OR - Fallon Murdock, 14, died in squalor, despite what family says were pleas for child welfare officials’ help, Klamath County, 30 Mar 2023

[imstilla.grandma]

Family members of a 14-year-old Klamath County girl who died in late March are raising alarms that Oregon’s child protective agency failed to intervene to keep her safe, despite what they say were multiple reports of neglect and possible abuse.

By the time Fallon Murdock died on March 30, her maternal grandmother Diane Spahn and great aunt Barbie Campbell had contacted the state’s child abuse and neglect hotline five times over a four-year period with concerns about the safety of Fallon and her four siblings, Campbell said. Neighbors also reported concerns to child welfare officials, Campbell said, yet the state apparently did not step in until after Fallon’s death.

The Klamath County Sheriff’s Office is investigating Fallon’s death. And three family members said they heard from law enforcement officers who visited the home in the unincorporated community of Keno that the five children, ages 6 through 15, had been living in outbuildings without toilets or heat because the primary home was uninhabitable.

Fallon Murdock is pictured in an undated photo. She died on March 30 at her family's home in the Klamath County unincorporated community of Keno. For several years, relatives had reported concerns to Oregon child protective services that Fallon's parents were neglecting her and her four siblings.

Officers leaving the property “had to change their shoes because the entire property was so covered in feces and urine,” said Dan Campbell, the children’s maternal grandfather. “It’s just heartbreaking.”

Brandon Fowler, public information officer for the Klamath County Sheriff’s Office, confirmed Monday that the office is investigating Fallon’s death. And 911 call records show that law enforcement was repeatedly called to the home where Fallon lived southwest of Klamath Falls on March 30.
continued:

Klamath County girl, 14, died in squalid conditions despite what family says were pleas for child welfare officials’ help

Relatives of the girl, who died March 30, say family members had contacted the state’s child abuse and neglect hotline five times.

www.oregonlive.com

 

[imstilla.grandma]

Ashley Gathard says her daughter, Fallon Murdock, died on March 30th in Klamath County.

She’s living out of state, but said she was told by the sheriff’s office that the conditions of the foster home Fallon was living in, was appalling.

Gathard said, “they killed her in my opinion.”

Gathard said she put her daughter in a foster home because she believed it would give her a better life.

Gathard said, “she lived in complete squalor. She lived in a separate house from them that had no heat. She had no heat, no running water in that house. There was feces and urine all over.”

Gathard now lives in Wisconsin, but recently came back to Klamath County for a vigil for 14-year Fallon.

She hasn’t been inside the home, but said the Klamath County Sheriff’s Office told her Fallon was forced to use a bucket or a nearby pond to use the bathroom.

She said a deputy even told her Fallon’s spinal cord fluid was murky, which is typically only found in people who live in extremely over-crowded spaces.

“They also hadn’t been to doctors in a really long time or school,” Gathard said, “I thought they had good lives, or I would have went back sooner.”

Gathard said there hasn’t been much communication from law enforcement since the initial call and the state department of human services hasn’t been much help to her either.

Gathard said her son was also living in the same house as Fallon, he has since been removed from the house and is now living with his grandparents.

Going forward, Gathard wants to hold DHS accountable for the living conditions her daughter was subjected to.

“There was multiple reports made and I have lists of people who have called DHS and I fully intend to take on DHS as well if that’s what needs to be done,” Gathard said.

14 year old girl died in foster care according to mother | KMVU Fox 26 Medford

(KOBI) KLAMATH COUNTY, Ore.-- A 14 year-old girl died recently in a Klamath County foster home, according to her biological mother. Now, she is looking for justice. Ashley Gathard says her daughter, Fallon Murdock, died on March 30th in Klamath County. She's living out of state, but said she was...

www.fox26medford.com

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[WingsOverTX]

Ashley Gathard says her daughter, Fallon Murdock, died on March 30th in Klamath County.

She’s living out of state, but said she was told by the sheriff’s office that the conditions of the foster home Fallon was living in, was appalling.

Gathard said, “they killed her in my opinion.”

Gathard said she put her daughter in a foster home because she believed it would give her a better life.

Gathard said, “she lived in complete squalor. She lived in a separate house from them that had no heat. She had no heat, no running water in that house. There was feces and urine all over.”

Gathard now lives in Wisconsin, but recently came back to Klamath County for a vigil for 14-year Fallon.

She hasn’t been inside the home, but said the Klamath County Sheriff’s Office told her Fallon was forced to use a bucket or a nearby pond to use the bathroom.

She said a deputy even told her Fallon’s spinal cord fluid was murky, which is typically only found in people who live in extremely over-crowded spaces.

“They also hadn’t been to doctors in a really long time or school,” Gathard said, “I thought they had good lives, or I would have went back sooner.”

Gathard said there hasn’t been much communication from law enforcement since the initial call and the state department of human services hasn’t been much help to her either.

Gathard said her son was also living in the same house as Fallon, he has since been removed from the house and is now living with his grandparents.

Going forward, Gathard wants to hold DHS accountable for the living conditions her daughter was subjected to.

“There was multiple reports made and I have lists of people who have called DHS and I fully intend to take on DHS as well if that’s what needs to be done,” Gathard said.

14 year old girl died in foster care according to mother | KMVU Fox 26 Medford

(KOBI) KLAMATH COUNTY, Ore.-- A 14 year-old girl died recently in a Klamath County foster home, according to her biological mother. Now, she is looking for justice. Ashley Gathard says her daughter, Fallon Murdock, died on March 30th in Klamath County. She's living out of state, but said she was...

www.fox26medford.com

---

How does a mother whose child is in foster care have standing to testify as to that child's care? How can a minor in state custody be farmed out to live in filth with no oversight?

Was this child in school? If so, I don't see how obvious extreme neglect was overlooked.

My opinion only, but how can any of us live in a society with such egregious failures to protect the most vulnerable?

I really can't believe what I'm reading. It's so extreme.

Those who failed to provide proper oversight of her living conditions need to be publicly named & be convicted as criminals. Otherwise, what will change the "system"?

Every child in a foster home supervised by this DHS office needs immediate ongoing review.

I am sick to my stomach. A beautiful child needlessly tortured & died. From neglect to torture to death in state custody. This pipeline must STOP.

Others in state custody are mistreated & possibly dying right now. I'm very disturbed because I fear this case is not an outlier.

MOO

ETA: Apparently this was an adoption into a non-bio father's home? The contradictions in the paternal grandparent's accounts based on their apparent good standing in the community vs. reality are shocking. I'm still dumb founded by what I'm reading in this & other news accounts.

 

[imstilla.grandma]

Brandon Fowler, public information officer for the Klamath County Sheriff’s Office, confirmed Monday that the office is investigating Fallon’s death. And 911 call records show that law enforcement was repeatedly called to the home where Fallon lived southwest of Klamath Falls on March 30.

Heidi Vaughn, a protective services caseworker for Oregon child welfare in Klamath County, told a judge during an April 5 hearing on the state’s rationale for taking custody of the children that “the home had a significant amount of urine, feces, garbage and was generally unsafe for any aged child.” The home also contained drug paraphernalia and a substance that the father, Chris Murdock, identified to authorities as methamphetamine, Vaughn said.

The parents failed to meet the children’s educational and medical needs, including by taking the three oldest children out of school after 2019, she said. “They were, for a very short amount of time, in online education,” Vaughn said. “But for this last proper school year they have had no education.” The last school the oldest boy, 15, attended was an elementary school, Vaughn said.

Klamath County girl, 14, died in squalid conditions despite relatives' pleas to child welfare officials

Family members of a 14-year-old Klamath County girl who died in late March are raising alarms that Oregon’s child protective agency failed to intervene to keep her safe, despite what

www.rv-times.com

 

[tlcya]

where does one even start with this case?
---------------------------------------------------
Gathard said she is concerned that local child protective services employees decided to place the 15-year-old boy and Chris and Karana’s three other children — ages 6, 9 and 12 — with Chris Murdock’s parents, Bonnie and Ken Murdock. She worried about that placement because she said the couple have maintained that the children were never mistreated.

