A foster mother and her boyfriend are under investigation in the death
of a 2-year-old child in their care who was beaten with a hammer,
according to authorities and coroner’s records.
Viola Vanclief‘s death March 4 is the latest in a series of troubles
linked to United Care Inc , a nonprofit foster care agency that
contracts with Los Angeles County to provide shelter for abused and
neglected children.
Records show that United Care, which oversees 88 homes with 216
foster children, has been repeatedly cited in recent years after
caregivers choked, hit and whipped their charges with a belt. In 2007,
a foster child drowned while swimming unsupervised in a pool.
South Los Angeles residents Kiana Barker, 30, and her boyfriend, James
Julian, 38 were arrested last week on suspicion of murder in connection
with Viola’s death, according to Los Angeles police records. They were
released two days later, with no charges filed. Police are continuing
to investigate the couple.
Barker was decertified as a foster parent last week, and state
regulators posted a notice near one of the no trespassing signs outside
her house saying that a child-care center license there had been
suspended.
Read The Times’ series on child deaths in L.A. County here.
–Garrett Therolf and Anna Gorman
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