Social Worker Leaves Child To Die Duct-Taped In Basement For Hours 

the case that we’re about to share with you is not only one of the largest failures by Social Services in the history of our home state of Maine but it is arguably one of the largest in the entire country the sheer negligence malice and Corruption that takes place in this case is unthinkable some have described it as a conspiracy to take children from fit parents and give them to abusive DHS workers please let me know if you agree with that take at the conclusion of our story regardless what happened to this little

girl changed the way that our state views the Department of Health and Human Services Logan linmar was born on October 14 1995 in Brunswick Maine a coastal town about 30 minutes north of Portland she was the daughter of Christy Baker and John Wagg who split up before she was born shortly after her birth Christy who was only 18 years old at the time moved in with her mother Caitlin Badger of Dover Foxcroft Maine for those who are outside of our home state Dover Foxcroft is nearly two hours north of Brunswick and is a much smaller town now

Logan enjoyed fishing making snow angels butterflies Pizza flavored noodles with cheese and pitted black olives she disliked peas fish sticks going to bed early and not being able to pick out her own clothes Logan was a happy vibrant inspirited little girl according it’s Christy Logan’s signature phrase was talk to the hand delivered with an amusing level of sass when Logan spent time with her father she loved to read books with him take walks and swim in the Family Pool Christy lived with her mother for the first several months of

Logan’s life they did not always agree on how Logan should be raised and Caitlyn felt that Christy wasn’t mature enough to be the mother that Logan needed after many disputes about how Logan should be raised Christy moved out in 1996 around the time that Logan was six months old at the time she had become involved with a man who ultimately had some substance abuse problems in may of 1996 Caitlin Badger reported Chris to DHS she told the intake worker that Chrissy was immature and troubled and said that Christy couldn’t handle

the challenges of parenting she reported that Christy sometimes handled Logan very roughly she also stated that Logan’s baby bottles were often dirty that Logan rarely got a bath Caitlyn later said that her goal was not to get Christy in trouble or rather to have DHS help connect her with the resources she needed she said that she just wanted her daughter to get help that she was unable to provide during the first inspection by DHS Christie’s cupboards were searched and she was questioned but no issues were found with her living situation samples

were taken to see if Christy was using drugs but these all came back negative however DHS still put a list of rules and expectations in place for the young mother these were made based on in their opinion her need to work on the unhealthy relationship with her boyfriend who struggled with a substance abuse problem due to this relationship the first and strangest rule for Christy was about who she dated the report stated and I quote Christy will not allow anyone to live reside or stay over until this person has been screened and

approved by the Department of Human Services Chrissy will submit names of people or persons with whom she is or plans to be intimately evolved and shall not allow any contact between that person and Logan until assessed and approved by DHS end quote they also told Christy to end her relationship with her mother this appeared to be due to the fact that Caitlyn’s husband Mitch had a previous criminal record DHS documented that he had been previously convicted of essay against a teenager years before which turned out to be false however

Christie still comply with DHS and ceased contact with her mother the problem was Caitlyn was Christie’s only form of support at the time Christie was also ordered to attend counseling and parenting classes Christie was initially unbothered by these demands her first DHS caseworker Diane Sanborn seemed to be on her side she had a good rapport with Christine seemed to be trying to help her Christie allegedly had no issue with reporting who she was seeing romantically as she felt she had nothing to hide she also

appreciated the parenting classes and said they helped her grow up and become a better parent Christy did her best to meet the expectations of DHS she went to classes and continued to work as much as she could without a GED or driver’s license her work opportunities were limited especially living in rural Maine she had to walk to all of her jobs and only ever made minimum wage she did not have any contact with her mother Caitlyn while she was still in a relationship with Mitch however sometime later after Caitlyn and Mitch were separated Christy

turned back to her mother for support at this point she had been following the DHS rules for 18 months and still had no accusations of harming or neglecting Logan Chrissy was pregnant again and later noted that the way she was treated by DHS workers completely changed when they found out she was expecting another baby especially if she did not know who the father was sadly this pregnancy was the result of her being essayed according to a close friend Christy struggled with whether or not to keep her baby after

the friend asked her if she would love Logan any less if she was the result of essay Christie decided to continue with her pregnancy however DHS did not believe her they often referred in their notes to her claim of being assaulted yes they put quotes around claim they even conducted paternity tests with Partners they knew Chrissy had been involved with and all of them were negative one day when Logan was two years old Christy left Logan at her mother’s house with a babysitter while Chrissy was gone Mitch showed up outside Caitlyn’s home

his presence was enough to cause a neighbor to call DHS and make a report the HS took this opportunity to seek custody of Logan they got a court order citing Christy’s willingness to leave Logan with unsafe people Chrissy caught wind that DHS was playing to take Logan and she understandably panicked she got on a bus with Logan and headed to Boston later at a bus stop she called home she was told if she didn’t return home she would be charged with kidnapping scared and without money Chrissy got back on the bus and headed

towards Lewiston where she had been living at this point in our story by the time she got to Lewiston Christy who was by now six months pregnant was not well she left Logan with a trusted friend and admitted herself to the hospital mistreated for exhaustion Chrissy was released more than 24 hours later her plan was to go home and gather some things for Logan before she turned her over to DHS however when she called her friend to check on Logan her friend told Christy she better sit down DHS had already come over they had taken Logan

