Clearer Picture Emerges of Troubled Family
posted 3:00 pm Fri January 11, 2008 - Washington
Family and friends say they had been trying for months to visit the girls. Acccording to the court documents, Jacks told police detectives that the children had started to die after the electricity was shut off at the home. Records show the electricity was cut off on September 5, 2007.
The criminal complaint also says "no witnesses reported seeing any of the children alive after May of 2007."Jacks allegedly told detectives that her children were possessed, and that the children had died in their sleep one by one over a 7-10 day period. Also in the complaint, Jacks said she stopped feeding her kids and nobody has been in their house since last May.
Investigators say there are indications the oldest girl had been stabbed. The other three were likely suffocated or poisoned.
Tawana Crump, who said she shared a jail cell with Jacks, said, "She smelled like death." "Describe how she was acting in the cell," asked a reporter. "Weird, weird, she eat her food like this little teeny little bites," replied Crump.
"To see this happen is crushing," said Michael Powell. "All the girls were wonderful girls, from the oldest one to the youngest one. They were all very studious kids."
Powell was the first cousin of Nate Fogle, the father of Aja and N'Kiah. He says the family moved into the Southeast rowhouse after years of living on the streets.
"They lived in shelters, slept in cars, they lived in a van that I sold them," recalled Powell.
A charity that helps terminally ill cancer patients moved the family into the rowhouse after Nate Fogle was diagnosed with cancer. Fogle died in February at a hospice, leaving the four girls in Jacks' care.
After Fogle died, the family lost the right to live in the rowhouse. U.S. Marshals arrived on Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. to serve an eviction notice and found the bodies.
Relatives believe Jacks snapped after her boyfriend died. She didn't attend his funeral and wouldn't allow her daughters to attend, either.
Powell said when he saw the Fogle girls about three months after their father's death, it appeared they didn't even know their father was dead.
He says they asked, "Where is our daddy? Tell him to come home. We'll be good."
Powell says Jacks later appeared to cut off all contact.
"We stopped by there, knocked on the door last 7 or 8 months and we couldn't achieve any contact at all," said Powell.
Family friend Monique McAllister said the family had stayed with her for awhile because they had trouble getting into a shelter that would also allow Nate Fogle to live with them.
"She didn't want to go into a shelter without her husband and, you know, these days shelters aren't designed for families, most are designed for single mothers and their kids."
D.C. agencies are trying to track down all of the contact the family has had with the city. Mayor Adrian Fenty says the they know Child Welfare had been in contact with the family at least once, as had the police.
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Latest Comment on Clearer Picture Emerges of Troubled Family
GoodDay
9:18 am on 01/15/08
I definitely understand the frustration and sadness everyone feels about the poor girls. It is unfair to assume that the 6 individuals who were fired from CFSA deserved it. One must consider that there are agency protocols that the social workers and support workers follow at the agency. It's probably a policy and systemic issue. There may be individual errors also but the workers clearly did not ignore the investigation and refuse to go out to the home. It would have been better if the worker had gone out more than 2 times but obviously it must have been within the agency's policy to close the case if the family couldn't be located. On the other occassion, how do you investigate abuse and neglect if you don't even have information as to where the family lives. Was the worker supposed to go out all over DC and search every random van. That's unreasonable. There were plenty of other agencies that interfaced with the family. It's so easy to blame CFSA, as the news always does. There are plenty of caring and concerned social workers that work there. Don't be so quick to blame people when you're not in their shoes. The news only reports so much information. They didn't report to what CFSA's policy may be. Maybe those workers followed protocol. Should they be fired for doing their job as the agency governs and Fenty as mayor has allowed the agency to run.
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