Child Protection in Crisis
Kayla McKean was 6
when she was killed
by her father in Clermont.
THE LAW has a simple goal: to save children’s lives. That’s why law enforcement officers throughout Florida now investigate all child abuse complaints. It’s a critical change that went into effect July 1, 1999, following passage of the Kayla McKean Child Protection Act.Kayla lived in the town of Clermont, which is in Lake County in Central Florida. She was 6 years old when she was physically abused and killed by her father. Child welfare workers repeatedly missed signs hat should have alerted them to the risks which Kayla faced. Case workers overlooked many opportunities to save the child’s life. Assessed by child-welfare workers, she was returned to her father. The new law that carries her name mandates that law enforcement officers review all child abuse complaints in Florida. The goal is to improve the state's investigation tactics in child abuse cases and to toughen criminal penalties for abusers.
It was her father, Richard Adams, who called 9•1•1on Thanksgiving Day 1998 to report that his daughter, Kayla, was missing — that she simply had vanished from outside their Clermont apartment complex.
Hundreds of Central Floridians fanned out in droves to scour nearby forests and fields in hopes of finding Kayla alive and well. The search lasted for five days — five agonizing days. Her father and stepmother participated in the charade, knowing full well that the child was already dead.
Kayla’s father confessed to beating Kayla to death and burying her body in the woods. He was charged with murder and aggravated child abuse. According to prosecutors, Adams, 24, slammed Kayla against a wall and struck her with a paddle after she soiled her underwear. He buried her in a forest some 50 miles from his home. Officers first uncovered three of her fingers sticking out of the grave where her father finally told deputies he’d buried her.
Richard Adams brought Kayla to the doctor’s office in June 1998. Two abuse reports about the first-grader had already been called into the Florida Child Abuse Hotline. The doctor called in a third report after determining the child was in “imminent danger” of abuse from her father.
The 6-year-old was bruised and battered all over her body, including black eyes, scratches on her face and bruises on her chest, abdomen, and backside. The little girl’s father told three different stories to explain the injuries — none of which added up, according to the doctor.
Adams told the physician several stories of how Kayla got her multitude of injuries: Kayla fell off her bike and hit her eyes on the handlebars; Kayla hit her head on the door jamb; Kayla fell on the ground while he was making her do jumping jacks.
The doctor didn't believe him. The injuries he saw during his examination of the little girl would require blunt-force trauma to the face.
The previous month, May 1998, a friend of the girl’s father had been horrified when he saw Kayla’s bruised and battered face. At first, he thought the little girl was wearing a Halloween mask. The whole side of her face was swollen. One of her eyes was swollen shut and oozing. The other was bruised and red. Her left hand was so swollen and purple that her knuckles had disappeared. Adams said Kayla got hurt by riding her bike into a brick wall.
The father’s friend eventually persuaded Adams to take the girl to the emergency room at South Lake Hospital. He was relieved when the DCF investigator showed up at the emergency room to interview Adams and Kayla because he figured she would see the abuse and take the little girl away from her father.
Lake County child welfare workers investigated and determined that Adams had assumed custody of the girl weeks earlier after her mother, Adams’ former girlfriend, entered a battered woman's shelter. Kayla had two black eyes and a broken nose and left hand.
Adams said Kayla had fallen off her bike. DCF investigators placed her in a foster home and asked for a hearing on whether she should be removed from Adams' home. But in a report to the judge, the DCF investigator mentioned only Kayla's black eyes and swelling, not the other injuries. He had recommended the girl stay with her father. The judge agreed.
In the months before Kayla was killed, child welfare workers missed one chance after another to intervene and perhaps save her life.
So now the law requires social workers to call law enforcement on all cases of child abuse, abandonment, or neglect, so that officers or deputies can decide whether to start a criminal investigation. Before, the social worker could decide whether to notify police
As for Kayla McKean, “I certainly don't think her last days on Earth were pleasurable,” the lead investigator of her murder commented.