Logan was immediately taken to a nearby hospital to be assessed before her foster placement where she was found to be in good health in the medical professionals noted that she seemed well cared for meanwhile a frantic Christie called the hospital to figure out where her daughter was her call was intercepted by a caseworker who told Christy that she would not be allowed to see Logan Christy was told if she came to the hospital grounds she would be arrested and charged with trespassing now at this point Christy was desperate and willing

to do anything to get Logan back DHS demanded that she be checked into a residential facility for unwed mothers Christie would live at St Andres in Biddeford although some sources say it was in Portland for the next three months doing parenting classes counseling job training and working toward her GED during this time Logan was placed in foster care it should be noted that immediately after Logan’s removal from Christie’s custody Logan’s Father John Wagg sought custody himself John had not always been actively

involved in Logan’s life for the first 12 months after Logan was born he insisted that he was not her father but a paternity test determined that he was indeed her father and so he stepped up he began paying what child support he could and started seeing her a few weekends a month John worked with a textile mill and his work was sporadic so he was not always able to pay as much as he was supposed to when John asked for custody he was denied DHS said since he was a single man in his 20s he was not a suitable placement for Logan but

this doesn’t make any sense because a single female in her 20s was considered suitable but not a single male who was her biological father John trying his best to work with DHS then asked if they would Place Logan with his mother Elaine Wagg instead Elaine lived just two miles up the road from John she had a steady job as a CNA and many years experience raising children she also had a close relationship with Logan this request was denied without any explanation whatsoever at this point John was told that Maine did not have a

kinship law so therefore they were not obligated to place children with family John then went to the hearing to discuss Logan’s custody up until this point John did not understand just How Deeply involved Christie was with DHS keep in mind when Chrissy was first reported he did not yet know that he was Logan’s father when John came to the hearing to advocate for custody he was verbally attacked by the judge the judge wanted to know where he had been for the other custody hearings over the last two years John insisted that he had no knowledge

of any other hearings the judge refused to listen and declared him guilty of child abandonment this became a black mark on John’s record and unfortunately prevented him from ever getting custody of Logan it should be noted that the federal kinship care law mandates that state agencies give preference to a relative over a non-related caregiver during Logan’s case this law was actively being worked on in Maine Maine had essentially been ignoring this Federal mandate up until 1999 when they passed their own version of the law it

seems this may be due to the personal opinions of Kevin concannon who was the DHS commissioner at the time he had stated publicly that he did not believe kinship placements were the best move he felt this could give biological parents a sense of ease making them slow to rectify the issues that DHS wants them to solve in 1998 DHS only placed five percent of the nearly 3 000 children in foster care with relatives five percent this put them in the position of third worst in the country on this issue it should also be noted that DHS only gets

Federal reimbursement for children who are in licensed foster care homes cases of Children Place an unlicensed kinship care do not meet this requirement many people speculate that this may be why Maine plays so few children in kinship care at this time it just simply wasn’t good for the state’s Bottom Dollar for the next few months Logan lived in foster care and Christy worked hard to follow all of the rules that DHS had laid out for her though they continued to claim that she was not doing what was asked during this time she had three

full days a week of unsupervised visits with Logan her second daughter Bailey Shane Baker Marr was born on December 8 1998. three days later Christie moved out of Saint Andres into her own apartment now around this time DHS also made a second order that Christy sever all contact with her mother Caitlyn’s alleged negative influence in the order they threatened custody of her new baby if Christie did not abide by these rules with the move to her new apartment Logan was able to begin having more visits with Christy

Logan began spending weekends in her mother’s Apartments Logan was very confused during this time as to why bayley could live there all the time but she could not through all of this Christie appeared to maintain her grace in a positive attitude and would tell Logan that there were just something she needed to do to get better at being the best mom for her Christy also maintained her separation from her mother she only communicated with Caitlyn through videotapes by March Logan moved back in full time with Christy this was seven months after

being removed from her mother’s care at this point after nearly three years of following all of dhs’s rules Christy thought she was in the clear in the case against her was closed Christy was told she had accomplished everything they wanted her to do however as the mother of two young children at age 21 Christy had no other adults to lean on she entered a relationship with a new DHS approved boyfriend and in June she moved to sabatus to live with him it should be noted that sabatus is just outside of Lewiston where Christy had lived in the

past however it is a much more rural town where Christy wouldn’t be able to walk to work until her appointments as she had in the past unfortunately this relationship did not last and two months later Christy and the girls moved nearly two hours north of Guilford Maine Guilford is just outside of Dover Foxcroft where Caitlyn lived though this seems like she made this move to start up her relationship with her mother again there’s little evidence of this instead in November Chrissy decided to move to Florida to be closer to her

estranged father Chrissy’s parents had gotten divorced when she was a young teenager during that process Chrissy made an accusation of essay against her father but this was never proven and she later recanted her statement this move to Florida was partially an effort to heal that relationship Chrissy was also hoping to move to Florida would get her out from under main DHS scrutiny in addition Chrissy’s father had promised to help her get her driver’s license this would have been life-changing for Christy and was not an offer she could

pass up at first things seemed to go well Logan seemed to happily settle in Lydia Baker Chrissy’s stepmother said that Logan was the typical happy five-year-old should be noted that Lydia was only a few years older than Christy unfortunately this move did not yield the results the young mother hoped for after a while Chrissy struggled with her father’s rules at some point it was unclear when or how Lydia struck up a relationship with Logan’s former foster mom and they would talk frequently on the phone after two months of struggling

with the same obstacles she had in Maine Chrissy just couldn’t take it anymore she was still working at minimum wage jobs and Logan had become unhappy Logan insisted that she wanted to go home to Maine and be with her nanny she wanted to make snow angels again so in February of 2000 with her last paycheck from her job in Florida Christie bought them bus tickets home with with nowhere else to go Chrissy moved back in with her mother Caitlyn Logan had a joyful reunion with her grandmother on her first night back

in Maine Logan was taking a bath after being in the bathroom longer than expected the adults decided it was time to check on her before they reached the bathroom Logan came running out in her bathrobe laughing and sprinting throughout the house when she got to the front door she took off her bathrobe to reveal a bathing suit underneath in a moment she popped her bike helmet on opened the door giggling and she dove into a snowbank she then came back inside teeth chattering and asked for hot chocolate Kayla and Chrissy were

amused to see how happy Logan was to be home back in Maine they put her back in a warm bath and they gave her the hot chocolate she wanted but at this point Caitlyn no longer had any contact with Mitch the previous husband that DHS had been concerned about she was now in a relationship with a man named Ronald badger Chrissy had met Ron’s son Paul before she went to Florida and when she returned to Maine Christy and Paul entered a romantic relationship the following month they were married on March 4th 2000.

