MIAMI (AP) — A toddler who drowned in a dirty swimming pool two weeks after he'd been found wandering near his home is the latest child to die of abuse or neglect after a state worker deemed them safe.
The Miami Herald reports 3-year-old Dakota Stiles died July 25 in the pool that a Department of Children and Families worker had described as "exceptionally unsafe."
The Herald reports he became the seventh child to die under DCF's watch and the second to die since interim secretary Esther Jacobo took over the department from David Wilkins, who resigned two weeks ago.
Jacobo says she's outraged by Dakota's death.
In mid-July an investigator found that Dakota's parents "appear to be paralyzed in parenting the children." But the children remained in the home.
