One unexpected finding from our study of 88 Minnesota child fatalities is that nearly half (48%) of the victims were killed by someone other than a biological parent. This includes 21 murders (24%) by domestic partners and 8 (9%) in kinship foster placements.
Public records only documented violent domestic partners in six cases. But there were likely other ways to identify dangerous situations. Some mothers of deceased children had patterns of violent relationships, while others had open or recent cases which gave workers opportunities to recognize domestic violence. This suggests the problem may not be a lack of information, but of policies on dealing with dangerous partners.
The kinship foster care deaths simply indicate a lack of due diligence in some placements, as this 2019 Hennepin County Citizen’s Review Panel study illustrates.
These findings suggest opportunities to prevent future fatalities.