unfortunately Paul had an old criminal record from another state ten years earlier he had been convicted of burglary he had also had a police report made against him during an altercation with a previous girlfriend when he grabbed her shirt during an argument Paul had pled guilty in this burglary case and he served his time he had hoped that he had paid for these transgressions and could just move on after Christy and Paul were married DHS reopened its case against Christy they had been informed of the move to Florida in Christie’s new

relationship her case was assigned to inexperienced caseworker Allison Peters Alison another caseworker and two police officers showed up on Christy’s doorstep on March 7th just three days after she and Paul were married evidently a report was made that Paul had hit Christy in front of the girls to this day there was no evidence of this claim Christy and Paul both deny that this happens and there are no police reports to support the claim Allison also cited substance abuse issues but again there is no proof of

this Allison had a custody hearing prior to showing up to Christy’s house however Christy was not informed of this hearing Allison told the court they could not notify Christy without the risk that she might harm the children this is completely unwarranted as there was still no history of physical violence against the children Allison cited to the court that Christie was once again exposing her children to unsafe People based on the accusation of Paul hitting Christy she also cited that Christy had moved 17 times in the last year

this claim was grossly exaggerated in varied in different reports made by Allison she counted times when Christy had stayed with friends for a few days or taken a vacation with the girls she even counted moving out of one home and into another on the same day as two moves when Christy heard Allison arrive on March 7th she wasn’t even given a chance to open her door Allison and her team walked right in Logan was asleep on the couch at the time sick with the flu Allison informed Christy that she would be taking her children

Christy said you can’t do this and Allison responded coldly oh yes we can Christy woke Logan had helped her dress while Paul held Bailey when one of the adults tried to take Bailey from him he turned away and shook his head he would only hand her over to her mother Christy cried while she gathered things for her girls and loaded them into the DHS vehicle Caitlyn had arrived during this time but was not allowed out of her vehicle to say goodbye when Christy made an attempt to secure the girls in the car Allison slammed the door shut and

drove away without even buckling them into their car seats Christy crumbled to the ground while Paul tried to console her Logan Bailey were placed with Foster mother Mary Beth Anderson Bailey was so distraught on the first night that she had to be held all night while she cried Logan fell asleep on the couch surrounded by a wall of pillows Alison warned Mary Beth to be on the lookout for signs of abuse especially essay Mary Beth was a meticulous note-taker and constantly documented her interactions with the girls after the girls replaced

with Mary Beth Caitlyn asked Allison if she could have visitation after all she had a long-standing relationship with her granddaughters and had no documented abuse or neglect toward them Allison denied her request she claimed that Caitlyn had an untreated mental illness it is assumed that she was referring to Caitlyn’s agoraphobia however Caitlyn had received treatment for this years earlier and was doing well and also what does agoraphobia have to do with being a bad influence on her granddaughters after denying Caitlyn’s request Allison later

offered to allow Caitlyn to visit the girls but only on one condition Caitlyn had to testify against Christy in the custody case that DHS was building to terminate her parental rights and Caitlyn wouldn’t do it so unfortunately after that she never saw Logan again after Logan was taken from her on March 7th after being placed with Mary Beth the girls were evaluated and began therapy in Mary Beth’s notes she said the girls became instantly comfortable in her care yet there are other notes contradicting this she wrote that Logan

often asked about when she would go home with her mother Mary Beth also wrote that Logan was afraid of her husband but notes this as proof that she may have previously been abused by a man in her life life when she was evaluated by Dr Ritchie at the spur wink child abuse program in Portland Logan shied away from Dr Richie when he tried to give her a high five this was in Mary Beth’s eyes further proof of her abuse or I don’t know maybe she was just traumatized by being taken away from her mother just days earlier

perhaps Mary Beth she was surrounded by strangers and scared during the spur wink evaluation several troubling things were documented in the report not troubling things about Christy’s care mind you instead the report was riddled with false information gathered from Allison and Mary Beth Dr Ritchie who said he evaluated over 600 abused children per year starting this evaluation with entirely false information the first claim is that Logan had been exposed to several child Predators Allison claimed that three of

Christy’s husbands had been on the registry but how is that possible Christy had only been married once to Paul who had no offenses of that kind nor was he on the registry next she told Dr Ricci that Logan may have been exposed to adult materials and behavior because her mother and family have poor boundaries once again this seems to have been entirely fabricated by Alison in all Logan was interviewed three times during her evaluation at Spur wink all information was gathered either from Logan Allison Mary Beth Or Logan’s

state-appointed Guardian Ad Litem Lawrence Irwin all the information brought forth by Mary Beth and Lawrence seem to be regurgitated information from Allison the evaluation filled out by Mary Beth to determine if Logan was abused lacks so much information it could not even be scored meanwhile evaluators did not reach out to Christy this seems to be a gross oversight since Chrissy had a long history of complying with DHS demands through all of the interviews Logan remains steadfast in her answers she said she had never been

physically harmed or essayed in the report however the evaluator included in her concerning behaviors list that Logan had kissed a boy at her preschool that she sometimes forgot to use toilet paper and that she someday talked about marrying an adult family friend named Joe ultimately They concluded that there was no evidence to support that Logan had ever been abused however they did suggest that she received mental health treatment to deal with the trauma of being taken from her mother that’s right she was prescribed counseling to deal

