HOUSTON — A new report released this week by Child Protective Services details years of investigations leading up to the death of 8-year-old Kendrick Lee.
In the 12 page Child Fatality Information Report, there are nine investigations listed into the family since 2015.
“To me it really cemented this idea, they were seeing this family, but they were doing nothing," said Dr. Bob Sanborn, President and CEO of Children At Risk. “It’s completely underfunded and understaffed and so it manifests itself with the death of a child."
Lee’s body was discovered inside a west Harris County apartment in October of last year after one of his siblings called 911. When deputies arrived, they found three brothers ages 15, 10 and 7. They had been living with their dead brother for almost a year.
Their mother, Gloria Williams, and her boyfriend, Brian Coulter, were arrested and charged in connection with his death.
“One of the assessments was the kids were fine after an investigation and I thought, these kids are not fine," said Dr. Sanborn.
The report lays out nine times CPS launched investigations into the family but only twice were the allegations confirmed.
The first in 2015, CPS found the mother’s ex-boyfriend at the time abused a child, leaving “marks and bruises” from physical discipline.
The second in 2020, CPS found the mother committed “medical neglectful supervision” after one of her children threatened to take her own life and attacked police officers.
“If we care about the entirety of our children in our city, we need to start caring about this system and this is a completely broken system, it has to change or we are going to have more Kendricks," said Dr. Sanborn.