‘They all failed her’: Kansas got 8 calls about Topeka girl’s welfare before her death

Eight times since September of last year, callers to the Kansas child abuse hotline tried to help little Zoey Felix.

One caller reported that the 5-year-old roamed her Topeka neighborhood unsupervised and others said the living conditions at the family’s home were poor, and alleged there was drug use and no electricity or water.

According to information released Tuesday by the Kansas Department for Children and Families, only five of those calls were investigated; the agency said three were duplicates. And all but one of the reports investigated were unsubstantiated.

A ninth call came two weeks ago on Oct. 2, this time with a report of Zoey’s death.

For two weeks, the state has said little about the case that has outraged residents and child advocates across the state, insisting that Kansas law required them to wait before releasing more information. On Tuesday, in a statement with a summary of the case, Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly called Zoey’s death “an unacceptable tragedy” and the head of the Department for Children and Families vowed to investigate further.

“My agency is fully committed to a thorough review of this case,” DCF Secretary Laura Howard said. “We will take every step necessary to determine if there are policies and procedures that can be revised or added to effectively support families and help prevent another case like this from happening again.”

Neighbors who watched Zoey grow up after her family moved to the area four years ago, who often fed her, watched over her and washed her down with baby wipes when needed, say a slew of people — including police, DCF workers and her parents — didn’t do right by the little girl.

“They all failed her,” Desiree Myles, who lives across the street from where Zoey lived with her family, told The Star on Tuesday. “She was a neglected child. ... She was the neighborhood’s child.”

Soon after her death, prosecutors charged Mickel Cherry, a 25-year-old family acquaintance, with rape and murder in Zoey’s killing.

Neighbors, who made sure she had food, attention and clothes when she needed them, are left frustrated that their calls for help didn’t lead anywhere.

Myles tried to call DCF on Sept. 5. And after “being on hold for an hour,” she said she called police, who responded to the home. “I don’t know why they didn’t take her that day.”

Someone had called Zoey’s dad the same day and she said he “came over and picked her up.”

Nearly two weeks after that, neighbors stopped seeing the family. It wasn’t until after her death that many discovered Zoey was living in a tent with her father, her sister and Cherry.

“DCF obviously did not know where this child was,” Sen. Molly Baumgardner, a Louisburg Republican, said.

She said she was concerned the state and the city of Topeka were not doing enough to provide services to ensure the safety of those in homeless encampments.

“It’s not a crime for people to be poor but it is up to services to make sure that community services, food and water and electricity are there for young children,” Baumgardner said.

In a joint statement Tuesday evening, House Speaker Dan Hawkins, a Wichita Republican, and Senate President Ty Masterson, an Andover Republican, said the Kelly administration failed to protect Zoey.

“This young child’s tragic death could have been prevented,” they said, “had the agency and the administration done their jobs.”

A summary of calls, offers of service

A call came into the state on Sept. 8, 2022, regarding Zoey and her family, according to information released Tuesday.

“DCF received a report with allegations including poor conditions in the home and possible drug use in the presence of a child,” the release from DCF said. “The case was assigned to Family in Need of Assessment (FINA) – Unable to Provide Care.”

During that investigation, the mother agreed to a drug screen, DCF said. It came back negative.

“DCF learned that the mother was also working with court services,” DCF said. The child welfare agency “offered services to the family, but the family declined. The case was closed.”

Two months later, on Nov. 8, the agency received a report about an “unsupervised child.”

“The case was assigned for investigation due to Lack of Supervision,” DCF said. “Following an investigation, the case was unsubstantiated.”

DCF offered services, and again those were declined.

Ten days later, DCF received a report that the mother had been arrested for driving under the influence. And “the child was unrestrained in the front seat,” the case summary said.

“The child was placed in Police Protective Custody (PPC),” DCF said. “Law enforcement located the father the same evening of the incident and placed the child with him. After receiving the report, DCF interviewed the father and child to assess safety. No safety concerns were identified.”

That report was substantiated with a “Lack of Supervision finding” against the mother.

Then this year, on May 18, DCF received a report that there were no working utilities in the home and that it was in “generally poor condition.”

The case was assigned for investigation, DCF said. But the allegations were ultimately “unsubstantiated.”

