Everlyse Cabrera Girl, 2, went missing in June on watch of Clark County Family Services

Everlyse Cabrera wasn't the first child the system failed.

Donna Coleman, a career advocate for children's causes, says that whenever she's asked about the 2-year-old girl who disappeared in June on the watch of Clark County Family Services.

"There have been so many cases of children who've been injured or who've died while in foster care," Coleman said. "But it's been like no one in Las Vegas has been paying attention until now."

Jushai Akua Spurgeon, 14 months, was scalded to death in 2005 while in foster care, Coleman said. His foster mother, Sallye Jones-Johnson, recently was sentenced to 90 days in jail in North Las Vegas Municipal Court for charges related to Spurgeon's death.

Genesis Acosta-Garcia, three months, died last year while in foster care, Coleman said while flipping through the notebook she keeps to track the deaths and injuries of children in protective custody. The family requested an autopsy into the death, which was attributed to a viral infection.

Adacelli Snyder, 2, starved to death in 2005 after Family Services closed her case.

Those three children, like Everlyse, are among the few who have names to the public, Coleman said. Other cases of deaths and injuries never come to light because the functions of Family Services are cloaked with privacy laws. And although those laws were intended to protect children, Coleman said, it's gotten to the point where the law is being used to shield Family Services workers.

"We don't want to know the information so that we can point fingers and blame people," Coleman said. "We want to know the information so that we can see where the problems are and change things."

For Coleman, what happened to Everlyse is the story of the big-picture problems within Family Services being played out in a small girl's life.

"Every time you bring up a problem in Family Services with the county, the answer is always: 'That happened before,' or: 'We've changed things.'" said Coleman, a former president for the Las Vegas Children's Advocacy Alliance who is now with Demanding Justice for America's Children, a Washington, D.C.-based group.

"Well this little girl disappeared last month," Coleman said. "I don't think that much has changed."

It's been several weeks since Everlyse's foster parents, Manuel and Vilma Carrascal, told North Las Vegas police that the toddler let herself out of the house and wandered away.

Since then, the Carrascals have stopped cooperating with police, and police have been unable to establish exactly what happened to the girl.

Critics of Family Services and child advocates are becoming increasingly vocal in their questioning of whether the documented breakdowns within Family Services contributed to creating the circumstances that allowed Everlyse to go missing.

Everlyse's disappearance followed the release of a review that rocked Family Services by revealing that it and other supporting agencies had failed to properly investigate 79 suspicious child deaths that took place in Clark County between 2001 and 2004. Eleven cases involved children in protective custody.

According to the review, all 79 cases should have been examined for evidence of child maltreatment and weren't. The review also identified serious faults within Family Services related to poor supervision of caseworkers, incomplete or nonexistent case records, the addition of safety assessments of children's homes made to files after a death had occurred, and poor tracking of children in care.

Assemblywoman Susan Gerhardt, D-Henderson, a member of the state's Blue Ribbon Panel on Child Death Review, has asked Family Services to allow the group to review the file on Everlyse. The panel was formed to help remedy the findings of fault enumerated in the expert review.

"I think that would be appropriate, given that we are looking at child fatalities and difficulties within the department (of Family Services)," Gerhardt said. "We've been told by the county that the cases we're looking at are quite old and that a lot of things have changed. I want to see if that's true."

Gerhardt has not yet had a response to her request.

Assemblywoman Sheila Leslie, D-Reno, is chairwoman of legislative subcommittee studying issues related to children in government care. On Friday, she said that the group has agreed to write a bill draft proposing to make public parts of the records of children who die or go missing while in protective custody. The bill draft is driven in large part by the Adacelli Snyder case, she said, but what happened to Everlyse also is fueling the effort.

"The purpose is transparency," Leslie said. "People need to know what happened to be able to determine if the government has failed children."

Clark County Spokeswoman Gina Olivares said that privacy laws prevent disclosure of Family Services records on Everlyse or the foster family. The county is giving full cooperation to police, Olivares said.

"That also includes reviewing our employees' actions," Olivares said, who said she could not disclose what that entailed.

The Carrascals have remained publicly silent on the disappearance of Everlyse, with the exception of a June interview with a local television station. A man identified as Manuel Carrascal told KTNV-TV, Channel 13 that the family had cooperated with police, who searched his home and conducted hours of interviews with family members.

"Sometimes words were put into our mouths to elicit a confession of guilt," Carrascal said in the broadcast.

The Carrascals also have been granted a restraining order against Marlena Olivas and Ernest Cabrera, the natural parents of Everlyse, and a neighbor, claiming harassment. Olivas and Cabrera could not be reached for comment.

North Las Vegas police spokesman Tim Bedwell said that there has been no change in the status of the investigation since the Carrascals reported the girl missing on June 10. Three investigators continue to work the case with two predominant scenarios in mind.

In the first, Bedwell said, events may have unfolded in the manner described by the foster parents: Everlyse pulled a chair to the door, unlocked it and went outside. If that was the case, Bedwell said that someone must have snatched her because the area around the foster home in the 6500 block of Diamond Point Court, near Centennial Parkway and Clayton Street, has been thoroughly and repeatedly searched by police and volunteers.

In the second scenario, Bedwell said that the foster family's story may not be true. That would mean that someone in the home -- shared by the Carrascals, their adult son, Melvin Balane, 34, who owns the property, and their 14-year-old son -- has knowledge of what's happened to Everlyse.

"There is a third scenario, that someone went into the home and abducted her," Bedwell said. "But the physical evidence does not support that."

The two likely and opposite scenarios present obstacles to the investigation, Bedwell said. If Everlyse was snatched by a stranger without being seen by witnesses, that individual is not going to voluntarily come forward. If it was someone living in the house who is responsible for what happened to Everlyse, Bedwell said, then someone in the Carrascal family would have to report it.

"We are as certain as you can be, that little girl didn't disappear on her own," Bedwell said.

North Las Vegas police also have opened a second investigation into the injuries suffered by a previous foster child in the Carrascals' care, which occurred about six months ago. Family Services is cooperating with both investigations by providing documentation and records, Bedwell said.

Everlyse's 11-month-old brother was removed from the Carrascals' custody after his sister disappeared.

When asked about the completeness of the documentation contained in the Family Services files for both Everlyse and the injured foster child, Bedwell declined to comment because both cases remain open.

Those questions will have to be answered eventually though, Bedwell said. When the case is made and the matter is turned over to prosecutors, those responsible and those who contributed to whatever has happened to Everlyse will be named. If anything that any agency did or didn't do plays a part in that, they will be identified, Bedwell said.

"When this case comes full circle, there are going to be conclusions drawn," Bedwell said. "We will acknowledge fully any criminal negligence or abuse that may have occurred."