News

DFCS file reveals open abuse investigation before girl's death

ATLANTA — Nearly a month after the death of a 5-year-old Monroe County girl, state officials have released a summary of their efforts to investigate abuse in the child's home.

Channel 2 Action News reporters made repeated inquiries about an open investigation into 5-year-old Heaven Woods since her death in May.

Channel 2's Kerry Kavanaugh made the Department of Family and Children’s Services aware Tuesday that she was working on a story that would question why WSB-TV had not received any of the requested files when state officials decided to release the summary.

A DFCS spokeswoman Ashley Fielding says that was not the case, both the case file and summary were ready Tuesday and that's why it was released.

The summary showed the state was actively investigating new allegations at the time of Heaven's death.  It was the ninth time they investigated similar claims of abuse since March 2009.

Heaven's mother, Amanda Hendrickson, and her boyfriend, Roderick Buckner, are now charged with the child's death.

The heavily redacted case summary conceals the names of all children and adults involved, but state investigators told Channel 2 Action News that DFCS had a long history with Hendrickson.

According to the summary, someone reported concerns of neglect and "physical abuse in the form of bruises, welts and abrasions" to officials in Floyd County in 2009.

Other complaints ranged from "inadequate food, clothing and shelter" to "emotional and psychological neglect."
 
In 2011, reports of bruises and welts continued. Accusations also surfaced that a child was sleeping in a closet and that someone was engaging in sex in front of the child.
 
Similar accusations continued for the next several years up to May.
 
A witness told DFCS that someone was "kicking -- the child -- in the back very hard," the report said.

Several times, state case workers screened out the complaints, closing the cases.

First responders found Heaven badly beaten and unresponsive in a Monroe County home on May 20. 
 
An autopsy revealed Heaven died of blunt force trauma and that she had multiple injuries to her body, old and new.

Hendrickson and Buckner remain in jail on murder charges.
 
Community leaders like state Sen. Vincent Fort say only after releasing the state's files on Heaven can child advocates begin to learn from what happened so history is not repeated.
 
"The bottom line is Heaven Woods was not protected," Fort said. "She was allowed to stay in a home and that was a fatal decision."

Channel 2 Action News could not find any instance where the state removed Woods from her mother's care.