Foster mom is jailed after toddler dies

WEST VALLEY CITY — A foster mother who had an 18-month-old boy die while in her care was booked into the Salt Lake County Jail Friday for investigation of criminal homicide and child abuse.

Jeannette Gomez, 30, was arrested after detectives interviewed her late Thursday night.

Salt Lake County prosecutors were reviewing the case with police Friday afternoon. If charges are filed, it likely will be Monday, Deputy District Attorney Kent Morgan said.

The boy was pronounced dead Thursday morning at Primary Children's Medical Center. Police were called to the foster house near 3400 South and 6400 West the night before. Gomez told police the boy had fallen out of his crib, West Valley Police Capt. Craig Black said.

The State Medical Examiner's Office has conducted an autopsy, but the results will not be known until the final report is completed, he said. On Friday, Black would only say that the boy did have some visible injuries.

Division of Child and Family Services executive director Richard Anderson said he could not remember the last time a child died in foster care in Utah. The division has a fatality review board that meets monthly to evaluate the deaths of any children who have received recent services from DCFS.

Of the approximately 2,800 children who move in and out of DCFS custody each year, a very small percentage are victims of abuse or neglect while in foster care, Anderson said. Federal child welfare guidelines assume that some children will suffer abuse and have set an "acceptability" threshold of .57 percent of the total foster care population, Anderson explained. Statistically, Utah consistently falls well below that standard, he said.

Anderson said DCFS staff is devastated by the death of the 18-month-old boy. The boy and his 5-year-old sister were originally placed in DCFS custody — and the Gomez home — last February, DCFS spokeswoman Carol Sisco said. A short time later the children, who are members of the Ute Tribe, were moved to the Uinta Basin because the tribe sought their custody. The pair were later returned to the Salt Lake Valley and to DCFS so that their biological mother could visit them, Sisco said. They were again placed with the Gomez family.

The couple's West Valley neighbors said Friday they had little interaction with the family. The family had only lived in the neighborhood since sometime last summer and were rarely seen outside, said Karen Frame, who lives across the street. Some said that they had seen the couple's two biological children in the yard with their father but were unaware that any other children were in the home.