DCFS accused of failing to protect boys

The state Division of Child and Family Services did nothing to safeguard the Cannistraci brothers in their childhood home despite complaints of mistreatment going back a decade, a state report says.

Furthermore, the Utah Department of Human Services Child Fatality Review Committee expressed "deep concern" over their half brother, who remained in the home after their deaths.

Brandon and Stephen Cannistraci took their own lives July 30, 2004, and Sept. 13, 2004, respectively.

As part of an investigation into their deaths, Deseret Morning News reporters found a document that lambasts DCFS inaction during the boys' formative years in East Carbon. And follow-up with DCFS in recent weeks shows recommendations to protect another child after the Cannistraci brothers' suicides went unheeded.

The child fatality review committee evaluates all child deaths in which the family received DCFS services in the previous year. It critiques the division's performance and makes recommendations for improvement. Members include representatives from the attorney general's office, the guardian ad litem, the Office of Education and Department of Human Services.

The committee evaluated the Cannistraci case in February 2005.

"If ever a family was in need of community supports and services, it is this one," the report states.

But it didn't get any.

The Utah Department of Human Services would not comment specifically about the Cannistraci case.

Spokeswoman Carol Sisco said DCFS has changed the way it evaluates families, though not as a result of the Cannistraci case. Caseworkers focus more on the underlying needs of parents and children.

"We look at how the entire family is functioning and what their capabilities are," she said.

Until moving to Moab with their father during high school, Brandon and Stephen and their two half brothers lived with their mother and her various boyfriends in East Carbon.

DCFS received at least a dozen referrals for physical abuse, drug and alcohol abuse, domestic violence and neglect in the home starting in 1993.

"Their mother has attempted to commit suicide on several occasions," according to the report. "However, it does not appear that the boys received any mental health services, other than a mental health assessment in 1996, to help them work through the abuse they have witnessed and experienced."