Was tragedy preventable?

The DCF chief says he wants to personally review a child abduction.

By MELANIE AVE AND STEPHANIE GARRY
Published June 21, 2007

The two Florida families took the children to Wisconsin in February to "see snow," authorities say. Instead, the little ones lived through a cold and horrific scene of torture and death.

On Wednesday, a 15-year-old girl and three adults were charged with killing the girl's mother. They also tortured the girl's 11-year-old brother by scalding him with boiling water, whipping him with belts and cords, and locking him naked in a closet, authorities said.

In the house as it all unfolded were three young sisters: a 2-year-old taken from Florida's foster care system, a 3-month-old and a 1-year-old.

Were the death and abuse preventable under Florida's convoluted public-private child protective system?

The state's handling of the case is already the subject of an inspector general investigation and internal Department of Children and Families review.

DCF Secretary Bob Butterworth ordered his staff statewide to provide him with all records and facts related to the case.

"He would like to review this personally," said DCF spokesman Al Zimmerman.

Some neighbors of the dead woman, who was from Sanford in Seminole County, said police questioned her last year after she was seen chasing a child down the street with a knife.

"It just makes you sick what was going on," said Kathy Hawkins, 61, of Sanford, who recalls frequent police visits to the woman's house. "It's terrible. That poor little boy."

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On June 14, a Lake County detective sent a teletype to Wisconsin police with an address where the mother of the missing 2-year-old girl was living with her boyfriend.

That tip led to the surprising crime scene in the two-story yellow brick rental home in Portage, about 40 miles north of Madison.

Inside the home they found the abducted girl, Courtney Alisa Clark, and a badly burned 11-year-old boy in an upstairs bedroom closet with his knees pulled to his chest. He was malnourished with a missing front tooth, belt marks on his torso, and burns on his head and hands. His feet were so badly burned he could not walk.

The boy "started crying when he saw the officers and said that he did not want to go to jail," according to the criminal complaint filed Wednesday.

The boy told police that he was burned in the bathtub with water by his mother, his 15-year-old sister, Felicia Mae Garlin, and the three other adults. He said his sister would laugh during the scaldings.

Police also found the body of the boy's mother, 36-year-old Tammie Garlin, buried in the back yard. The others also burned her, the boy told police.

According to statements from the defendants, Garlin died June 4 after she was kicked and dropped on her head.

A preliminary autopsy concluded she was strangled.

Garlin's body was stuffed in the trunk and buried in the back yard, where her daughter and the mother of the abducted girl planted flowers.

Charged with first-degree intentional homicide: Candice Farris, also known as Candace Clark, 23, and Michael Sisk, 25, formerly of St. Petersburg; and Michaela Clerc, 20, and Felicia Garlin, formerly of Sanford. In all, the four face 42 criminal charges including child abuse, battery and false imprisonment.

Authorities said Sisk and Farris were boyfriend and girlfriend and Clerc and Tammie Garlin had been lesbian partners for five years.

In the last year, the group lived in Florida, Maine, Tennessee, Kentucky and Colorado. They moved to Wisconsin in February to "see snow," the complaint said.

James Garlin, 62, of Counce, Tenn., said his daughter met her housemates through Internet chat rooms for lesbians. He said she led a troubled life but seemed fine when she visited him in September.

"The last I saw her," he said, "she was content, happy."

There were red flags

In Florida, several opportunities were missed -- or delayed -- to ensure the safety of at least two, and possibly three, of the children living in the house.

The state's involvement with Farris began Feb. 21, 2006, when Clearwater police arrested her and Sisk after they cashed a $250 forged check, reports said.

Sisk was charged with forgery and Farris, who was pregnant and using another woman's name, with identity theft.

Her eldest daughter, Courtney, was taken into protective custody and placed under the supervision of the Safe Children Coalition, part of the Sarasota Family YMCA, which has a contract with DCF.

Farris and her child were reunited despite 23 outstanding warrants in Kentucky.

On July 21, Farris was arrested on identity theft and fraud charges.

At the recommendation of Farris, Courtney was placed in the Lake County home of Cynthia Martell, who is Clerc's mother. The placement of the girl with Martell, who is not a licensed foster parent, has raised more questions.

It is also unclear why the coalition did not take custody of an infant born after Farris' February arrest.

On Sept. 23, authorities said Farris persuaded Martell to return Courtney, but Martell didn't report it to a caseworker for 10 days.

Instead of reporting the girl's disappearance to police within 24 hours, which is required by DCF rules, the caseworker sought a juvenile pickup order, or warrant. She sent it to Colorado police, where Farris had a court hearing set for Oct. 27.

Lake County sheriff's officials criticized the caseworker's failure to report the girl's disappearance to Florida police for four months.

Both the coalition and Directions for Mental Health in Pinellas County, the agency employing the caseworker, said they thought the pickup order was enough. They also believed Farris would show up for her Colorado court appearance, but officials there said she did not.

"It was not a question of lack of follow through," said Tom Riggs, president of Directions. "It was complicated by a number of jurisdictional system issues."

Riggs said the caseworker also had problems entering the missing girl's information into the state's computerized tracking system without a police report.

What also is unclear is why the state's computerized system didn't alert the coalition or DCF into further action.

The coalition sent a sheriff's deputy to Martell's home in August. But the computerized system, HomeSafeNet, showed the girl was not visited monthly after that time.

Andy Ritter, DCF spokesman in Tampa, declined to give specifics on the case.

"When a child is not seen for 30 days or 60 days, clearly that's a red flag," he said. "But the child may not necessarily be missing. It just means they weren't visited."

Information from the Associated Press and WBAY was used in this report. Times researcher John Martin contributed to this report. Melanie Ave can be reached at mave@sptimes.com or 727 893-8813.

[Last modified June 21, 2007, 00:05:21]