DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - More than three years after the starvation death of a 16-year-old girl in West Des Moines, an Iowa investigation says state workers didn’t act soon enough on child-abuse reports about her and her siblings and didn’t identify or contact important witnesses.
An emaciated Natalie Finn weighed only 81 pounds when she died in October 2016, officials have said. Her adoptive mother, Nicole Finn, was sentenced to life in prison. Her adoptive father, Joseph Finn II, was given 30 years behind bars.
An investigation report issued Monday by the state ombudsman’s office said more staffing, training and resources at the state’s top child-protective agency might have made prevented the abuse that led to Natalie’s death.
Three reports were made on the Finn children between 2005 and 2009, but records for them were “scant or nonexistent” due to Department of Human Services policies on maintaining child abuse records, the ombudsman’s report said.
State workers didn’t take action on four child abuse reports reports made between November 2015 and May 2016 that alleged among other things that Natalie wasn’t getting enough food at home. Action didn’t occur until a state worker looking at a fifth report reviewed the four previous abuse reports about the Finn family, according to the ombudsman’s report.
“Although DHS received funding for the current fiscal year to hire additional field staff, I believe employees remain overworked, especially those in the intake unit,” Ombudsman Kristie Hirschman said in the report.
A department spokesman said Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds is requesting state and federal funding for 47 new department positions, mostly for experienced social workers, in her budget request for the 2021 fiscal year.
A large part of the department’s ongoing efforts “will focus on finding better ways to support our team so they can better support the families we serve,” said agency Director Kelly Garcia.
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