Alexander Perkins

 

 

 

 

 

Alexander Perkins was five years old when he died of encopresis, a bowel disorder that develops as a result of children’s refusal to go to the bathroom. Alexander’s parents, Leon Chad and Krista Perkins, failed to follow the prescribed treatment, leading to his death in their home. Alexander’s older seven year old brother also suffered from the same disorder and spent several weeks in the hospital after Alexander’s death. Neither of the boys was potty trained, both were severely malnourished, and the family’s house was filthy and stunk of diarrhea and vomit. The boy’s mother Krista, had a chronic illness and often did not wake until the afternoon. The boys’ bedroom had a lock on the outside and could not be opened from the inside. 

 

About five months before Alexander died, a Teller County child-protective staffer was warned that two children, ages five and seven, were wearing diapers and not attending school. After determining that the Perkins family had enrolled their children to be home schooled, the caseworker declined to investigate further because the staffer decided there was “no information available from reporter of abuse and neglect as defined by law.” The caseworker should have paid more attention to the fact the children were wearing diapers and changing their own diapers in addition to focusing on whether they were registered for home schooling. A home check would have revealed a home that a sergeant with the Teller County Sheriff’s Department later described as “disgusting,” jammed with plastic bags with vomit and dirty diapers and food. The caseworker also would have found that the children’s bedroom had been rigged so it could be locked from the outside and there was no way for a child to open it from inside the room. Finally, the caseworker would have found two brothers who were malnourished and a fraction of the weight children their age normally are. The autopsy revealed a severe diaper rash on Alexander’s buttocks. A bowel obstruction of fecal matter “hard as a rock” and the “size of a baseball” caused his death.

 

Alexander’s brother was placed in foster care, where he was quickly potty trained and began to grow and gain weight. Child-abuse charges against Alexander’s mother, Krista Perkins, and father, Leon Chad Perkins, were dismissed. Leon Chad and Krista Perkins were not charged in Alexander’s death, partly because of a coroner who sought to block the investigation. Instead, they were given a number of requirements to meet in order to regain custody of Alexander’s brother.

 

 

 

 

 

http://childfatalities.denverpost.com/#id=44&name=PerkinsAlexander