REMEMBERING TI-RYN

Ti-Ryn Keith Emery was only five months old. He had barely begun his life when the adults and systems surrounding him became caught in a dispute over who would care for him. At five months old, Ti-Ryn could not tell anyone where he wanted to be. He could not explain if he was frightened or hurt. He depended completely on adults to recognize danger and protect him from it. His mother, Rachael Emery, would later speak publicly about her son and about the efforts she made to get him returned to her before his death. Ti-Ryn should have been growing through his first year, learning to sit, crawl, recognize familiar faces and eventually take his first steps. Instead, he became the center of a case that would later be examined as an example of failures within Washington's child protection system. Ti-Ryn lived for five months. Those five months were his entire lifetime. And before his name became associated with CPS records, criminal charges and court proceedings, Ti-Ryn Emery was a baby whose life belonged to him.

TI-RYN'S STORY

In September 2010, Ti-Ryn's mother allowed Michael Vanderveer, a man then believed to be Ti-Ryn's father, to have contact with the baby. There was no established parenting plan between them. According to the history preserved on Ti-Ryn's original Abuse Angels page, Vanderveer took Ti-Ryn on September 8 and then refused to return him to his mother. Rachael filed for a parenting plan on September 11. A court hearing was scheduled for October 11. Ti-Ryn would not live long enough to reach that hearing. During the weeks Ti-Ryn remained with Vanderveer, his mother tried to get help. She contacted police and Child Protective Services. Documents later examined in an investigation of Washington CPS showed that police characterized the situation as a custody dispute. CPS did not investigate despite Rachael's attempts to get someone to intervene. Rachael later said that she even asked that Ti-Ryn be placed temporarily in CPS care until the dispute could be resolved. Then another warning came. Just two days before Ti-Ryn was hospitalized, a Head Start worker contacted CPS because she was concerned about him. According to the CPS documents, the worker felt that her concerns were dismissed. Soon afterward, Ti-Ryn was critically injured while in Vanderveer's care. Vanderveer called 911 and reported that the baby was not breathing. He told emergency responders that Ti-Ryn had been sleeping on a couch during the night. According to his account, he heard a thud and discovered that Ti-Ryn had fallen from the couch. Vanderveer said he put the baby into a crib afterward and discovered the following morning that Ti-Ryn was not breathing. Ti-Ryn was taken for emergency medical treatment and ultimately treated at Mary Bridge Children's Hospital in Tacoma. Doctors discovered devastating injuries to his head. The medical evidence did not support Vanderveer's explanation that Ti-Ryn had simply fallen from a couch. Vanderveer was arrested.

During the criminal case, he admitted that he had shaken Ti-Ryn. Ti-Ryn's injuries were unsurvivable. On October 5, 2010, he was declared brain dead. His mother was there when doctors removed him from life support. She held her baby as his heart stopped. Ti-Ryn Keith Emery was five months old.

WARNING SIGNS & SYSTEM FAILURES

Ti-Ryn's case contains some of the clearest documented warning signs of any child whose story appears on Abuse Angels. This was not a situation in which authorities first learned that a baby might be in danger after he was already dead. Before Ti-Ryn suffered his fatal injuries, his mother had contacted authorities. She reported that Vanderveer had taken her son and would not return him. She raised concerns about Ti-Ryn's safety. She asked CPS for help. According to records later reviewed during an investigation into Washington's child protection system, police told CPS that the adults were involved in a custody dispute. CPS did not investigate. Rachael later described asking CPS to take Ti-Ryn into protective care temporarily while the courts determined what should happen. Then, only two days before Ti-Ryn was hospitalized, a Head Start worker also contacted CPS because of concerns about the infant. That concern did not result in Ti-Ryn being removed from Vanderveer's care either. The court process was moving forward. A parenting plan had been filed. A hearing had been scheduled for October 11. But the timetable of the court system and the timetable of an endangered infant were tragically different. Ti-Ryn died six days before that hearing. Later reporting on Washington's CPS system specifically highlighted Ti-Ryn's case while examining children who died after coming to the attention of the child protection system. There had been opportunities to intervene. There had been requests for help. There had been more than one person expressing concern. And Ti-Ryn was still left in the environment where he suffered his fatal injuries.

JUSTICE FOR TI-RYN

Michael Vanderveer was arrested after doctors determined that Ti-Ryn's catastrophic head injuries were inconsistent with his explanation that the baby had fallen from a couch. During the case, Vanderveer admitted shaking Ti-Ryn and ultimately pleaded guilty to manslaughter. He received the maximum sentence available under the plea agreement: 27 months in prison. According to information later provided to the original Abuse Angels page by Ti-Ryn's mother, Vanderveer served approximately 16 months of that sentence. After Ti-Ryn's death, it was also determined that Vanderveer was not Ti-Ryn's biological father.

Michael Vanderveer

Relationship to Ti-Ryn: Mother's former boyfriend who was initially believed to be Ti-Ryn's father

Conviction: Manslaughter

Sentence: 27 months in prison

FOREVER REMEMBERED

There is a particularly painful question at the center of Ti-Ryn's story. What happens when a mother says her baby may be in danger and the people with the authority to intervene view the situation primarily as a dispute between adults? For Ti-Ryn, there would never be an opportunity to find out what might have happened at the October 11 court hearing. He never reached it. Years later, his story resurfaced during an investigation into Washington's child protection system. Hundreds of child death reports were reviewed, and Ti-Ryn's case became one of those used to demonstrate how delays, missed warnings and failures to investigate could leave vulnerable children in danger. His mother was left with a reality no parent should have to carry. She had asked for help before her son died. She had asked for someone to protect him. Another concerned adult had spoken up as well. And still, Ti-Ryn was not protected in time. His story is therefore more than the story of what Michael Vanderveer did to a five month old baby. It is also a reminder that when someone raises a credible concern about the safety of a child, especially a child too young to speak for himself, that concern deserves to be taken seriously. Ti-Ryn could not make that call. He could not ask to be taken somewhere safe. Other people tried to do that for him. He deserved for someone with the power to intervene to listen. Abuse Angels remembers Ti-Ryn Keith Emery, the five month old baby who should have had an entire lifetime ahead of him. We remember Ti-Ryn. We speak his name. And Ti-Ryn Keith Emery will not be forgotten.