Klamath County Girl Died In Squalid Conditions Despite What Family Says Were Pleas For Child Welfare Officials’ Help

[Sugar Cookie]

Family members of a 14-year-old Klamath County girl who died in late March are raising alarms that Oregon’s child protective agency failed to intervene to keep her safe, despite what they say were multiple reports of neglect and possible abuse.

By the time Fallon Murdock died on March 30, her maternal grandmother Diane Spahn and great aunt Barbie Campbell had contacted the state’s child abuse and neglect hotline five times over a four-year period with concerns about the safety of Fallon and her four siblings, Campbell said. Neighbors also reported concerns to child welfare officials, Campbell said, yet the state apparently did not step in until after Fallon’s death.

The Klamath County Sheriff’s Office is investigating Fallon’s death. And three family members said they heard from law enforcement officers who visited the home in the unincorporated community of Keno that the five children, ages 6 through 15, had been living in outbuildings without toilets or heat because the primary home was uninhabitable.

Officers leaving the property “had to change their shoes because the entire property was so covered in feces and urine,” said Dan Campbell, the children’s maternal grandfather. “It’s just heartbreaking.”

Brandon Fowler, public information officer for the Klamath County Sheriff’s Office, confirmed Monday that the office is investigating Fallon’s death. And 911 call records show that law enforcement was repeatedly called to the home where Fallon lived southwest of Klamath Falls on March 30.

Heidi Vaughn, a protective services caseworker for Oregon child welfare in Klamath County, told a judge during an April 5 hearing on the state’s rationale for taking custody of the children that “the home had a significant amount of urine, feces, garbage and was generally unsafe for any aged child.” The home also contained drug paraphernalia and a substance that the father, Chris Murdock, identified to authorities as methamphetamine, Vaughn said.

The parents failed to meet the children’s educational and medical needs, including by taking the three oldest children out of school after 2019, she said. “They were, for a very short amount of time, in online education,” Vaughn said. “But for this last proper school year they have had no education.” The last school the oldest boy, 15, attended was an elementary school, Vaughn said.

Chris and Karana Murdock also stopped getting routine medical care for their children after 2019, Vaughn said. The parents imposed “excessive discipline” on the 15-year-old in the form of “extensive physical workouts that could range from 45 minutes to 4 hours, Vaughn said, resulting in him throwing up, passing out, not being able to appropriately control his own body.”

Ashley Gathard, Fallon’s biological mother, lost custody of her daughter during a time when Gathard was struggling with addiction and serving sentences for a variety of crimes. She said that law enforcement told her that first responders found Fallon unresponsive in a bathtub in one of the buildings on the property.

“She’d been complaining she was sick, she had a headache and stuff,”Gathard said. So the parents who adopted her after Gathard give up custody, Chris and Karana Murdock, went to the store to purchase pain relievers, Gathard said, citing information she received from law enforcement. Gathard, who was previously married to Chris Murdock, said she was told that early results of a medical examination suggested that her biological daughter had spinal meningitis.

Murdock is not the biological parent of Fallon but he is the biological parent of the 15-year-old, Gathard said.

“I wasn’t a fit mom and I wanted my kids to have a good life,” said Gathard, who is now in recovery and has a family in Wisconsin. Instead, Gathard said, she learned from law enforcement that there was “clear presence of drug use” in the home and the children were relieving themselves in a sewage pond on the property.

Gathard traveled to Klamath Falls upon learning of Fallon’s death and held a candlelight vigil for her on Saturday. Gathard wants her 15-year-old son, who was also living with the Murdocks, to know she is trying to get custody of him. “I’m here for you and I won’t stop fighting for you.”

Gathard said she is concerned that local child protective services employees decided to place the 15-year-old boy and Chris and Karana’s three other children — ages 6, 9 and 12 — with Chris Murdock’s parents, Bonnie and Ken Murdock. She worried about that placement because she said the couple have maintained that the children were never mistreated.

“I just really want justice for my daughter,” Gathard said. “She was slipped through the (Oregon Department of Human Services) cracks … Bonnie has pull here.”

Continue reading

https://www.oregonlive.com/news/2023/04/klamath-county-girl-14-died-in-squalid-conditions-despite-what-family-says-were-pleas-for-child-welfare-officials-help.html

Two parents were arrested in Klamath County today for contributing to the death of their 14-year-old daughter.

According to a news release from the Klamath County Sheriff's Office, 35-year-old Christopher Murdock and 32-year-old Karana Murdock are facing charges for first-degree manslaughter, first-degree criminal mistreatment, strangulation, harassment and five counts of endangering the welfare of a minor.

"On June 5, 2024, both Christopher and Karana Murdock were arrested and lodged at the Klamath County Jail with no bail," the release said.

Klamath County parents arrested in connection to death of 14-year-old daughter

Two parents were arrested in Klamath County today for contributing to the death of their 14-year-old daughter.

www.kdrv.com

they have both pled not guilty.