Child welfare workers in Utah were alerted as early as 1983 to possible abuse of a boy who eventually died after being chained and starved in his family's home, a newspaper reported here.
A teacher's aide in Clearfield told authorities in 1983 she suspected that Stephen Jay Hill, then a 5-year-old kindergartner, was being deprived of food, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported Sunday in a copyright story.Stephen, 13, died last November about two weeks after he was found chained to a cabinet in the family's trailer in White Settlement. He weighed only 55 pounds and was comatose when found.
The boy's parents, Jay and Linda Hill, have been indicted by a Tarrant County grand jury on murder, kidnapping and child abuse charges. Their murder trials are scheduled to begin this summer.
Police records in Utah show that two child abuse complaints were filed against the Hills before they moved to Texas in 1985. One of the complaints was unsubstantiated and the other was "substantiated but not prosecuted," rec-ords indicate.
The newspaper said it was unable to determine whether any legal action was taken against the Hills by Utah authorities.
Tarrant County district attorney David Montague, who is prosecuting the case, declined to comment on the newspaper's discoveries.
Charles Baldwin, an attorney for Linda Hill, said he had seen complaints filed by the teacher's aide, Anne Barlow, and he expects her to testify in the murder trial.
"Maybe Anne Barlow was right," Baldwin said. "But none of the official people did anything about it."
Barlow said she first suspected Stephen was being abused when he went to school with a cut lip.
"When I asked what happened, he said, `Mommy hit me with a belt. She didn't mean to. I'm just bad,' " Barlow said.
She said she also witnessed a confrontation between Stephen and Linda Hill outside the school, where the mother sat in her car while making the boy remain outside.
"She grabbed him by the ear, making him run alongside the car while she drove, yelling, `You better run faster.' And she kind of speeded up the car," Barlow said.
The aide said at least five complaints to Utah child welfare workers yielded little results. She said caseworkers told her they could only advise counseling for the Hills.
"The system let Stevie down," she said. "It's tragic and it never should have happened. If people had intervened that many years ago, Stevie might have been alive today."
Carl Peterson, then the principal at Holt Elementary School in Clearfield said he also noticed signs that Stephen was being abused. He said he violated strict orders the parents gave not to feed the boy at school.
"He said he didn't get any breakfast," Peterson said. "I would take him down to the cafeteria and get him a little food to tide him over until lunch . . . I made sure that boy got fed."
Several Fort Worth school officials claim to have notified Child Protective Services in 1987 that Stephen's younger brother, Douglas, was being abused. A friend of the Hills also said she told a CPS caseworker in 1989 that Stephen appeared unusually thin.
But CPS officials in Tarrant County have said they can't locate any complaints regarding the Hills.
Douglas, 12, has been placed in state custody since his brother's death. Officials said that although Douglas also was underweight, he was in good condition.
When the parents were first arrested, they told police they chained Stephen because he was a discipline problem.