Agency, police awaiting cause of death of boy, 2, whose kin left hospital
08:48 PM CDT on Monday, September 20, 2004

By JASON TRAHAN / The Dallas Morning News

Child Protective Services has taken an infant girl into custody while authorities investigate the death of her 2-year-old brother.

Dallas police and CPS officials were awaiting results of an autopsy on Michael Russell because doctors were unable to determine how he died.

Police Lt. Bill Walsh of the child abuse unit said that because there are no visible signs of trauma, investigators have classified the death as unexplained until the autopsy is completed. But he said the mother's behavior is suspicious.

"This is highly unusual to have an unexplained death, and we haven't had the opportunity to talk to the caretaker," he said. "It is urgent that we speak to her."

About 1:30 a.m. Sunday, Candace Russell, 26, and the child's grandparents took the toddler to Doctors Hospital of Dallas and said the boy had been sick. Doctors said the boy was not breathing and appeared underweight. The family left before the child had been pronounced dead and an officer summoned.

"The fact that Mom's story is inconsistent with doctors' preliminary findings made us worried, so we removed the child," said Marissa Gonzales, an agency spokeswoman.

On Monday, CPS representatives went to the family's northwest Dallas house on Cedar Bend Drive, where Ms. Russell and her parents live, Ms. Gonzales said. Her parents were there, and the caseworker asked them to page Ms. Russell. When the mother returned, the agency took her daughter, who is about 3 months old.

No one returned a phone call to the home Monday evening.

Ms. Gonzales said CPS has investigated Ms. Russell previously, but no details were immediately available.

Lt. Walsh said the mother may have unrelated outstanding warrants, which could account for her reluctance to meet with officers. He said she would not immediately be taken into custody for those warrants if she speaks to officers about her son.

E-mail jtrahan@dallasnews.com