2015 was the deadliest in 15 years for Manatee County's child abuse victims

BRADENTON -- Last year was an extraordinary year for child abuse deaths in Manatee County.

Four children died, including Janiya Thomas, the 11-year-old whose body was discovered in a freezer.

After Janiya's death, Manatee County Sheriff investigative bureau chief Connie Shingledecker decided to dig into the 15-year history of child abuse deaths in Manatee to see if there was a common thread that investigators and social workers could use as a "red flag" in future cases.

Shingledecker discussed the disturbing trends she found during "Helping Children at Risk," a panel discussion sponsored by The League of Women Voters of Manatee County Monday.

Since, 2000, there have been eight confirmed child abuse deaths. In six of them the children died at the hands of men their mothers were dating, Shingledecker told a record crowd of 60 at the Bradenton Women's Club luncheon.

Seven of the eight homicides were from head injuries, Shingledecker added.

Five of the seven young head injury victims were male, Shingledecker said.

Knowing that most of the victims were male is important for both social service workers and law enforcement, Shingledecker said.

"I think that's important to know because, again, we are looking at our most vulnerable," Shingledecker added.

Shingledecker brought a pamphlet to the panel discussion called, "Who's Watching Your Child." The pamphlet includes the statement: "Children who lived with adults not related to them are nearly 50 times more likely to die of inflicted injuries as children with two biological parents."

All seven fatal head injury cases were to children younger than age 5 with most of them being 2 or younger, Shingledecker said.

"They can't communicate what is happening to them most of the time," Shingledecker said.

Shingledecker said most of the head injury deaths occurred while the mother was at work or out of the house.

"Of those seven head injury cases, six were male perpetrators and all were boyfriends," she added.

Shingledecker joined Lucia Branton, director of external affairs, Safe Children Coalition, and Gigi Kelly, chief operations officer at Manatee Children's Services on the panel.

"What's the one anomaly that we have?" Shingledecker asked those attending.

"Janiya," she answered.

The crowd learned that Janiya doesn't fit the pattern of past Manatee child homicides over the last 15 years.

Besides being much older than the other children who were killed since 2000, Janiya's death has been reported so far as a drowning not a head injury, Shingledecker told the crowd.

Janiya's mother, Keishanna Thomas, has been charged with first-degree murder, another difference.

From 2008 through 2010, the county had one child homicide death each year, Shingledecker said. In 2012 there was one homicide and in 2015, four child homicides, Shingledecker added.

Social work can be intense

Even those who work in child protection were apparently impacted by Janiya's death and the death of the three other children in 2015.

The overwhelming stress of the job was a factor in the 49 percent turn-over rate in child investigators in 2015, Shingledecker told the crowd.

"We had 15 child investigators leave for various reasons," Shingledecker said. "But the sad reality is that many of them only had maybe a year with the agency. We are trying to address this more up front now when we hire."

Branton agreed that finding and keeping good people to work with children and families can be a challenge.

"More money doesn't necessarily mean they are going to stay," Branton said.

"Social services is a very challenging field. You go into it for more than money. We have done polls with staff who have left over the years and money is not the No. 1 reason they leave. It's the stress. It's the toll that it takes on them emotionally, the hard work, the long hours, the nature of what they see everyday."

Safe Children Coalition typically receives about 30 to 35 children per month who have been removed from their homes, Branton said.

But that changed recently.

"Since September, we have removed at least 100 children per month," Branton said. "That's a huge influx on our system."

Richard Dymond, Herald reporter, can be reached at 941-525-3377 or contact him via Twitter@RichardDymond.

This story was originally published February 8, 2016 at 11:48 PM with the headline "2015 was the deadliest in 15 years for Manatee County's child abuse victims ."