Nothing is more disconcerting than a child-protection system that fails, but the predictable bureaucratic response that follows the death of a child in foster care is nearly as unnerving.

A review is conducted. Holes in the system are identified. Recommendations are made. Fingers are crossed that tragedy won’t strike again. But it does, because laws and policies are only as strong as the human frailties fraught within the system.

It’s been 15 months since paramedics found a lifeless 3-year-old Bethannie Johnson inside her Grand Junction home. The little girl was brutalized by her aunt, Shanna Gossett, and her aunt’s girlfriend, Rebecca Wallin. Though there is disagreement about who dealt the fatal blow to Bethannie, it’s indisputable both women inflicted unspeakable abuse upon the child.

In a four-day series last September, The Daily Sentinel chronicled Bethannie’s death and the deaths of two other children who were known to child-welfare caseworkers before they were killed. The series raised troubling questions about how and why the victims were placed – or allowed to remain – in precarious home situations.

Read more at The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel.