Janessa Danielle Aguirre

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Remembering Janessa

Janessa Danielle Aguirre was just two years old. She had been placed in foster care with Marcias and Michael Reinhold, a couple who were preparing to adopt her. Janessa had lived in their home since March 1996, and people involved in her life believed she had found a permanent family. Her biological grandmother later recalled visiting Janessa in the Reinhold home and believing that the little girl was loved and adored there. The adoption process was nearly complete. During a caseworker's visit in October 1997, the family was reportedly celebrating the approaching adoption. Janessa was supposed to be approaching the beginning of a new chapter. Instead, less than two months later, she was dead.

Janessa's Story

On December 15, 1997, Marcias Reinhold called 911 seeking medical help for Janessa.

She initially claimed she had left the toddler alone in the bathtub and returned to find Janessa submerged in the water with a telephone cord around her neck. But Janessa's injuries told a very different story. 

Paramedics found her without a pulse and not breathing. She was rushed to Providence Alaska Medical Center, where doctors discovered catastrophic injuries. Janessa had severe head trauma and a subdural hematoma. Her pupils were fixed and dilated, and an examination revealed extensive retinal hemorrhaging and swollen optic nerves—findings doctors considered consistent with severe abuse. Her body contained numerous injuries of different ages.Her face had also been severely burned. Investigators determined that Marcias Reinhold had held a hot hair dryer against Janessa's face, leaving distinctive patterned burns described as resembling brands. Contemporary reporting stated that her face had been burned with the dryer multiple times. Janessa's mouth and chin had also been scalded after she was given food that was dangerously hot. Eventually, Reinhold's account changed. She admitted becoming angry and knocking Janessa from a chair, causing the little girl's head to strike a concrete floor. She described becoming frustrated while trying to examine Janessa afterward and holding a hair dryer against her face to make her stay still. She later broke and discarded the hair dryer. In another incident, after Janessa threw a bottle containing a hot oatmeal mixture that had burned her mouth, Reinhold picked the toddler up and threw her onto the floor. An internal child welfare review later revealed still more injuries. Janessa's body was covered in bruises at different stages of healing. Her heel appeared to have been pinched with a tool, possibly pliers, and she had suffered a broken arm weeks or possibly months earlier.

Janessa never regained consciousness. She died early the following morning, December 16, 1997, from her head injuries.

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Warning Signs & System Failures

Janessa's death prompted Alaska's Division of Family and Youth Services to conduct an internal review of its handling of her foster placement. What that review found deserves to be part of her story. A number of workers had experienced what the agency later characterized as vague concerns or uneasiness about Marcias and Michael Reinhold. At one point, officials decided that the Reinholds should not receive additional young foster children. But that restriction was never put in writing. Because another worker did not know about it, a sick and frequently crying baby was placed in the Reinhold home on December 12, 1997—only days before Janessa was fatally injured. The state's review found problems including poor communication between workers, excessive caseloads that made monitoring children's safety difficult, and reliance on foster parents who were not always adequately equipped for the demands placed upon them. The agency acknowledged failures in Janessa's case, although officials maintained that they could not have predicted the extreme violence that ultimately killed her. There is another particularly painful fact. A citizen review panel had examined Janessa's case in May 1997 and found no problems with her foster placement. Janessa was a child already in state custody. She had been removed from one home so that adults entrusted with her care could keep her safe. Her foster home was supposed to be that safe place.

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Justice for Janessa

Marcias Reinhold was initially charged with second-degree murder and assault. A grand jury later indicted her on first- and second-degree murder charges, four felony assault counts, and evidence tampering. She ultimately pleaded no contest to second-degree murder. Marcias Reinhold was sentenced to 75 years in prison for killing Janessa. Her sentence was upheld on direct appeal, and a later attempt to obtain post-conviction relief was also rejected by the Alaska Court of Appeals in 2006.

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Person convicted: Marcias Z. Reinhold
Relationship to Janessa: Foster mother/prospective adoptive mother
Conviction: Second-degree murder
Sentence: 75 years imprisonment

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Michael Reinhold was also prosecuted. He was originally charged with manslaughter for failing to protect Janessa. He later pleaded no contest to criminally negligent homicide. A judge sentenced him to two years, with one year suspended, plus five years of probation. Prosecutors stated that although Michael did not physically inflict Janessa's injuries, he should have recognized what was happening and protected her. Failing to protect a child who is being abused matters, and his legal responsibility shouldn't disappear from Janessa's story simply because Marcias inflicted the fatal violence.

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Forever Remembered

Janessa's story is particularly painful because she was already a child the system had stepped in to protect.

She was placed in foster care. Adults were assigned to oversee her safety. A family was preparing to adopt her. By all appearances, Janessa was approaching the moment when foster care would end and she would finally have a permanent home. Instead, the home that was supposed to protect her became the place where her life ended. But Janessa was more than a foster child, more than an internal review, and more than the injuries documented after her death. Her name was Janessa Danielle Aguirre. She was a two year old little girl whose grandmother remembered seeing her loved and adored. She deserved for that love and safety to have been real, permanent, and unconditional. Janessa's death ultimately forced Alaska officials to examine weaknesses in the foster-care system. Those lessons matter but they came at a cost that Janessa never should have had to pay. Abuse Angels remembers Janessa, tells the truth about what happened to her, and honors the little girl whose foster home was supposed to be her sanctuary.​​​​​