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By Sun-Times
November 15, 2013 1:00 am
By Chris Fusco, Tony Arnold and Monifa Thomas
Photo credit: collage by Sun-Times from submitted photos
About a month before 3-year-old Gina Presley died, her grandfather says he began calling the state’s child-abuse hotline, worried about her safety.
Days passed, and nothing happened.
So Gerald Presley went to the Oak Forest police on March 11, telling them there might be “drug use” in the home where Gina lived with his sister — her legal guardian — and his sister’s new boyfriend, records show. Presley says the police told him to call the hotline again, and he did.
Eight days later, Illinois child-welfare officials asked police to make a “well-being check” on Gina, based on “reports of her having bruises,” according to a police report.
When officers got to that house that evening, no one was home.
A week later, Gina was found dead, allegedly killed by the boyfriend who had caused Gerald Presley’s concern, prompting him to call the child-abuse hotline “at least” three times.
“I started calling at the end of February or in early March, but they didn’t take me seriously,” Presley says. “Obviously, you see what happened.”
What happened is part of an alarming trend in Illinois: More kids are dying from child abuse and neglect, and a growing number of those deaths are occurring despite the child-welfare system’s involvement in investigating or monitoring their care, a Chicago Sun-Times and WBEZ examination of 10 years of neglect and abuse cases has found.