Elva Juarez, 77, said she noticed the mark March 27, when her son had a scheduled visit at the county’s child welfare agency offices to see his son.
“Look, there’s a line around his neck, I told the social worker,” Juarez recounted in an interview with The Mercury News. She said the worker took a photo of the mark.
The Mercury News has not been able to independently verify that a photo was taken or review any image of the mark. County officials declined to answer questions about the grandmother’s account, including whether a social worker documented any such observation.
If accurate, the account could add to growing concerns about the oversight of Jaxon’s case in the days leading up to his death. But key details — including what the mark was, how it occurred, and whether it was documented or evaluated — remain unclear. Jaxon died April 9 after being found unresponsive five days earlier in the San Jose home of a cousin who had been caring for him as a foster parent for about six weeks. The cousin’s 17-year-old son is now charged with six counts of sexual assault of a child. The Mercury News is not naming the teen, who just turned 18, because he remains in juvenile court where identities are protected, nor his mother to protect his identity.
The cause of Jaxon’s death has not been released. Santa Clara County Medical Examiner Dr. Michelle Jorden said the investigation is ongoing.
In a statement Sunday, county officials did not respond to specific questions about the grandmother’s account or whether any concerns were documented before the child’s death.
“The County is currently conducting a comprehensive investigation into this tragic incident,” county spokesman Peter Gallotta said. “This includes a thorough review of policies, protocols, and staff actions, including every interaction involving Jaxon during his time in foster care.”
The county last week also had asked the state to investigate, echoing calls from Supervisor Sylvia Arenas and Steve Baron, a member of the county’s Child Abuse Prevention Council.
Gallotta said the county is “committed to publicly sharing the results of our investigation and the independent investigation being conducted by the State.”
The grandmother and Jaxon’s father, Albert Juarez, said they now believe warning signs may have been missed in the days before the boy was found unresponsive.
On April 3, they said, the cousin took Jaxon to a health clinic and later told them he had eczema, a condition that can cause skin irritation. It remains unclear whether the mark described by the family was examined during that visit or whether it prompted any follow-up by medical providers or social workers.
The Mercury News has not independently confirmed details of that visit.
Jaxon returned to the cousin’s home that day, according to the family. Two days later, he was found unresponsive. He died five days after being placed on life support.
“How could they let that happen?” Elva Juarez said. “I’m just numb.”
The family’s account of the mark comes after The Mercury News has reported that the county’s Department of Family and Children’s Services placed Jaxon with the 40-year-old cousin despite her 2014 felony conviction for child endangerment related to drunken driving with her 1-year-old daughter in the car.
County officials declined to say whether social workers were aware of that conviction, which appears in court records. Child welfare experts say such a history would typically raise serious concerns in placement decisions.
Elva Juarez said she initially wondered whether the line on Jaxon’s neck could have come from a pacifier clipped to his shirt, but dismissed that idea because the cord was coiled.
Albert Juarez said he had received a photo of the mark from a phone number he did not recognize but deleted it and no longer has it. The Mercury News has not been able to obtain or verify that image.
“I didn’t want to see it” anymore, he said, “because I didn’t want to see my little boy being hurt.”
The county’s child welfare agency had been involved with Jaxon since birth, according to his father, who said the boy he was born nearly eight weeks prematurely and showed signs of fetal alcohol syndrome. The county initially allowed the child to remain with his parents under conditions that he not be left alone with them, he said.
Jaxon’s mother, Brianna Burton, died last July after her kidney and liver failed. The grandmother and father said that before she died, a social worker found Jaxon home alone with his father while the grandmother was running an errand, and that the father lost his temper with a social worker who felt “threatened” by him during a visit when she was considering removing Jaxon from the home. Within a week of the mother’s death, the county removed the child from his father and grandmother, according to the family.
Jaxon was first placed with a non-relative foster family, then with his maternal grandfather in Roseville. After several months, the grandfather said he could not care for the child’s special needs, and Jaxon was placed in late February with the cousin in San Jose, the family said.
His death comes more than two years after The Mercury News and the California Department of Social Services investigated the county’s child welfare agency following the deaths of two children in its care: 3-month-old Phoenix Castro, who died of a fentanyl overdose in her father’s home, and 7-year-old Jordan Walker, who was allegedly stabbed by his uncle after being placed in his grandmother’s home despite relatives’ concerns for his safety.
At the time of Jaxon’s death, the county was nearing the end of an 18-month corrective action plan aimed at improving oversight and safety within the system.