Police find child dead at home

A toddler whose family has a history of being investigated on suspicion of child abuse or neglect was found dead Tuesday morning in his father's downtown Las Vegas home.

The child was identified by authorities as 33-month-old Zander Martino. He and his two siblings were in protective custody less than two weeks ago while the county investigated an injury to Zander, the Clark County Department of Family Services said.

Family Court Hearing Master David Gibson Sr. placed Zander and his siblings back into their father's custody on June 28, authorities said.

Why Gibson returned the children to their father was unclear Tuesday. Gibson could not be reached for comment.

Las Vegas police officers were called to the family's home in the 200 block of Hoover Avenue, near Main Street and Bonneville Avenue, about 8:30 a.m. Tuesday because Zander was not breathing, police said. They found Zander dead inside the house.

Zander's father, his wife or girlfriend and Zander's two siblings were at the home, said Lisa Teele, supervisor for the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department's abuse and neglect unit.

The boy's mother lives out-of-state, Teele said.

Authorities said there was some bruising visible on Zander when he was found, but his cause of death was still under investigation Tuesday night.

Teele said no one had been taken into custody or charged in connection with the death.

The Department of Family Services first opened a case on Zander in December 2004, when he was about 2 months old, after the county received a report that his mother had abused him, said Christine Skorupski, spokeswoman for the department.

The county removed Zander and his siblings from the home at that time, Skorupski said.

She said Zander became a ward of the county in August 2005 and between then and April was at times in foster care and at other times living with his relatives.

In April, Zander and his siblings were returned to the custody of their father. Family Services workers visited the home at least three times in May and reported no problems, Skorupski said.

But on June 19, the Family Services Department opened another investigation into the family because Zander had a injury that aroused suspicion, she said.

At that time, the county removed Zander and two other siblings, about 1 and 4 years old, from the home and placed them into protective custody, Skorupski said.

On Thursday, a week after Gibson had returned the children to their father, county workers made an unannounced visit to the family's home to check on the children's welfare. The workers did not find any bruises on the children or any signs of abuse or neglect during that visit, Skorupski said.

The workers watched as one of the adults in the house changed a diaper on one of the children, and the workers did not see any diaper rash on the child. Diaper rashes can be sign that a child is being neglected.

In all, the family had five previous reports lodged against it regarding possible child abuse or neglect, Skorupski said.

Donna Coleman, a child welfare critic, questioned whether Clark County Director of Family Services Tom Morton's goal of closing child welfare cases within 45 days might have come into play in Zander's case.

"Success to me in child welfare does not mean closing a case in 45 days. Where is the risk assessment?" Coleman said.

Clark County has been focused on child welfare reform since a 2005 state report found that authorities were underreporting and under-investigating suspicious deaths of children. The report found that between 2001 and 2004, 79 suspicious deaths of children in Clark County had never been reviewed to determine whether the abuse or neglect had been factors in the deaths.

The report was followed by a string of tragedies involving children in protective custody during 2006.

Everlyse Cabrera, 3, disappeared while in foster care and has never been found. A 7-month-old child to whom authorities referred to as "baby boy Charles" died of head injuries in foster care. Joshua Sharp, 15 months, was a resident of Child Haven, the county's shelter for children, when he went into respiratory distress and died.

The National Center for Youth Law, an Oakland, Calif.-based nonprofit, filed a lawsuit in federal court in 2006 and alleged that the county's child welfare system is in turmoil and puts children at risk.

Clark County Department of Family Services Director Tom Morton, brought in to improve the system, is working with the Safe Futures plan, which draws on increased funding from state and local governments to provide more staffing, training and oversight.