The state’s child welfare agency was alerted to problems before a massive shooting spree claimed the lives of six children ages 2 months to 11 years old. (Photo via Tony Webster/ Creative Commons)
By Ashley Lopez
Florida Center for Investigative Reporting
Tragic news surfaced this week that a 51-year-old man in Bell, Florida, killed his daughter and her six children. The incident highlights ongoing issues with Florida’s Department of Children and Families (DCF). According to reports, DCF had been alerted to problems in the family about two weeks before the deadly killing spree.
The grandfatehr, Donald Spirit, called emergency operators to report his crimes.
According to the Associated Press,
[Spirit] placed the call Thursday from his mobile home in the rural north Florida town of Bell after killing his daughter, 28-year-old Sarah Spirit, and her six children: Kaleb Kuhlmann, 11; Kylie Kuhlmann, 9; Johnathon Kuhlmann, 8; Destiny Stewart, 5; Brandon Stewart, 4; and Alanna Stewart, who was born in June.
…Inside the mobile home, the bodies of the six children were scattered. The bodies of Spirit and his daughter were found in different areas outside the home.
The sheriff’s office and Florida Department of Law Enforcement said they released the 911 recording because they are in the final stages of the investigation.
Spirit used a .45-caliber handgun, and the FDLE and the sheriff’s office have said they are looking into how he obtained a gun. As a felon, he was barred from oONwning firearms.
Spirit eventually shot himself following a short exchange with local law enforcement.
The killings shook up the very small town of Bell, which is located about 40 miles west of Gainesville.
Among the most shocking aspects about this incident is that state officials knew there were problems at the Spirit household right before the shooting.
According to the AP and The Miami Herald, child protective services were aware both Spirit and his daughter had several run-ins with the law, as well as persistent substance abuse issues. In fact, DCF had been in contact with the family just two weeks before the shootings.
The Herald’s Carol Marbin Miller and Audra Burch reported:
The Spirit family that child welfare investigators confronted two weeks ago presented a volatile mix: two drug-abusing adults, six small children and a history of violence. It exploded Thursday when Don Charles Spirit killed his daughter and six grandchildren one by one.
The killing spree in tiny Bell, Florida, is believed to be the largest loss of life in a single family with a child welfare history ever in Florida. And records show authorities knew there were risks.
On Sept. 1, Florida child protection investigators received a report on the youngsters over the Department of Children & Families’ abuse hotline. They were told that the children of Sarah Spirit, 28, were living with drug abusers. During the investigation that followed, Spirit told the agency she had just been released from jail after violating probation by testing positive for illegal substances. At the time, she was living with her father, a 51-year-old man with a record of violence who had once gone to prison for fatally shooting his son in a hunting accident.
The probe of the hotline report was still open last week when Spirit shot his daughter and her six children — ages 11 years to 2 months — before turning a gun on himself as Gilchrist County Sheriff’s deputies arrived. A DCF report offered no details on its handling of the two-week-old hotline call.
Earlier this year, Miller and Burch took on a massive public records project that chronicled 477 child deaths, which occurred under DCF’s watch from 2008 to November 2013. The Herald’s “Innocents Lost” series is a heartbreaking and thorough look at the state’s troubled child welfare system.
Even though the Herald’s stories prompted changes from the Florida Legislature this year, there are still problems.
According to a public records request made by Miller and Burch, the Spirit family “had a long history of failed child protection efforts.” The Herald reported:
Allegations concerning Spirit’s parenting ran the gamut: drug abuse, medical neglect, poor supervision of her children, and domestic violence, including fights with her father. Don Spirit had a DCF history also, including an allegation of “the physical abuse of his grandchildren.” Don Spirit, DCF was told, “hit one of them with a belt, which resulted in bruising.”
Sarah Spirit’s history with DCF dates to at least 2007, when the agency first offered her “voluntary” services in an effort to improve her parenting. The agency offered help to her two more times, in 2012 and the following year. “It does not appear that services were ever fully engaged in the latter year,” the latest incident report said.
Don Spirit’s history with DCF included allegations that he physically abused both his children and grandchildren, as well as at least one report of domestic violence between him and his daughter.
From 1990 to 1996, while Don Spirit was living in Hillsborough County, he was arrested and charged at least seven times with a mix of misdemeanors and felonies. The charges included battery, drug possession and depriving a child of food and shelter.
In 2001, Spirit accidentally shot his 8-year-old son, Kyle, in the head during a hunting trip in Osceola County, killing him instantly.
One of the main points the “Innocents Lost” series highlighted was that the state had been maintaining a policy that kept children with their parents, even when there were signs that proximity to parents presented grave harm.
The policy was aimed at keeping families together while also saving the state money.
In response to the series, state lawmakers passed legislation that would increase transparency about DCF cases involving child deaths. The bills also imposed more accountability on other agencies involved in taking care of these vulnerable children. Part of the legislation created a program that gave incentives to DCF staff for obtaining social work degrees– another provision created rapid-response teams to conduct immediate investigations of child deaths. Lastly, lawmakers funded additional child protective investigators in order to lower caseloads.
However, the tragedy at Bell shows that despite the changes, there are still problems at DCF.