Foster children charged with murder

William Clark said the eldest of the two foster children charged in the slayings ‘ James Earl Garrett, 17, and Jeffery Byrd Johnson Jr., 15 ‘ had asked to be moved from the family’s home in White Bluff, about 25 miles west of Nashville in Dickson County.

A meeting had been arranged with officials from the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services and the foster care contract agency, Phoenix Homes. But before it could occur, Clark’s wife, Mary Clark, 39, and his mother, 66-year-old Gail Clark, were killed in the home.

“They have 15 days to get people together ‘ this counselor and that counselor ‘ on request,” William Clark said by phone Thursday. “The policy is 15 days. If he had been removed in a 24-hour period, they might be alive.”

DCS spokesman Rob Johnson declined to go into specifics of the case because of the law, but he said that when there is a request for relocation, the department tries to convene a meeting of everyone with an interest in the child’s well-being within 15 days.

The process is expedited if there is a safety issue, Johnson said, but in general DCS is cautious about relocating foster children because of the disruption it can cause the child.

So far, DCS’s internal review of the case has found no sign that anyone was in danger, Johnson said.

“The case worker has been in the home for many months and as far as we know things were running smoothly. There was good contact between the foster home, DCS, the case manager and the contract agency,” he said. “Right now, DCS is not seeing any red flags.”

Phoenix Homes issued a statement saying the agency could not release any specific information about the children because of the ongoing investigation into the slayings.