with the trauma caused by DHS and said treatment was to be administered by DHS after the evaluation showed that neither Christy or any other adults in her life were harming Logan Chrissy began visitation with Logan and Bailey the court order stated that she should get four visits per week however these visits were often canceled the reasons for cancellation varied from inclement weather to holidays to illnesses to conflicts with the Foster family schedule at this time her visits were all supervised she often recorded the

visits on video and there was always a visitation supervisor in the room taking notes Chrissy was doing her best with the time she had Logan was approaching kindergarten so Christy often practiced saying the ABCs with her or reciting her full name throughout all of this Christy was told that she was in serious risk of losing her girls one reason was she missed a few visits due to lack of Transportation please note the double standard here foster parents can miss visitation with no question or Consequences but when the birth mother

misses them due to life circumstances her parental rights are threatened meanwhile Mary Beth was beginning to struggle with Logan in one journal entry she wrote usually we have a good morning together and the manipulation start later in the day on that morning Logan started right off with do you think my mommy will get me back my answer was I don’t know end quote Mary Beth went on to explain an escalation of Logan’s Behavior after this she tried to be firm and distract Logan but it did not work finally Mary Beth noted that she needed

more support and respite on August 28 2000 the day before Logan was set to start kindergarten these struggles came to a head Mary Beth had a physical incident with Logan this incident followed Logan to find Mary Beth in front of a neighbor first she refused to put on a swimsuit and go out and swim later after swimming she refused to take off the wet swimsuit Mary Beth said she walked away and tried to ignore Logan then she sent her to her room but the little girl allegedly followed her yelling no Mary Beth turned and said

through gritted teeth do you want me to hit you according to Mary Beth this is a direct quote Logan and I had a shouting match and I threw her on the bed and held her down by her neck as soon as I saw my hand I stopped and I started throwing toys off the bed instead end quote after the incident Mary Beth called a friend for support and her husband arrived home shortly after then she called Allison Peters to report what had happened well they waited for Allison to arrive Logan sat in Mary Beth’s lap crying Logan just wanted to

go home to her mommy her mommy as she put it never put her hands on her after this physical incident Logan was left in Mary Beth’s care meanwhile Allison made an emergency visit to inform Christy of what had happened she did this not out of the goodness of her heart because she knew that Chrissy would hear about it at her visit the next day Christy was enraged understandably she pointed out again that she had never been accused of putting her hands on her children she also demanded to know why Logan was still with Mary Beth however she was not

given any answers the next day when Christy runs into Mary Beth she is rightfully angry threatened Mary Beth swearing on her daughter’s lives of anything like that ever happened again although I’d probably do the same thing this proved to be a bad move in turn the visitation supervisor documented the threat and it ended up just being another black mark on Christie’s record a few weeks after the physical incident with Mary Beth Logan was finally moved into a new home Logan was placed with Sally Scofield and Mary Beth was given a new foster child

yep that is right she put her hands on one child so they rewarded her by giving her another now Sally was a DHS adoption case worker if this seems like a conflict of interest to you that’s because it is in fact it’s against DHS regulations to place foster children in the home of any DHS caseworkers Sally and her husband Dean had been going through the process to become an adoptive home it’s important to note that shortly after the girls were placed a complaint was made to DHS about the violation of this protocol Sally claimed she didn’t know

children could not be placed in the home of caseworkers in addition the guardian ad litem declined a new placement for the girls claiming that moving them again would be more harmful than leaving them there Sally already had two boys a 14 year old from a previous marriage and a one-year-old with Dean but what Sally really wanted was a girl later Sally’s babysitter recounted that before Logan and Bailey’s placement Sally had expected to adopt a set of girls who are four and five years old but this adoption fell through the

couple had been taking adoption classes Sally claimed that due to her background with DHS she was seen as a know-it-all during these classes she described herself as a resource for the teachers running these classes to clarify laws and rules with her as Christy was struggling with the loss of her girls DHS caseworker Sally Scofield had begun to think about adopting a little girl of her own she had two boys Derek 14 from a previous marriage and one-year-old Shannon but she had always longed for a girl I sort of felt like if I had 12

Children of the polyabi boys so I’d never get a girl so we decided to pursue adoption DHS discourages its caseworkers from adopting children from within the system but Sally was determined to be an exception she enrolled with her husband in a mandatory training program for adoptive parents where her experience has a DHS caseworker immediately set her apart I think probably is that because I would say well you know I think that maybe we ought to look at this piece if something came up or whatever and the instructors clearly were looking

to me for for clarification or for answers and although I didn’t notice that my husband was noticing that there were certain people in the class who were just like oh great here she goes again during their adoption survey Sally was asked how she would handle a child who didn’t behave for her Sally stated that she simply could not imagine one of her children acting that way they would never be that out of control she must have realized later that this was not a good answer and got back in contact with the interviewer and demanded that they

removed that part from the record Sally literally complained to them until they agreed to remove it reports claim that Logan and Bailey were placed with Sally as an emergency placement Sally claimed she was only supposed to have them for the weekend this seems unlikely since Allison had already waited several weeks to move them on top of that she moved him into an adoptive home instead of another foster home presumably to make sure it was a long-term placement Sally claimed that she and Dean instantly bonded with the girls after

that weekend they were her children in her eyes she said that Logan started calling her mommy within the first few hours all on her own it was later noted by Logan’s therapist that Sally repeatedly reprimanded Logan if she did not address her as Mommy it would not respond to Logan unless she was addressed as such at this point we’d like to rewind a little bit to discuss what Logan was getting for mental health services after her assessment by Dr Richie Logan began seeing a counselor named Kathleen midor who was also listed

in some places as Katie midor when Kathleen initially started seeing Logan she was in Mary Beth’s care after the first few visits Kathleen recommended a long-term placement so she can begin to trust people enough to express her feelings those are her words not ours unfortunately due to the move from Mary Beth to Sally’s home the only two adults Logan had ever bonded with were Christy and Kathleen we can see several times through the videotape visitations with her mother that Logan still trusted Christy enough to tell her about what

