Failing a child *

IN Los Angeles is out with a strong story on the death of two-year-old Sarah Angelina Chavez, six months after she was taken away from her lesbian foster parents and returned to her birth family. Preliminary autopsy results suggest the girl died of "blunt force trauma" and she may also have suffered a broken arm. Sarah had been placed in foster care originally after being severely beaten and the death of another child in the family. Two adults, one of them an aunt, have been charged with murder in Sarah's death, Monday's Pasadena Star-News reported. The IN Los Angeles story reports a stunning fact: seventy children in the the county Department of Child and Family Services system died between January through Sept. 30, and eleven of the deaths were ruled homicides. Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky's office is investigating the circumstances around Sarah's removal from the home of Dianne Hardy-Garcia and Corri Planck.

* Added: John Rabe covered this story on KPCC on Oct. 21 (audio link) Thursday 12:30 am