LAFAYETTE, Colo.-
Although police visited the home of Linda Damm at least six times in the year before she was killed, Boulder County social services apparently was not informed of the problems they found.
Paul McKey, director of Boulder County social services, conducted an intensive search but never found any police referrals on Tess Damm, the Rocky Mountain News reported Saturday.
The 15-year-old Tess, daughter of Linda, is one of three teens being held in her death in February.
“In this case we could find no referral,” said Barb Halpin, a spokeswoman for Boulder County. At least two police reports said social services should interfere because Tess was out of control and her mother apparently an alcoholic.
Lafayette Police Chief Paul Schultz and Cmdr. Rick Bashor, the department’s spokesman, did not return messages left at their offices Friday.
“We’ve seen the police reports,” Halpin said. “We’ve seen that their intention was to pass it along. Something broke down somewhere.”
“If they have been involved that much in the criminal justice system and no one has done any assessments or started to provide intervention for them, then that is a huge, gaping hole in our criminal justice and social services systems,” said Bill Woodward of the University of Colorado’s Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence.
“The system absolutely did fail,” said Mary Ellen Johnson of the Pendulum Foundation, a group that advocates more lenient treatment of juveniles suspected of serious crimes. “This could have been prevented, and it wasn’t.”
Damm’s body was found stuffed in the back of her Subaru, after a failed attempt to bury her in a cemetery, according to court records. Officers responding to an anonymous call Feb. 27 found her decomposing body in the car parked in the garage of her Lafayette home.
Her daughter’s boyfriend, 17-year-old Bryan Grove, has been charged in her killing.
Tess Damm and Jared Guy, 18, face charges of being accessories.
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Information from: Rocky Mountain News,