was going on in her foster homes Kathleen testified she noticed right away that Sally wanted to assert her will over Logan Kathleen was so concerned that she reported this controlling Behavior to DHS presumably to Allison Peters Sally would often call Kathleen to complain of Logan’s Behavior she reported Logan having rages as she called them Kathleen tried to assure her that Logan just needed more time to adjust but Sally would not have any of it Sally had also told Kathleen of her discipline technique to put Logan in a

high chair in the basement Kathleen of course reported this to DHS when discussing Logan’s Behavior Sally told Kathleen that Logan was trying to get even me and she thought the five-year-old was intentionally disrupting the Scofield family Kathleen continued to tell Sally that she did not agree she tried to remind Sally that Logan was going through a lot she was taken from her mother placed in a home where she was physically assaulted started kindergarten and was moved to another home in a very short period of time

at this point it’s important to note that Sally ‘s never wrong pfizers hello students in the adoption classes testified Sally simply would not or could not except that she was ever wrong she even told Logan frequently enough for her to repeat it to Christy things such as mommies are always right mommies are right even when mommies are wrong Sally’s DHS supervisor noted that Sally was arrogant and saw herself as knowing more than everyone else Kathleen’s advocacy for Logan was seen as a threat by Sally and Logan suffered

because of it Sally had insisted on staying in the room during Logan’s private counseling sessions Kathleen was very uncomfortable with this and told her repeatedly that it was not appropriate for her to stay when Kathleen got firm and put her foot Down Sally retaliated at the end of Logan’s session on October 19 2000 Sally decided that Logan would not be returning to see Kathleen and claimed it was Logan who made this request Kathleen asked her to please return for one more session so that she could discuss the change with

Logan but Sally refused and demanded that Kathleen address it that day so Kathleen took Logan back into her office to tell her that she would be seeing a new therapist Logan broke down crying and Kathleen held her while she cried meanwhile Sally who was once again in the room got angry at Logan for breaking down she yelled at her and said you know you asked for that when they left Sally said that they would come back one more time to get Logan’s artwork but this was just another lie Kathleen never saw Logan again after that day Sally

continued to complain of Logan’s extremely difficult Behavior as she put it no one else supported this claim about Logan Mary Beth Christy her babysitter Becca and Christy’s stepmother in Florida all said that Logan never behaved like that for them regardless due to Sally’s insistence she began to receive Hazard pay instead of the regular foster care payments this is something that is available to foster homes with troubled children often times children with much higher needs have a lot more appointments where they cause

parents to miss work this is a tactic to try to keep those kids in a home instead of them constantly being kicked out to new home to new home this resulted in Sally receiving three times the normal foster care stipend now it’s not surprising that Sally pursued this because remember she knew the system inside and out she knew all the right things to say to make this situation as cushy and profitable as possible for her and Dean Sally also complained a plan thats rages happened after visits with Christy she knew that if there was documentation of

an extreme disruption to a child when visiting their biological parent that sometimes DHS would reduce or terminate visitation it is very possible that this was just another tactic for her to have total control over Logan at this time we’d like to discuss Sally’s claim that Logan had something called attachment disorder to be clear her counselor had documented some challenges that Logan was having the most frequently mentioned term was parentification this term is used when a child takes over the role of a parent to another child Logan felt

very strongly that it was her job to be looking out for bayley after all so far she had not been shown that she could trust the adults around her however this was not Sally’s Focus Sally used the term attachment disorder describe Logan’s challenges reactive attachment disorder is a rare but serious condition in which an infant or young child doesn’t establish healthy attachments with parents or caregivers it may develop if the child’s basic needs for Comfort affection and nurturing aren’t met and loving caring stable attachments

with others are not established however this was not Logan’s issue despite the false reports from Allison Peters there was no record of Logan being mistreated neglected or abandoned by her mother she was clearly comfortable with her mother and showed great affection for her during these visits with the false diagnosis of an attachment disorder also comes the unnecessary intervention of something called attachment therapy this is a set of parenting techniques designed to Target Disobedience it’s all about gaining control over the child and

showing them who is in charge this practice promotes physically overpowering a child in a hold or restraint to essentially exhaust them into submission this practice promotes holding children while they scream and beg to stop being hurt by the parents this is done intentionally to provoke a negative emotional response that’s right the more miserable you make them and the harder they fight the better you are do doing as the therapist administering this treatment this practice directly teaches parents of compromised children

to ignore requests of bodily consent I’m sure that will help them feel safe and attached I should reiterate this took place in the year 2000 things are much different nowadays attachment therapy rarely if ever is practiced and there are six known deaths related to attachment therapy based on my knowledge Sally admitted to using these practices with Logan this was something that she picked up while at DHS working with families who had challenging children in their care she described how she would wrap Logan in a blanket and hold her tightly or lay

across her body to prevent her from using her arms and legs then after a period of time sometimes up to an hour she would begin negotiating the release of one limit at a time if Logan could be in control in her interview she said that this was not a restraint as a restraint is something you do to prisoners she was merely doing supportive holding she was merely containing Logan not restraining I don’t know Sally pinning a child down for an hour sure makes it seem like she was being treated as a prisoner through all of this Christy was still

trying to see her girls as much as possible however Christy was working three jobs one job was at a farm another at a convenience store and another at a department store Chrissy had to walk everywhere because she still did not have her driver’s license and to top it off it was almost two hours of a drive to go see her daughters at the visitation center unfortunately for an unknown reason DHS stopped providing her transportation to her visits this made it very hard for Christy to make it to every appointment in every visit she said that during this

