SAN JOSE — An 8-year-old San Jose girl died Sunday after being taken off life support, days after she was found unresponsive in a home that had been the subject of child welfare calls, authorities said Monday.
The girl died at Valley Medical Center, according to San Jose police and records from the Santa Clara County Coroner’s Office. Her name had not been formally released as of Monday afternoon.
The death marks a new development in an investigation this news organization previously reported was focused on a Lancelot Lane home where sources said authorities had received prior calls about suspected child neglect, including concerns that children there appeared malnourished.
The county’s child death protocol has been invoked, a process that brings police, prosecutors and child welfare officials together to review the circumstances of a child’s death. The police department declined to comment further, citing the “active and ongoing investigation.” But for much of Friday, SJPD investigators, clad in body-length protective gear, could be seen carrying boxes out of the girl’s home while serving a search warrant.
Around 10 a.m. May 13, San Jose police and firefighters were called to a home in the 1200 block of Lancelot Lane for a report of a girl unconscious and not breathing, which was followed soon after by a report that the child suffered cardiac arrest. She was placed on life support at Valley Medical Center in San Jose, where she died Sunday.
As this news organization previously reported, sources familiar with the investigation said the home had been the subject of multiple police and welfare calls for suspected child negligence. One source described the condition of the house as being in “squalor,” citing the prevalence of animal urine and feces.
At least one of the police calls about the home voiced concern that the 8-year-old girl and another child were malnourished and appeared to be getting most of their nutrition at school. The sources also said that at one point the county Department of Family and Children’s Services visited the home — occupied by seven children and six adults — and found no cause to take action. The agency was among those that responded to the home last week.
No arrests have been announced and authorities have not released any information about the status of the other children in the home.
A county statement on behalf of the agency — which is currently under heavy scrutiny over its management and supervision of child welfare cases involving deaths — called the situation “heartbreaking” but said that the county was prohibited from commenting on DFCS contact with the residents at the home.
Steve Baron, a member of the county Child Abuse Prevention Council who emphasized he was speaking only for himself, said news of the girl’s death was another tragic reminder of a problem that is much greater in scope than what the public sees.
“It’s important to acknowledge that cause of death must be determined and law enforcement investigations must be completed to see if any form of child abuse or neglect was a contributing factor, and whether the death was possibly preventable or not,” Baron said. “(But) I will note that personally I have had a concern that child neglect and related child endangerment are issues that have been minimized and discounted in their significance both national and statewide.”
Baron said neglect is often underestimated despite the lasting harm it can cause children.
“The fact is … that child neglect can be one of the most harmful forms of child maltreatment, both short and long term,” Baron said. “Research has found that it is often related to problems including parental substance abuse, domestic violence, mental health problems and other forms of physical and sexual abuse as being a risk factor for preventable child fatalities.”