HHS boss: Boy's death 'tragic'

The new leader of the state's Health and Human Services Department called the death of 12-year-old Michael Belitz a “tragedy” and said officials still are investigating whether the department received warnings that the boy was at risk.

“We have gathered preliminary information from our records and will continue to review case files for additional information,” Kerry Winterer, the department's chief executive, said in a statement today.

“While we are making every effort to be open, we want the information to be as thorough and accurate as possible.”

The department is reviewing its procedures, Winterer said, “to make sure they are working as intended to respond to concerns about a child's safety and well-being.”

Earlier this year, Angela Manns left two messages for a state caseworker, Winterer said. The 46-year-old mother of four wanted to know what options she had to place her son in foster care.

Manns said she was experiencing stress in her life, officials said.

Officials said Manns didn't give enough details in March to warrant a formal report, so the caseworker returned the calls, leaving one message that suggested Manns should contact the state's hot line for foster care services and provide more information.

The caseworker never followed up. Manns never called the hot line. And authorities found Michael's decomposed body Sunday in his mother's bathtub.

Caseworkers are supposed to gather any relevant information they receive about allegations of abuse or related concerns, then forward them to hot line staff for a formal report and further assessment, according to the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services.

Hot line staffers then analyze the information to determine how quickly they need to respond.

Michael's two half sisters said this week they had voiced concerns about his environment to caseworkers on several occasions but never received a substantive response.

Manns, they said, was a short-tempered alcoholic who exhibited erratic behavior, though they said Michael never showed outward signs of physical abuse.

“I think (caseworkers) thought it wasn't warranted enough,” said Michael's half sister Carrie. “We didn't know enough about what was going on for them to really check.”

Carrie said she started e-mailing her concerns about Michael to a caseworker in November 2008.

HHS officials said today that they couldn't comment on concerns that Carrie said she provided or what action might have been taken in response because such information is confidential.

Winterer said the department's child abuse and neglect hot line received a call about Michael more than two years ago — on Feb. 9, 2007 — but a subsequent investigation concluded the allegations were unfounded.

Caseworkers eventually spoke to Michael and his teenage half sister after that call, officials said. Michael reported no abuse and said he was happy at his mother's home.

There were no other allegations of abuse or neglect recorded by the department after the 2007 hot line call, save for a report that was issued Monday when Michael was missing and presumed dead.

Manns was held without bail after her initial court appearance on Thursday afternoon. Her preliminary hearing was scheduled for Aug. 12.

Michael's father, Leonard Belitz, quietly watched the proceedings from the back of the courtroom with Michael's aunt.

“If I had any inkling that she would've gone this far with anything, I would've done something,” Belitz said. “The system can only do so much.

“If Michael said he was fine, what else can you do or say?”

Manns lied to police after her arrest, telling investigators that her son was in Tennessee, prosecutors said. Authorities allege that Manns actually bound Michael with duct tape, killed him and left his body in the bathtub of her north Omaha home.

Investigators also found a short-handled hatchet, a knife, goggles and two buckets with plastic liners. However, it did not appear that the body had been dismembered, said Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine.

Michael's body was so decomposed, Kleine said, that coroner's physicians may never know what caused his death. Experts determined that Michael had been dead at least two weeks.

Short of an explanation from his killer, Kleine said, investigators may never know how Michael died or how long it took. But Kleine said that will not inhibit the state's prosecution.

“Just because the body is in a state of decomposition doesn't mean we can't still tell it's a homicide,” Kleine said.

Kleine pointed out that prosecutors didn't have an exact cause of death in the 2006 murder of Jessica O'Grady. A jury convicted Christopher Edwards of second-degree murder in that case, though O'Grady's body has never been found.

Authorities also didn't have a cause of death in the 1999 killing of 3-year-old Adam Gomez, Kleine said. Despite that, Raymond Mata Jr. sits on death row after he was convicted of dismembering Adam and feeding him to his dog.

In Michael's case, Kleine said the body's decomposition precluded some of the typical conclusions coroners reach, such as whether the victim had been beaten, choked or drowned.

While they wait for authorities to finish their investigation and return Michael's body, all family members could do was gather in a relative's living room and arrange his funeral.

Leonard Belitz sat on the couch, again next to his sister.

“I could never imagine having a son that would equal what he was,” he said.

Michael was the second child Belitz has lost through tragic circumstances. His 9-year-old daughter, Lisa, died in 1984 after a faulty furnace pipe poisoned the family's Bellevue home with carbon monoxide. Belitz was 29; he nearly died with her.

“She was my baby girl,” Belitz said. But he said, "This is hideous."

World-Herald staff writer Leslie Reed contributed to this report.