time she was only sleeping about four hours every two days every time Christy missed therapy or a class or a visit due to lack of Transportation it was another black mark on a record showing why they allege she was unfit to be a mother on the flip side Sally was constantly late in missing visits with the girls unlike Christy Sally had a vehicle and only lived a 30-minute drive from the visitation center she cited reasons such as mixing up the times of the visits over sleeping or that the girls just weren’t cooperating and sometimes she

wouldn’t give a reason at all in less than three months Sally was late to six of the visits and canceled two altogether however this was not held against Sally the way that Chrissy’s infractions were held against her in addition to being sporadic with her ability to show up on time with the girls Sally refused to have any contact with Christy they went through Great Lengths to be sure that Chrissy didn’t know who she was what she looked like what her car looked like or what her name was I can only assume this is due

to paranoia because ultimately she was planning to keep the girls Chrissy was very respectful of these boundaries and even wrote that in the letter in her letter she thanked Sally for taking care of her girls and listed off all of the things her girls liked and didn’t like she also begged Sally begged her not to harm her girls which was triggered by the physical incident with Mary Beth this letter was later used out of context to show that Chrissy wanted her girls to be with Sally we never met the plan for visits was

that I would get there early and drop off the girls and then leave so she wouldn’t be able to identify the vehicle the girls got into and then at the end of the visit the visit supervisor would leave the birth mom in the room bring the girls out to me and then go back and once I’d left the parking lot she would then allow the birth mother to come out of the building so that was the plan following the final counseling session with Kathleen Medora on October 19th Sally started bringing Logan to a new counselor named Jennifer Jones it is

unclear if Logan’s Guardian Ad Litem Lawrence Irwin knew of this change Jennifer got all of her information about Logan from Sally whom Logan had only been placed with for two months at this time Sally grossly exaggerated past incidents she told her that the physical incident with Mary Beth involved Mary Beth pinning Logan to the wall by her throat and shaking her she also described another incident where Logan had accidentally consumed a jello shot at a friend’s house when in Christie’s care the result of that mistake was that

Logan threw up and Christy felt terrible however in Sally’s description Logan had to be rushed to the ER and nearly died the other concerning thing about the jello shot story was that Christy had only discussed that with her therapist so how did Sally know about it over time Sally also told Jennifer about how she disciplined Logan when Logan misbehaved she’d isolate her in the basement Logan would be buckled into a high chair in the unfinished section of the basement generally used for storage Jennifer made

note of this but her notes did not include any comment of the inappropriateness of this technique it should be noted that ghs regulations prohibit foster parents from using isolation as a form of discipline this is something that Sally should have been fully aware of being a caseworker and all it was clear that Sally had done this on numerous occasions through the fall and winter of 2000 to 2001 Chrissy was continuing to visit her girls and work towards reunification these visits were fully supervised unlike her visits in 1998 when Logan was

in DHS custody many of her visits were also videotaped because remember Christy was only communicating with her mother by sending videos on their October 12th visit Chrissy had a birthday celebration for Logan she brought balloons presents and a cake during this visit Logan repeatedly told her mother you are my favorite person on the same day Chrissy noticed a suspicious mark on Bailey’s bottom during a diaper change when she addressed it the visitation supervisor dismissed it immediately and said it was just diaper rash of course he didn’t

agree and felt that Bailey may have been harmed Chrissy told Logan that if anything bad ever happened to her that Logan could tell her and Chrissy was later reprimanded for saying this to Logan and they said that Chrissy was sowing mistrust between Logan and her foster family on October 30th Logan told Chrissy that she didn’t like Sally Chrissy tried to keep a positive tone but Logan bursts into tears when Christy said nice things about her foster mother you know she would tell me things and but I couldn’t really discuss him with

him or comment on them or ask her questions like she would tell me that the foster parents would wrap her her and her sister up in blankets and grab her face you know she said that she would get in trouble sometimes I’m like you want to talk about she goes no I don’t want to talk about it on December 18th Christy and the girls celebrated Christmas together during their visit this may seem early for a parent who is supposed to be getting visits with her kids four times a week however Sally had told Allison Peters

that she was taking Logan to Canada during the week of Christmas she said if Chrissy wanted to have Christmas with the girls she’d have to do it early it turns out this was a complete lie the family was home in Chelsea during Christmas in the video you can see Logan Stop opening presents to report physical abuse that she had received at the hands of Sally um yeah to me and I slide what did she do to you oh I’m very sorry and she did it to my sister too it still has done me it would make a five-year-old Stop opening Christmas

presents on that day to say what she did to me about Sally grabbing her face making her hurt and her sister and her sister too what did you think when she when she said that I didn’t know what to think I believed her though and I just I wanted to ask her so many questions why what happened I went to say something and I got a look from the supervisor like you know head shaking no don’t go into detail so I kind of just kind of had to bite my tongue and it’s like well let’s try not to worry about that let’s try to have a

good Christmas oh I juice it down we’ll have a good Christmas and let’s not think about that maybe that’s okay you couldn’t ask her ask her Mommy I love you you know what I love you hey whatever you guys got here there you guys are more than welcome to play with us um happy Christmas Deanna so that way we can spend it together and they’re at my home please note that in this clip the other adult in the room hears this complaint and asks Logan to clarify it this was recorded in a report and submitted to Allison Peters

on Christmas Day at the Schofield house Logan was left alone in her room for hours by Sally for misbehaving around 5 PM Sally and Bailey went to visit their babysitter Becca Logan and Dean Schofield were not in attendance Sally told Becca that Logan had been in her room since 11 in the morning with no toys as punishment for her behavior once again using isolation to discipline Logan during a visit with Chrissy on January 3rd 2001 Logan was playing on the floor with her sister and stopped suddenly she stood up to demonstrate how Sally and

her son put their hands over her mouth to silence her she also demonstrated how Dean restrained her in his arms wrapped in a blanket once again the visitation supervisor shook her head to silence Christy and again these complaints were documented in a report and submitted to Allison Peters none of these claims were ever investigated while Chrissy was doing her best to be there for her girls she had no idea that Allison Peters was conspiring via email with Sally these emails were about terminating Christie’s

parental rights and having Sally adopt the girls on January 8 2001 Allison emailed Sally and said Christy is still up to her old tricks so she continues to make tpr easier and easier to get tpr stands for termination of parental rights keep in mind this email was sent after receiving reports from the visitation supervisor about Logan’s claims of harm at the hands of Sally in addition Allison had received reports from the counselor about Sally’s admission of using the high chairs punishment and after viewing the