“I just really want justice for my daughter,” Gathard said. “She was slipped through the (Oregon Department of Human Services) cracks … Bonnie has pull here.”

Bonnie Murdock recently worked at a Klamath Falls law firm and now works at Klamath County Justice Court.

She did not return a phone call seeking comment Tuesday.

Ken Murdock wrote on Facebook following Fallon’s death that she “was a happy health girl right up to the time of her passing.”

In an interview Tuesday, he said he and his wife took care of the children every other weekend. “We monitored them very carefully,” he said. “They were very happy, well-adjusted children.”

Regarding the primitive and unsanitary conditions in which the children lived, Ken Murdock said he “wouldn’t let kids live there,” but he said he and his wife were unaware of the conditions because they had not been to the property in a while.
Klamath County girl, 14, died in squalid conditions despite what family says were pleas for child welfare officials’ help

so Chris Murdock is the bio father of the 15 year old half brother of Fallon, but was no bio relation to Fallon. Mom had drug issues and so gave up the children to he and his wife Karana. The couple live in squalor with five children total, wherein allegedly the children are forced to live in outbuildings without running water or heat doing their bathroom business in a bucket or outdoors. The children have not been to school or Dr. appointments for at least a year. Neighbors, maternal family members, etc. have repeatedly called CPS.

Fallon dies, within days CPS is suddenly interested enough in the living situations to remove the remaining children. They describe the conditions as deplorable and Chris admits that there is meth and paraphernalia lying around. What in the actual F is going on in this county? At what point does CPS do its actual dang job? Do they simply wait until some poor child is dead to get all worried about the children?

Sorry for the rant but my God!

 

[tlcya]

and don't even get me started on the paternal grandparents who now enjoy custody . . .
------------------------------------------
Gathard said she is concerned that local child protective services employees decided to place the 15-year-old boy and Chris and Karana’s three other children — ages 6, 9 and 12 — with Chris Murdock’s parents, Bonnie and Ken Murdock. She worried about that placement because she said the couple have maintained that the children were never mistreated.

“I just really want justice for my daughter,” Gathard said. “She was slipped through the (Oregon Department of Human Services) cracks … Bonnie has pull here.”

Bonnie Murdock recently worked at a Klamath Falls law firm and now works at Klamath County Justice Court.

She did not return a phone call seeking comment Tuesday.

Ken Murdock wrote on Facebook following Fallon’s death that she “was a happy health girl right up to the time of her passing.”

In an interview Tuesday, he said he and his wife took care of the children every other weekend. “We monitored them very carefully,” he said. “They were very happy, well-adjusted children.”

Regarding the primitive and unsanitary conditions in which the children lived, Ken Murdock said he “wouldn’t let kids live there,” but he said he and his wife were unaware of the conditions because they had not been to the property in a while.
Klamath County girl, 14, died in squalid conditions despite what family says were pleas for child welfare officials’ help

 

[borndem]

This is one of those cases that make me wanna go out in the street & scream. What was the real story behind Child Services (or whatever the name) -- Were they asked to look into this situation and ignored it? Would they have actually done nothing? Was there really a call to Child Services -- ever? Did or could the school system make a call or report about the children when they were in a school

 

[Lilibet]

What a tragedy. This is the adjoining county east of me. So B.M. “chastised” relatives for contacting CPS and suggested giving her son food and money to pay the electric bill (translate to “buy more meth.”). How do people like this live with themselves?!!

Klamath County girl, 14, died in squalid conditions despite what family says were pleas for child welfare officials’ help

Relatives of the girl, who died March 30, say family members had contacted the state’s child abuse and neglect hotline five times.

www.oregonlive.com

Dan Campbell said he is also concerned that the children are not safe in their paternal grandparents’ care, based on what he described as their history of brushing off concerns about neglect and abuse. “Instead of getting help for the grandkids, they have chosen to protect the son and ignore all of this,” he said.

