Aug 4, 2009 7:01 pm US/Central
Community Outraged By Girl's Starvation Death
HINCKLEY, Minn. (WCCO) ―
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Court documents describe evidence that Lakesha Victor, who had serious health problems and ate through a feeding tube, died in 2006 as she suffered from pneumonia, malnutrition and dehydration.
CBS
The day after it was announced a Pine County mother had been charged with starving her 10-year-old daughter to death, police say outrage has been reaction from the community.
"A lot of anger, a lot of how could a mom do this to their own child?" said Pine County Sheriff Chief deputy Steve Ovick. "It's just such a sad case but again mom is responsible, ultimately responsible for this."
According to the criminal complaint against Ludusky Sue Hotchkiss, Pine County deputies spent many months working on the complex investigation before it was presented to the Pine County Attorney's Office for charges.
It then took more than a year before charges were finally filed against Hotchkiss, accusing her of starving her daughter, Lakesha Victor, by not feeding her through a tube.
The girl weighed only 31 pounds when she died, down from 47 pounds just three months earlier when she finished fourth grade.
The investigation also showed that family and a neighbor said the girl's personal care attendant was rarely, if ever, there. According to the criminal complaint, investigators said he admitted to lying on his timesheets which Lakesha's mother would sign and then the two would split his pay.
On Monday, Pine County authorities announced Lakesha's mom was the only person charged with a crime.
"I think there's some culpability there also," said Orvick. "If she was involved in some activity with the PCA that contributed to the death of this child, everybody has to take a look at that."
Meanwhile, the Pine County Attorney refused to answer any questions from the media about the case, such as why did it take so long to file charges against Lakesha's mother and why no charges were filed against the personal care attendant.
"Were there breakdowns probably in the system? Probably so. If there are, let's get them fixed so we don't have another Lakesha on our hands," said Orvick.
The investigators presented their case to the state's Child Mortality Review Board. The Board's findings are confidential but are used to help protect children and prevent future deaths.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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