“The Child Protective Service (CPS) investigation found the home to be livable, utilities operational, and food in the home,” the summary released Tuesday said. “There were no signs of drugs in the home.”

“DCF offered Family Preservation services to the family. They were declined.”

Another report came on Aug. 29 alleging there were no utilities inside the home and that drug use was occurring.

“CPS investigators attempted to contact the family a total of seven times over the next month but were unsuccessful,” DCF said. “They visited the home on September 6, September 8, September 12, September 14, and again on September 25. A letter was sent to the family on September 20.

“There was also an attempt to contact the family via phone on September 21, but the number was disconnected.”

At that time, the case remained open.

Then came the call about Zoey’s death on Oct. 2.

“DCF assigned a case for Physical and Sexual Abuse in the death of Zoey,” the newly released information said. “The Sexual Abuse case was substantiated. The Physical Abuse case finding is pending investigation.

Cries to ‘fix this broken system’

The child’s brutal death followed a tumultuous year in the child’s life, according to records obtained by The Associated Press. The AP reported Zoey was in her father’s custody.

Over the summer, however, Zoey, her father and Cherry, a family acquaintance, moved back into her mother’s home.

The AP reported that the home was briefly condemned after police were told Zoey was left home alone with “a strange man” and no water or electricity.

In September — about two weeks before Zoey’s death — Zoey’s mother told Zoey, her father, her sister and Cherry to leave the house, neighbors told the AP.

For the past two weeks, neighbors made allegations that DCF had ignored pleas to help the child but, due to a state law restricting information release, the agency did not respond.

On Monday, Kelly said she planned to reintroduce a bill that would allow quicker transparency. She reiterated that goal in Tuesday’s press release.

“My administration proposed legislation in 2021 to allow the Department for Children and Families to expedite the release of information in cases like Zoey’s,” Kelly said in the release. “We will urge the Legislature to get that bill to my desk early in the next legislative session.”

Baumgardner said the governor’s statement missed the point.

“The situation isn’t that the information wasn’t released sooner, that’s not the situation that anyone is focusing on,” she said. “The situation is that we have a 5-year-old with repeated contacts to DCF, ended up homeless, living in a tent community, and was raped and murdered.”

With details of the case now public, Rep. Susan Concannon, a Beloit Republican, said she believed DCF followed procedures correctly. She cautioned against scapegoating DCF in the search for someone to blame.

“It’s just such a tough situation,” Concannon said. “You can second-guess a lot of things but they do have a process to go by and it appears they did everything according to what they have in their policy and procedures.

“I certainly think we need to take a good long look at this case and see if there’s something that ought to be changed.”

Rep. Jarrod Ousley, a Merriam Democrat, said it is hard to say, at this point, whether any change in policy could have prevented Zoey’s death. As details come out, he said, that will be evaluated.

“It’s a tragedy, it’s a heinous crime,” he said.

“I can understand being frustrated. They raised some flags, they did what they were supposed to do,” he said of neighbors. “I’m not going to say it wasn’t enough. But there wasn’t enough there to sound the alarm, I guess.”

Neighbors like Myles want the system to change. And she wants justice for Zoey, who she called “a happy little girl.”

Three weeks before Zoey’s death, Myles’ best friend brought Zoey inside Myles’ home and gave her a shower.

“She combed her hair and washed her hair and she put two pigtails in her hair,” Myles said. “And (Zoey) said, ‘Smell my hair. Smell my hair. Oh my hair smells so good.’”

While they were still in the bathroom, Myles said Zoey asked her if she could stay in there a little while.

“We were all in the living room and we hear her back there and she’s just singing her butt off. She was just singing,” Myles said. “... My girlfriend, she said, ‘I really think I gave her three more weeks to live.’”

More than a week ago, Myles’ grandson came to her home. He’s 4, and he and Zoey were buddies.

“He told me, ‘I want to go play with my best friend. I want to play with Zoey,’” Myles said.

All the grandma could think to say was “Zoey’s not home.”

Other kids in the neighborhood are trying to understand what happened, too. So are their parents and grandparents.

Whenever Myles looks at the house across the street, she thinks of Zoey.

“I see her smile, her look — I got that picture, you know,” Myles said. “... I just want them to do something about this broken system.

“I want them to fix this broken system.”