In a text message exchange with Bonnie Murdock in October 2020, Dan Campbell asked if she had seen Chris and Karana Murdock recently because he had heard from “multiple credible sources” that the couple was “heavily doing drugs including meth” and subjecting their children to extreme neglect including with “weird men and drugs in front of the children … We all must intervene as grandparents for the sake of these babies and their mental health and their future.”

In a text message back to Dan Campbell, Bonnie Murdock chastised Campbell and other relatives for contacting child protective services and suggested that instead they should give Chris food and money to pay the electric bill. “I see them all the time, they’re doing great,” Bonnie Murdock wrote. “Chris and Karana would never do anything to hurt their kids.”

Bonnie Murdock could not be reached by phone at the Justice Court on Tuesday morning.

 

[ClaireNC]

Unbelievable. So sad. Sounds like these children stopped going to school during the Covid lockdown and never went back. They didn’t have any teachers to talk to or to raise the alarm about their situation.

You can see the squalor in the satellite map of the home.

 

[borndem]

This is one of those cases that make me wanna go out in the street & scream. What was the real story behind Child Services (or whatever the name) -- Were they asked to look into this situation and ignored it? Would they have actually done nothing? Was there really a call to Child Services -- ever? Did or could the school system make a call or report about the children when they were in school? Did anyone really give a damm about this little girl?
Surely there will be an autopsy, surely.

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A bit about Klamath County, OR - -
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Klamath County is one of the 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 census, the population was 69,413. The county seat is Klamath Falls. The county was named for the Klamath, the tribe of Native Americans living in the area at the time the first European explorers entered the region. Wikipedia
Population: 70,164 (2021)
Founded: October 17, 1882
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[Lilibet]

Unbelievable. So sad. Sounds like these children stopped going to school during the Covid lockdown and never went back. They didn’t have any teachers to talk to or to raise the alarm about their situation.

You can see the squalor in the satellite map of the home.

Thanks! I was just coming to post this. It’s a one acre property. I’m curious about the “pond” mentioned as it’s not visible, but the trees could be blocking the view. They are fairly close to neighbors so it’s not surprising that neighbors reported the situation.

 

[Observant-ADHD-ENFP-BSc]

Thanks! I was just coming to post this. It’s a one acre property. I’m curious about the “pond” mentioned as it’s not visible, but the trees could be blocking the view. They are fairly close to neighbors so it’s not surprising that neighbors reported the situation.

I cannot imagine the smell after years of a broken septic tank. After all the snow has melted quite rapidly the past few days here in Ontario, Canada. The ground and leach pool (Sp?) around my septic tank was saturated so much that just empying the bath this morning, gave an absolutely awful smell for 10-20 minutes outside. I cannot imagine living near that constantly.

 

[ClaireNC]

Thanks! I was just coming to post this. It’s a one acre property. I’m curious about the “pond” mentioned as it’s not visible, but the trees could be blocking the view. They are fairly close to neighbors so it’s not surprising that neighbors reported the situation.

I wonder if the “pond” mentioned is one of those small garden/fish pond type tub/pool, rather than a natural pond. I have an old one that we filled with dirt and I use it to plant vegetables in.

 

[Lilibet]

I wonder if the “pond” mentioned is one of those small garden/fish pond type tub/pool, rather than a natural pond. I have an old one that we filled with dirt and I use it to plant vegetables in.

Quite possibly. I hadn’t thought of that.

 

[Lilibet]

This Discover Klamath website gives a pretty good overview of the scenery (home to Crater Lake), wildlife and SNOW in the area. Keno and Klamath Falls are around 4000 feet in elevation.