Christmas videotape Christie’s mom Caitlyn had also called Allison and filed a formal complaint still there was no visit to Sally’s home and Allison never addressed or investigated any of these accusations during Christie’s January 26 visit she learned that Sally had been coaching Logan to think that Schofield was her new last name at this time Christy did not know that DHS was trying to terminate her rights she still thought that the goal was for the girls to be returned back to her now through all of this you might wonder

what happened to Logan’s dad John Wagg he was also having visits with Logan during this time initially they were meeting at a visitation center in Lewiston at this location visits took place in a small dirty basement room when John requested that he’d take his daughter outside for a walk he was told no when he complains about the poor accommodations for their visits his visits were then moved from Lewiston to Augusta adding another 40 minutes for his drive to see his daughter in addition he was under constant criticism

from the visitation supervisor when he packed snacks and drinks for them to have a picnic during their visits he was criticized for having a cooler that was not clean enough he said that he had scrubbed it but due to some old scuff marks the visitation Supervisor was still not happy due to this he was referred to as an abuser in visitation notes as Logan’s birthday approach Jon planned a party for her with his family and received approval to have her come to the party for five hours he called repeatedly to be sure nothing else was

needed before the states he invited anyone from DHS to attend if they needed assurance that everything was safe during this event out of nowhere Alison recanted her approval he argued with her and she relented and gave him permission then the next day she called him back and canceled once again instead she gave him permission to take her to McDonald’s in Augusta John was understandably fed up he was frustrated that DHS seemed to always be changing the rules and he would no longer stand for it he ended up not

seeing Logan at all for her birthday and later cited this as one of his biggest regrets it’s also important to note that after the incident with Mary Beth John went to DHS to try to get Logan placed with him he was turned down again his last visit was the week before her birthday on January 31st Chrissy was scheduled to see her girls it was a snowy day in Christie’s visit was canceled due to the weather we find this strange because school wasn’t canceled that day in its main it snows here the day started as it always did Dean woke

up early to go to work and got Logan settled before he left when Sally got up Logan told her that Dean said it was a snow day and school was canceled in turn Sally called Dean and found out this wasn’t actually true despite this seeming like a harmless maybe even a funny thing for Logan to do Sally told Logan that she will be punished after school Sally relayed this message to Becca the babysitter now we already know that Sally’s forms of punishment were extreme she also enforced what she referred to as double

time timeouts she’d tell the girls that they have to serve their regular timeout and then that amount of time again to pay her back for the time she had to spend dealing with their behavior when Logan returned home from school that day Becca reminded her that she needed a timeout Logan fussed for a minute but ultimately went to her room and eventually fell asleep Sally arrived home between 2 45 and 3 P.

M Logan was asleep when Logan woke up she started screaming this is where Sally’s story starts to vary greatly each time she is interviewed Sally initially said that she tried to kindly Ask Logan what was wrong perhaps she had a nightmare or her belly hurt later she recounted that she had a more Stern approach she said that she walked in and firmly told Logan that she needed to stop Sally said that the two younger children needed naps and that she needed Logan to quiet down so that they could rest Sally said her teenage son took a high chair to the basement initially he

placed it at the bottom of the stairs in the carpeted area that was well lit Sally moved it behind a curtained area that was unfinished and used for storage the high chair was positioned to face the wall Sally put Logan in the chair and claimed that she used this location because it was an appropriate place to scream she said that she put Logan in the basement because it took away all the fun she claimed to check on Logan every few minutes and would ask if she was ready to make the choice to stop and come upstairs this supposedly went on until

Sally started making supper When Sally put the pork chops and potatoes in the oven at 4 47 PM she noticed that the screaming had stopped She said she went down to the basement and I quote finds her in a heap the chair tipped over not breathing no pulse Sally admitted that Logan was in the chair for over an hour by the time that she was found later Sally’s teenage son said that he saw his mother come up the stairs twice after the screaming had stopped the second time was to call 9-1-1 Sally contacted emergency services

and reported that her five-year-old had hit her head and was not breathing said she tried CPR and it didn’t work when First Responders got there Logan was now at the bottom of the stairs in the carpeted area Fire Chief Joe Mills was first to respond with his daughter who is a registered nurse she just happened to be at Joe’s home when he received the call it took him only three minutes to reach the Scofield home he found Logan Barefoot wearing a pink jersey and light-colored overalls her face was pale and one of her toes was bleeding he

noted that she was cold to the touch Joe said that when he carried her up the stairs he noted that she had wet herself which is common when a person dies as she was carried up the stairs she vomited over Joe’s shoulder which was later attributed to postmortem regurgitation Joe Mills describes Sally as very calm with very little emotion he said I never saw a colder person in my life Joe’s daughter also described her as very composed considering the circumstances she noted that before leaving for the hospital Sally walked

back upstairs to get her purse this stuck out as strange in what should have been a hectic emergency situation in addition Joe Mill’s son main state trooper Jeffrey Mills also responded to the scene he said Sally was so unemotional he initially thought she did not have any relationship with the child or that she must not have had any direct involvement with the situation you know maybe just a random bystander Logan was pronounced dead at the hospital during conversations with Sally she kept throwing out things that might have

