with the decision. Jared’s ashes were buried along with the remains of other unclaimed people during a special ceremony that takes place at the end of each year.
The county holds this event to lay to rest those who didn’t have anyone to claim them. According to an article written by Penn Live, Jared’s final resting place was in a potter’s field, a cemetery owned by the county near the 911 dispatch center in Suatara Township. However, his find a grave page claims that he was buried at the East Harrisburg Cemetery.
It’s possible that his ashes were interred in one location and that his memorial stands in another. His glossy black tombstone is heart-shaped and simply says in loving memory of Jared N. Tutco Jr. October 5th, 2004 to August 1st, 2014. It also contains the image of a bunny, much like the stuffed rabbit that served as his only source of comfort.
>> On August 1st, 2019, on the 5-year anniversary of Jared Jr.’s death, prosecutor McCormack recalled the day he was called to the crime scene. It wasn’t just the horrifying condition of the room that stuck with him. It was how clearly this case exposed the cracks in the system.
According to the prosecutor, Jared Jr.’s ‘s death wasn’t just the result of his parents’ actions. It was also the result of years of missed chances by the child welfare system. Family had been known to CPS across different counties, even across state lines, and still nothing changed. This is why a grand jury was brought in to investigate what went wrong.
Their work led to a 122page report detailing not just what happened to Jared Jr., but what it allowed to happen. It showed the weaknesses of the very agencies that were supposed to protect children like him. And the grand jury offered solid recommendations for how things could change, not just in Dolphin County, but across all of Pennsylvania.
Now, 5 years later, prosecutor McCormack believed it was the right time to look back and ask what progress had really been made. Had anything actually changed? Did the promises made actually lead to improvements? The grand jury had pointed out four major problems. First, the training for case workers was simply not enough.
Second, there was a major lack of communication between Dolphin County Children and Youth Services and other outside groups that worked with families. Third, the time limit for finishing CA investigations was just 60 calendar days. This was seen as unrealistic and dangerous. A lot of harm could happen within 60 days. Finally, the number of workers quitting and the overwhelming case loads placed on the ones who remain made it nearly impossible to keep up with everything.
These weren’t just isolated problems. Prosecutor McCormack said that these issues kept showing up, not just in Dolphin County, but across the entire state. And if this channel is any reflection, we’ve seen these problems across the country. That’s why in the weeks ahead of August 1st, 2019, he said they would begin reviewing those recommendations again, checking what had changed and what still needed to be done.
Because for prosecutor McCormack, after 5 years, it wasn’t just about remembering what happened to Jared Jr. It was about making sure that no other child had to live and die just like he did.
