REMEMBERING JAZZMIN

Jazzmin Escobar was only three years old when her life ended on February 25, 2009. She was a little girl growing up in Colorado alongside her siblings, surrounded by a family that had struggled for years. Long before Jazzmin was old enough to understand those struggles, adults outside the family were already raising concerns about the safety and well being of the children around her. Jazzmin was still at an age when the world should have been small and safe. At three years old, she should have been playing, learning, laughing, and depending completely on the adults around her to keep her from harm. Instead, Jazzmin suffered a devastating head injury while staying in the home of her uncle, Jose Cruz Zapata. She never got the chance to grow beyond three years old.

JAZZMIN’S STORY

Jazzmin’s family had a lengthy history with child protection services that began before she was born. The first referral involving the family concerned Jazzmin’s mother, who was reportedly using drugs while pregnant with one of Jazzmin’s older siblings. The allegation was not investigated further because she was still early in her second trimester. Before Jazzmin was two years old, authorities received another alarming report. Two children had been found wandering alone in the street while their mother was asleep on the couch. Police officers awakened her, a safety device was installed on the front door, and the case was eventually closed. Approximately a year later, Jazzmin’s father, Alan Escobar, contacted Arapahoe County social workers himself. He told them he needed help raising four children and reported that Jazzmin’s mother was still allegedly using drugs and had disappeared. Two of the children, Jazzmin’s half siblings, were placed in foster care. Jazzmin and her brother remained with their father under the supervision of caseworkers. Eventually, Jazzmin and her brother went to stay with their uncle, Jose Cruz Zapata. There was already reason for concern about Zapata. Approximately three months before Jazzmin died, her preschool aged older brother told a caseworker that Zapata had scratched him behind his ears and whipped him. The little boy did more than simply make an allegation. According to the account of the case, he growled and clawed his fingernails against a coffee table to demonstrate how his uncle had caused the marks. Zapata denied causing the injuries. He told the caseworker that the boy had fought with a girl at daycare and sometimes scratched his own ears. The caseworker’s assessment was labeled inconclusive. Approximately three months later, Jazzmin was dead. On February 25, 2009, Jazzmin suffered severe head trauma while at Zapata’s apartment. Zapata said that Jazzmin had fallen down the outside stairs onto a cement surface.

After the three year old suffered the devastating injury, Zapata said he placed her on a couch. Approximately 25 minutes passed before 911 was called. Jazzmin died from her injuries. The explanation that Jazzmin died following an accidental fall was not followed by criminal charges. No one was prosecuted for causing her death.

SYSTEM FAILURES

Jazzmin’s death was not preceded by silence. There had been warnings involving her family for years. Before Jazzmin was born, child protection workers had already received a referral involving alleged drug use by her mother during another pregnancy. Before Jazzmin was two, two young children were found wandering alone in the street while their mother slept. Later, Jazzmin’s own father reached out to Arapahoe County social workers and told them that he needed help caring for four children.

Two of those children were ultimately placed in foster care, while Jazzmin and her brother remained with their father under caseworker supervision. Then came one of the most troubling warnings. Only months before Jazzmin died, her older brother accused Jose Cruz Zapata of physically hurting him. The preschool aged child described being whipped and scratched behind his ears and physically demonstrated to a caseworker how he said his uncle had caused the marks. Zapata denied the allegation and offered alternative explanations for the injuries. The assessment was deemed inconclusive. Jazzmin and her brother later stayed with Zapata. Three months after her brother had described being physically hurt by the man caring for them, Jazzmin suffered fatal head trauma while in that same man’s care. After Jazzmin’s death, authorities took Zapata’s own child into protective custody. That decision left Jazzmin’s family with a painful question: if authorities believed another child required protection after Jazzmin died, why had the warnings before her death not been enough to protect Jazzmin? The history did not contain just one warning.

There were concerns about drug use. There were young children found wandering in the street. There was a father asking social workers for help. There were children placed in foster care while others remained under caseworker supervision. And there was an allegation of physical abuse involving the same uncle who would later be caring for Jazzmin when she suffered the injuries that killed her. Jazzmin’s death later became one of the cases examined as part of “Failed to Death,” an investigation into Colorado children who died after they or their families had previously come to the attention of the child protection system. For Jazzmin, every opportunity to intervene ended on February 25, 2009.

JUSTICE FOR JAZZMIN

No criminal charges were filed against Jose Cruz Zapata in connection with Jazzmin’s death. Zapata maintained that Jazzmin had fallen down the outside stairs of his apartment and landed on a cement surface. Jazzmin’s father also publicly stated that he believed his daughter’s death was an accident. Without criminal charges or a conviction establishing otherwise, Abuse Angels will not present an allegation as a proven fact. But an absence of criminal charges does not erase the circumstances surrounding Jazzmin’s death. Jazzmin suffered severe head trauma while in Zapata’s care. After she was injured, approximately 25 minutes passed before emergency help was called. Nor does it erase what had happened only months earlier, when Jazzmin’s older brother accused Zapata of physically hurting him. Jazzmin’s story therefore ended without a criminal conviction determining that another person caused her death. The questions surrounding the warnings that preceded her death, however, remained.

FOREVER REMEMBERED

Jazzmin’s story is filled with reports, referrals, investigations, caseworkers and decisions made by adults. But Jazzmin was not a referral. She was not a case number.

She was a three year old little girl. At three years old, Jazzmin could not choose where she lived, who cared for her, whether someone believed the warnings surrounding her family, or whether the adults responsible for protecting her made the right decisions. Those decisions belonged to adults. Her childhood belonged to her. Jazzmin deserved the chance to grow beyond those first three years. She deserved birthdays, school pictures, friendships, scraped knees, favorite songs, teenage years, adulthood and an entire lifetime of ordinary moments she never received. Today, we say her name because her life mattered. Abuse Angels remembers Jazzmin Escobar. Remembered. Honored. Never Forgotten.

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