"When any person has reason to believe that a child has been subjected to physical abuse or neglect, or who observes a child being subjected to conditions or circumstances which would reasonably result in physical abuse or neglect, they are required to immediately notify the nearest peace officer, law enforcement agency or office of the Division of Child and Family Services." — Utah Code 62A-4a-403(1)

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At the end of 1994, child protective services workers were questioned about their involvement with Flemal.

Richard Anderson, then DCFS northern region director and now head of the state agency, said the division did everything it could for the girl and was not slow to respond to complaints of abuse and neglect.

"We didn't have evidence that Courtney Jo's abuse had come to the level where we could remove her," Anderson told Deseret Morning News reporter Amy Joi Bryson, who then worked for the Ogden Standard-Examiner. "We have actually responded appropriately each time we had a referral."

No social workers were disciplined in the case.

The agency received its first complaint regarding Courtney Jo and her mother in fall 1991. Flemal was leaving the toddler alone while she stayed out all night. She would then sleep all day and wouldn't watch the girl.

A second complaint of neglect was made in March 1993. The home was not clean, but Flemal brought the home up to standards within 30 days, and the case was closed.

A third complaint was made with the agency in November 1993 alleging Courtney Jo had been beaten until she was bruised. DCFS workers were shown pictures of hand-shaped bruises on the child, but they were alleged to have happened several months earlier, so Anderson said the agency couldn't do anything.

After a recent review of the case, a DCFS spokeswoman maintained the agency did all it could at the time.

"When you go hindsight, you always think, I wish we would have done this . . . ," said Megan Wiesen, a DCFS spokeswoman. Each time the workers went out on the complaints, they were unable to substantiate the neglect or abuse, or that Flemal fixed the problem. "At the time, looking at just what the workers did. They couldn't find anything, and the child couldn't talk."

There was only one reference to drug use in the DCFS reports, she said.

But DCFS practices are different now from what they were in the early 1990s, Wiesen said. A social worker today might take note of a parent sleeping all day, the filthy house, the people cycling through the home and ask Flemal about drug use. "But if a parent says, 'No, I don't use,' a judge won't court order (a drug test) unless there is really strong evidence," Wiesen said.

Minor and other detectives who went to the house said Flemal and her lifestyle certainly presented strong evidence of meth use.

Flemal had bad teeth, bad skin and sores from the relentless picking common among meth users. She was twitchy, fidgety, paranoid.

The house was filthy — with cat feces, dishes, clothes and trash everywhere.