Foster Mother Charged With Murder

BOSTON -- Four months after a 4-year-old child died in a foster home, the child's foster mother was arrested and charged with murder Thursday.

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Sonya Pfeiffer Reports On Charges

NewsCenter 5's Sonya Pfeiffer reported that Dontel Jeffers died days after being placed in a foster home by the Department of Social Services in March.

Corinne Stephen, 24, Dontel's foster mother, was arrested and charged with second-degree murder Thursday, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel Conley said. An autopsy report showed that the child suffered two major internal injuries, and had marks on his wrists consistent with being tied up. No further details were given.

Dontel had lived with his father and grandmother until his father's incarceration and deportation. He stayed with his mother until she entered a drug rehabilitation program. DSS took custody of the boy in December 2004 and placed him in a group home run by St. Mary's Church. Then, for reasons unknown to the family, Dontel was taken out of that group home and placed in a private foster home in Dorchester in March.

The boy's extended family was told Dontel was jumping on a bed and fell, hitting his head on a radiator. It wasn't until the next day that the foster mother took him to Caritas Carney Hospital with a swollen head, and the child died of cardiac arrest. Police said Thursday that the child was already dead when he arrived at the hospital.

The Jeffers family said they were convinced that the child was abused prior to his death and was not the victim of an accident.

According to officials, there were several reports of domestic violence at the foster home at 5 Ballou Ave. before the boy's arrival.

Stephen will be arraigned in Dorchester District Court Friday.