Home - Discover Klamath

Discover Klamath - your ultimate guide to exploring the breathtaking landscapes, cultural attractions, outdoor adventures, and delicious dining experiences of Klamath County in Southern Oregon.

discoverklamath.com

The link below gives an overview of the climate in Keno. It’s cold and snowy in the winter, so I don’t know how these kids survived without heat.

https://www.bestplaces.net/climate/zip-code/oregon/keno/97627

 

[tyler2112]

I am a new neighbor to the Murdocks,i live right behind them and moved in about 6 months ago. there is no visible pond but it could be concealed by all the debris around the yard. the outbuildings i would have never suspected as livable as they are dilapidated sheds.
Currently Chris and Karana are still walking free, we see them at their home every single night with a massive bonfire in their backyard. Any evidence on this case has since been destroyed. Our police, CPS and justice system are doing absolutely nothing. Today 4-14 is the first time this issue has even made the local newspaper. 2 weeks after it happened!
The keno community is absolutely livid. The entire community knew of poor conditions at this house, they were aware they were pulled out of school. Multiple reports to multiple agencys were made by multiple people with no results.
At what point do us citizens take justice into our own hands? i am in absolute disbelief this was allowed to happen and on top of that no repercussions...
ask me anything, i will provide any and all information i can.

 

[tlcya]

What a tragedy. This is the adjoining county east of me. So B.M. “chastised” relatives for contacting CPS and suggested giving her son food and money to pay the electric bill (translate to “buy more meth.”). How do people like this live with themselves?!!

Klamath County girl, 14, died in squalid conditions despite what family says were pleas for child welfare officials’ help

Relatives of the girl, who died March 30, say family members had contacted the state’s child abuse and neglect hotline five times.

www.oregonlive.com

Dan Campbell said he is also concerned that the children are not safe in their paternal grandparents’ care, based on what he described as their history of brushing off concerns about neglect and abuse. “Instead of getting help for the grandkids, they have chosen to protect the son and ignore all of this,” he said.

In a text message exchange with Bonnie Murdock in October 2020, Dan Campbell asked if she had seen Chris and Karana Murdock recently because he had heard from “multiple credible sources” that the couple was “heavily doing drugs including meth” and subjecting their children to extreme neglect including with “weird men and drugs in front of the children … We all must intervene as grandparents for the sake of these babies and their mental health and their future.”

In a text message back to Dan Campbell, Bonnie Murdock chastised Campbell and other relatives for contacting child protective services and suggested that instead they should give Chris food and money to pay the electric bill. “I see them all the time, they’re doing great,” Bonnie Murdock wrote. “Chris and Karana would never do anything to hurt their kids.”

Bonnie Murdock could not be reached by phone at the Justice Court on Tuesday morning.

Paternal grandma sounds like part of the problem and not at all a solution for the surviving kids. MOO

and I am willing to bet the below snippet from my previous post has something to do with why concerns people were expressing to CPS were not followed up by that agency. I suspect someone was running interference for the couple and if so I hope it comes to light:

Bonnie Murdock recently worked at a Klamath Falls law firm and now works at Klamath County Justice Court.

 

[georgiajean]

I am a new neighbor to the Murdocks,i live right behind them and moved in about 6 months ago. there is no visible pond but it could be concealed by all the debris around the yard. the outbuildings i would have never suspected as livable as they are dilapidated sheds.
(snipped by me for space)

I live north of you in Deschutes County. I was shocked to read about this case here on websleuths, because it hadn't been in the media at all. And yesterday (4-13) it finally made the paper. Utterly horrific situation. So sorry these kids have gone through so much.

 

[georgiajean]

From local media Thursday 4-13: Oregon police investigating 14-year-old girl's death, abuse - KTVZ
And from Oregon Live Klamath County girl, 14, died in squalid conditions despite what family says were pleas for child welfare officials’ help
Quote:

“I wasn’t a fit mom and I wanted my kids to have a good life,” said Gathard, who is now in recovery and has a family in Wisconsin. Instead, Gathard said, she learned from law enforcement that there was “clear presence of drug use” in the home and the children were relieving themselves in a sewage pond on the property.
Gathard traveled to Klamath Falls upon learning of Fallon’s death and held a candlelight vigil for her on Saturday. Gathard wants her 15-year-old son, who was also living with the Murdocks, to know she is trying to get custody of him. “I’m here for you and I won’t stop fighting for you.”

 

[ClaireNC]

This case is weighing on my mind. I’m so mad that those poor children were living in those conditions and nobody stepped in to help them. I‘m very surprised that there aren’t more people expressing outrage.

Has a cause of death been reported for poor, sweet Fallon? Why have there been no arrests?