Danieal Kelly was 14 years old when she died alone on a filthy mattress in her mother's Philadelphia home, covered in bone-deep maggot-infested bedsores. She weighed only 42 pounds.
A 258-page grand jury report released this week charges her parents, four social workers, and three friends of the family in connection with Danieal's horrific neglect and death. The report describes a mother, Andrea Kelly, so embarrassed by her child's cerebral palsy that she did not want to touch Danieal, change her diapers, or even provide her with water as she wasted away, lying in her own feces, during a midsummer heat wave. The report also says that Daniel Kelly, the father of Andrea Kelly's children, had no interest in raising Danieal, and calls the Department of Human Services "uncaring and incompetent."
Andrea Kelly (right) is the only defendant charged with murder. She will be held without bail. The social workers, suspected of falsifying progress reports and home visits, face charges including child endangerment and involuntary manslaughter. Three friends of the family were charged with lying to the grand jury.
The Department of Human Services ignored several reports that Danieal was mistreated between 2003 and 2005, said authorities. In 2005, a private agency was assigned to the Kelly family, but authorities suspect the employee, Julius Murray, tasked with visiting the family twice each week instead visited only once, to have Andrea Kelly sign forms attesting to future visits, which never occurred. Months later, Danieal still was not enrolled in school and had not received medical care.
After Danieal died, said the grand jury's report, Mickal Kamuvaka, director of the private company employing Mr. Murray, held a "forgery fest" in her office. Employees conspired to "concoct almost a year's worth of false progress reports."
Andrea's other children, now in foster care, were not starved or neglected. "This behavior indicates that Andrea Kelly did not merely allow Danieal to die," the report said. "She may have even wanted her disabled daughter to die."