happened a head injury maybe a cardiac episode or a seizure but it was none of those things it is determined that Logan died of asphyxiation she was suffocated to death this protocol for an abnormal death of a child detectives went back to search the house and what they found was shocking behind the curtain in the storage area where Logan had been isolated they found a total of 42 feet of duct tape the duct tape was in many sections and layers strewn about the floor between the boxes it had hair stuck in the adhesive

at autopsy duct tape residue was found on Logan’s skin and it was later determined that her mouth was covered in three layers of duct tape this is what asphyxiated her in addition her wrists were wrapped together they also determined that the duct tape must have been going around her head in a way that it passed under her chin making it even more difficult to breathe the medical examiner also commented that in the 10 passes around her body the tape must have been applied very snugly to her stomach the tape contained hair bloody saliva mucus and

pieces of the sticker from the back of the high chair When Sally was questioned about the tape she claimed Logan was playing with it she said she had come down to find it stuck to Logan’s shirt and hair upon being pressed by investigators she later stated that she demonstrated to Logan how to put it around herself she claimed to be irritated and just demonstrated to Logan that being wrapped in duct tape was not what she wanted she claimed that she wrapped the tape around Logan’s body maybe once or twice she also said that she took the tape off

before returning back upstairs to cook dinner when investigators learned from Sally’s son that she made two trips up the stairs after finding Logan unresponsive it left them with a mystery what was that first trip for it is clear that calling 9-1-1 was not her first priority prosecutors speculated that the first trip was to get a knife to cut the tape from Logan’s body and to try to hide the evidence before she called 9-1-1 on March 8 2001 Sally was charged with depraved indifference homicide in manslaughter

she was arrested five days later on March 13 2001 and her bail was originally set at just five hundred dollars it was later increased to twelve thousand five hundred dollars cash or 25 000 Surety bonds after the paltry 500 bail sparked Community outrage Dean’s parents put up their house as collateral to meet the bond and Sally was free to go home now Sally’s kids remained in the Scofield home until after her arrest when they were finally removed by DHS they were placed with family members when DHS was criticized

for not taking her boys sooner the commissioner said it was no easy matter to take her boys because Sally worked for DHS so she knew the rules this implied that when they were aware that someone was well versed in the laws and regulations DHS actually followed them there is a clear contrast here to how Christy was treated Christy did not know enough to be able to adequately advocate for herself and her children’s rights in DHS knowingly took full advantage of that Sally’s trial began on June 18 2002. she opted for a bench trial which

meant that there was no jury just to judge the trial lasted six days during which the prosecution placed a large doll in a high chair dressed to resemble Logan in the center of the courtroom they used this to demonstrate what it looked like to wrap 42 feet of duct tape around a child Sally did not testify on her own behalf during this trial when her attorney was questioned about this he stated Sally Scofield has suffered enough unfortunately the judge felt that Sally did not intend to kill Logan so he actually threw the homicide charge out

after this happened Sally celebrated in the street after the verdict was given she was seen smiling and laughing with her family according to her attorney Jed Davis being called a murderer had been very difficult to live with for Sally no one would hire her and that she was harassed on the street this was his words however on June 25th 2002 Justice Thomas delahonti found her guilty of Class A manslaughter he stated that he found Sally’s conduct towards Logan to be unquestionably Reckless at her sentencing hearing on September 26 2002

Sally was sentenced to 28 years in prison with eight years suspended in six years probation he also stipulated that she have no contact with children under the age of 14. unfortunately it was determined that without a jury trial the judge did not have the authority to enforce such a hefty sentence on his own the appeals court later changed the sentence to 20 years in jail with three years suspended this equates to only 17 years behind bars in the aftermath there were no formal charges filed against DHS or any of their employees including

Allison Peters the commissioner stated that there was no failure on the part of DHS he claimed there were no warning signs no warning signs Logan’s old therapist Kathleen Midori reported Sally to DHS Becca the babysitter and the new therapist Jennifer Jones both knew about the high chair treatment the visitation supervisors heard Logan complain of physical abuse Allison Peters and the guardian ad litem had access to all of these reports as well the only recourse for Allison after Logan’s death was a 30-day paid administrative leave

Christie later sued the state of Maine and thankfully she won the money was split between the costs of her lawyer and a trust fund for bayley she was a war awarded four hundred thousand dollars this leaves us with so many questions about the government systems that are supposedly in place to protect our children especially in the state of Maine where was everyone who should have been overseeing DHS due to the previous cases of DHS overreach the governor at the time Angus King was well aware that there were already issues in the system

it’s not like the Logan Marr case was the first publicized misuse of power in Maine’s DHS office it’s arguably the most notable one in the United States an average of one thousand children die in the foster care system each year we have to do better in summer of 2001 Christy and some of her family met at a small Cemetery in Dover Foxcroft where Logan was to be buried this spot was near a stream where Logan loved to play with her mother Christy and her mother laughed over the engraving on The Headstone Logan’s

trademark phrase talk to the hand on one side there was a water scene on the other was the color photo of Logan the picture was taken on her one and only school picture day Bailey who was still in DHS custody had not been permitted to come to her sister’s funeral Christy had been promised that Bailey could join them on this day for Logan’s committal ceremony after several calls and several excuses it was clear that no one was bringing Bailey Christy threw clenched teeth had to ask the minister to begin this ceremony without her

Bailey was not returned to her mother’s care until February of 2002. over a year after her sister’s death at the hands of DHS in May of 2002 Christie regained full custody of Bailey Sally Scofield was released from the Maine State Prison in Windham on April 25th of 2017. at the time Christy was battling cancer sadly she passed away at age 40.

meanwhile Sally Scofield is alive and walking free as some of you might be aware Maine is our home state we’ve seen a lot of tough cases come through our area but nothing even begins to touch the level of failure on behalf of the DHS system like the case of Logan Marr does do you think Justice was served for Logan I think we already know what the correct answer is here tell us what you think in the comment section down below