Police: 5-year-old girl's abuse by custodial dad, step not reported (Muncie, Indiana)

This article is typical of the obfuscation that accompanies articles on abusive fathers. Obviously, the father must have been custodial for this 5-year-old girl to have died of malnutrition and abuse. Otherwise, at minimum, her mother would have been cited for child neglect.

INVISIBLE MOTHER ALERT: And speaking of this girl's mother, notice that there is NO MENTION OF A MOTHER AT ALL. Is she alive, dead? It is truly alarming how the woman who must have given birth to the child in question is written out of the story entirely. You would think this child materialized out of the air or something. Left completely unexplained, then, is how and why this child ended up in the home of her father and the new step. Also rendered invisible are any social service agencies or family courts that allowed this father to assume custody--assuming the mother is alive. Which, of course, we don't know because she has been rendered invisible.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-in-malnutritiondeath,0,5935340.story

Police: signs of dead girl's abuse not reported

10:44 a.m. CDT, June 16, 2010

MUNCIE, Ind. — Muncie police are investigating why several medical workers who treated a 5-year-old girl who later died of malnutrition and possible abuse didn't contact child welfare officials as required by law.

Police Sgt. Jimmy Gibson tells The Star Press that Lauren McConniel was taken at least seven times to hospitals or other health providers in the months before her March 9 death, but no report was made to Child Protective Services until two days before her final hospitalization.

Her father and stepmother, Ryan and Brittany McConniel, were arrested Friday on felony neglect charges. They appeared in court Tuesday, after which relatives denied the couple abused the girl.

Lauren spent six days at Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis before her death being treated for what doctors called extreme malnutrition and injuries all over her body.

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Information from: The Star Press, http://www.thestarpress.com