Mom who starved Autistic teen to death gets 11 years

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Katiria Tirado, the Hartford woman whose 17-year-old autistic son Matthew had withered to 84 pounds and showed signs of long-term physical abuse at the time of his death, was sentenced Tuesday to 11 years in prison, bringing to a close a case that put a critical focus on the Department of Children and Families and its perceived lack of intervention.

Tirado was sentenced to 17 years in prison, suspended after she serves 11 years, and five years probation. The sentence was part of a plea agreement.

The 34-year-old Hartford woman pleaded guilty in March under the Alford doctrine to first-degree manslaughter for the February 2017 death of her son, Matthew Tirado, who had severe intellectual disabilities and autism.

The boy’s death prompted a monthslong investigation by the Office of the Child Advocate that resulted in a blistering report about systemic shortcomings.

Although Katiria Tirado was on the state’s child abuse registry and Matthew had not been to school for months, DCF closed its case with the Tirados in January 2017 — one month before the teen died at Hartford Hospital, weighing just 84 pounds with signs of prolonged abuse, Child Advocate Sarah Eagan reported. He had not been seen by caseworkers once in the nine-month period.

Tirado maintains that she did not starve her son, but acknowledges she failed to get him medical attention in a timely manner, he said. Tirado declined to make a statement to the judge.

Hartford State’s Attorney Gail P. Hardy outlined the horrifying facts of the case, including that Matthew had a stomachache and had been vomiting for 24 hours when his mother called an ambulance, that the medical crew was immediately struck by the boy’s physical condition and notified DCF, that Matthew died hours later at Hartford Hospital and that an autopsy revealed the cause of death as “fatal child abuse syndrome with dehydration and malnutrition.” Tirado had chained the refrigerator and kitchen cabinets closed to prevent Matthew from getting food, then when asked why he was so thin would say he had high metabolism, Hardy said.

The judge noted that Katiria Tirado was limited. She was a high school dropout and has “extremely low” intellectual function.

“Ms. Tirado’s intellectual limitations and becoming a single parent at a very young age coupled with her son’s significant cognitive impairments created a perfect storm for Matthew’s untimely death,” Baldini said.

The case also highlights the need for state and local agencies to communicate better. DCF had been involved with the family for some time, but closed its case shortly before Matthew’s death. The Hartford public school system recommended to Tirado that she take her son for medical and psychiatric treatment. Her response, despite her lack of education, was to remove her son from the public school system to home-school him.

Issues about Matthew’s life were buried in DCF records and the last DCF social worker to handle the case was unaware of fundamental information that would have provided a clearer picture of the danger level, such as the depth of Matthew’s helplessness, according to Eagan’s lengthy report on his death released in December. The teen was autistic and did not talk.

Eagan reported that Matthew’s sister had told DCF social workers that Matthew was being hit at home, and the investigation revealed Matthew had been to school little in the five years leading up to his death.

“Matthew’s vulnerability to harm was missed here,” Eagan told The Courant in an interview when the report was released.

Hardy also referenced Eagan’s review of state departments: “It was obviously too late for Matthew Tirado. Hopefully it will be a review that can help save another child.”

Following the child advocate report’s release, DCF Commissioner Joette Katz defended the decision by her department to close the case and acknowledged DCF’s system for records, LINK, was obsolete and needed to be changed so social workers could get better access to critical information.

As the DCF case drew to a close, Matthew Tirado was starving in his mother’s Park Street apartment, digging through trash for food, and drinking oils and condiments whenever possible, Eagan reported.

Hartford detectives found photographs on Katiria Tirado’s phone showing that she had screwed cabinets shut and locked the refrigerator. They reported that she controlled whatever food the boy could eat.

They also found text messages Tirado sent in which she acknowledges she was starving the boy. In one message to her sister, she wrote: “See how I gotta have my fridge.”

She then said: “but he can’t get in it any longer because you need a screwdriver.”

In December 2016, weeks before Matthew died, police found that Tirado had searched the internet for “autism underweight,” “autism and weight loss” and “what is it like to have anorexia and autism.”

Detectives wrote in an arrest warrant affidavit that she never made efforts to seek medical help for Matthew despite his continued weight loss.

It was not until the early morning hours of Feb. 14, 2017, that Tirado finally brought Matthew to the hospital, the affidavit read. In text messages to her sister on Feb. 13, 2017, Tirado said Matthew had been vomiting for several days and it was a blood-like color.

“Cuz of the way he looks they gonna get DCF involved and [expletive] gonna escalate,” she wrote her sister, according to the affidavit.

At 2:17 a.m. on Feb. 14, 2017, she sent a message saying that Matthew “looks like he is dying,” the affidavit read. Detectives said she did not call 911 for another 36 minutes.

When she called 911, she speculated Matthew had gallstones, noting he had been vomiting and was not urinating.

He died at Hartford Hospital that morning. A state medical examiner concluded Matthew died from fatal child abuse syndrome given the evidence of long-term abuse including scarring, both old and new cuts and injuries in varying states of healing, the police reported. The manner of death was ruled a homicide.

When he died, Matthew had been the subject of a half-dozen court hearings, a sheaf of abuse and neglect reports, and hours of discussion among school, court, and child-protection officials, Eagan’s report outlined. Hartford schools alone had filed five neglect reports in an 18-month period.

Katz said DCF had no knowledge of the abuse Matthew was suffering before his death. “Nobody had any clue — I don’t care what anyone says — we did not know this child was being physically abused or starved to death,” Katz said.

Since Matthew’s death, DCF has contended that Katiria Tirado repeatedly refused the department’s help and barred anyone from seeing her son.

The department has no authority under state law to interview a child or enter a child’s home without parental permission, Katz said, unless there is evidence of serious harm or sexual assault. She said the department has pushed the legislature for two decades to get more authority with no success.

Why? just ... Why? and 11 years in Prison? The boy was suffering and the mother just didn't care. How screwed up can she be? It's sickening just imagining the poor boy.

Because she was supposedly intellectually disabled. She is intellectually enabled enough to concoct a plan to concoct a plan to fool the Department of Children and Family services into thinking the kid was anorexic.