A woman is blaming social services over the death of a young girl, who was killed while her mother’s boyfriend gave her a bear hug. Antrinette Pharr raised her 4-year-old niece, Mariya Owen, and her siblings for 3 and a half years until recently when a judge granted custody to their biological mother.
The mother, Jenipher Fofana, lived with her boyfriend, 26-year-old Demarcus Heath. According to prosecutors, on Christmas Eve, Owen asked Heath if he was Santa. He responded by giving the child a bear hug that was so tight that he cracked her chest, damaging her aorta. The girl turned blue. Instead of telling the truth about what occurred, Heath told his girlfriend that the girl was choking on an object.
Emergency workers were called and treated the child. However, they were unaware that she was injured beyond the alleged choking.
The child was taken to a hospital, where she died from blunt force injuries. After it was determined that the child died as a result of being physically assaulted, Heath was arrested. He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Pharr said that social services, who were involved with the family and the mother, let the child down when they “allowed the boyfriend to kill the child.”
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