FAIRMONT, W.Va. – Two Child Welfare Services workers have been fired and are also charged in connection of the abuse-related death of a 4-year-old child on March 4 in Marion County.
Breeana Bizub, 25, and Tabetha Phillips-Friend, 44, have been charged with involuntary manslaughter and failure to report child abuse to law enforcement. Both turned themselves into police on Friday.
The Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) released the following statement Monday:
“The West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources is devastated by the tragic death of this 4-year-old Marion County child. The two CPS workers involved in the case are no longer employed by DHHR. Further details cannot be provided as the investigation continues.”
When the toddler was taken to Ruby Memorial Hospital he was placed on life support and doctors identified more than 50 injuries to his body, including missing teeth, bruises on his arms, and a shoe print-shaped bruise on his right shoulder. By March 8, the toddler’s brain function had ceased.
Guardian of the boy, Walter Richardson, 33, was charged with first-degree murder. Ashlee Allen, mother of the child, was charged with death of a child by abuse because police day she had knowledge of previous abuse events.