'Nobody's kept me up to date': Serenity's mother still waiting for answers
Alexandra Zabjek | CBC News | Posted: December 9, 2016 12:00 PM | Last Updated: December 9, 2016
Mother lives in eastern Canada, says she has received no phone calls on her daughter's death
The mother of a four-year-old Alberta girl who died under horrific circumstances in provincial care says she has not received any phone calls from government agencies since the case shot into the spotlight over the past several weeks.
"Nobody's kept me up to date. I talk to the cops sometimes, but they always tell me they're still waiting for reports," said the woman, who cannot be identified under provincial child welfare legislation so as not to identify her other children.
"I've tried calling Human (Services) and places like that to find some stuff out, but nobody answers me, and if they do, they basically just tell me they can't talk to me."
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The 2014 death of her daughter, named Serenity, was hotly debated in the legislature again on Thursday.
Human Services Minister Irfan Sabir was grilled over his handling of the file and why there was a delay in his department turning over the full case file to the RCMP.
'I have offered every support'
Opposition members also demanded to know what he had done for the girl's family.
"A week ago there was a vigil on the legislature's doorsteps," Sabir said. "I participated in that, I have spoken directly to Serenity's family, I have provided my information, and I have offered every support whatsoever they need to deal with this."
But the mother said it was Serenity's extended family, some of whom had never met the child, who spoke at the event. The woman now lives several time zones away from Alberta.
The mother, who was given back legal guardianship of Serenity in the week before the child died, has still not received a copy of the autopsy report. It took the Alberta medical examiner two years to complete its report on Serenity's death.
No criminal charges have been laid in the case.
'Telling me not to talk'
Serenity's mother said media attention is the only thing that has moved her daughter's case forward.
"Nobody's talked to me in two years, so I didn't have any other choice. And now that I've come to (the news), stuff has been coming out more. Everyone was telling me not to talk to the news because it would wreck their investigation.
"The only thing that's been actually brought my case to light is me opening my mouth to you guys. Other than it was just obviously being shoved under the rug."
After being placed in foster care in 2010, Serenity and her siblings were eventually transferred to a kinship care arrangement on a reserve. Within a year, Serenity's weight had plummeted to 18 pounds, the typical weight of a 10-month-old baby.
When relatives brought her to the hospital in September 2014, she had suffered severe head trauma, and was covered in bruises, including to her genital area. The child was airlifted to hospital in Edmonton and removed from life support about a week later.
"Any sort of update with what's going on with my daughter's case, anything really would help," the woman said. "I've been waiting two years, almost two-and-a-half years on some things, and I have nothing."