Texas CPS Under Investigation After Girl's Death at Air Base

Child abuse is normally the task of Texas Child Protective Services to investigate. But who investigates CPS when they drop the ball?

Texas’ Child Protective Services is under investigation, reports The New American. Accusations are flying that agency officials dropped the ball and withheld vital information in a child fatality case.

As a result, police are all over the CPS now, conducting searches and seizing files to assess what happened.

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The case involved a 22-month old girl, Tamryn Klapheke, who was found dead from dehydration. The child was allegedly abandoned by her mother Tiffany Klapheke, who also abandoned her two other children at Dyess Air Force base in August.

The mother was the wife of a servicemember who had been deployed. According to The New American, the woman told KTAB-TV that she was stressed and unable to manage the responsibilities of being a single parent.

The other two children were young girls, a 3-year-old and a 6-month-old. They were treated for severe neglect at the intensive care unit of a Fort Worth hospital.

But moving on, let’s talk about how CPS allegedly botched this case.

For example, why are there reports that CPS workers were instructed by their supervisors not to cooperate with police investigating this case?

And why did a CPS investigator allegedly close a prior case on the girls, without going through necessary formalities such as visiting the family? Why was the case closed without her supervisor’s signature?

The mother of the girls is now in jail, facing charges related to child abuse and neglect. As for the CPS workers, some have resigned their posts. Others are still under investigation.

But so far, nobody from CPS has been charged.

Related Resources:

• Find a Houston Adoption Lawyer (FindLaw)
• Child Abuse Laws (FindLaw)
• La Porte Mom Sues Neighbor Over False Child-Abuse Report (FindLaw’s Houston Family Law Blog)