A 2-year-old girl, Stevie Price, was found dead inside a Mission Dolores apartment on Feb. 12, a case that is now rattling San Francisco’s child-welfare system. Police arrested her mother, Michelle Price, and the mother’s boyfriend, Steve Ramirez, and have charged them with felony child endangerment and related offenses. Child-welfare records show social workers opened multiple investigations into the family over the past decade, and the death is again raising hard questions about how and when social services, police and the courts step in when drug use is present in a home.
What investigators say they found at the scene
San Francisco police say they responded to a 911 call about a child not breathing at a unit on the 3800 block of 18th Street around 5:30 AM. Paramedics later noted signs of rigor mortis, indicating the toddler had been dead for hours before help arrived. Officers described the apartment as cluttered and said they seized glass pipes, suspected fentanyl powder and a used Narcan container sitting alongside baby bottles and formula.
Prosecutors told investigators that preliminary testing showed fentanyl in the child’s system, while official toxicology results were still pending at the time. These details are reported by the San Francisco Chronicle.
Similar cases have prompted county action
Across the Bay Area, infant and toddler overdoses have already led prosecutors to bring murder charges against alleged dealers and, in some instances, parents. Those high-stakes cases have pushed local agencies to reexamine how they monitor children who may be living around powerful drugs.
In Santa Clara County, prosecutors linked two infant fentanyl deaths to an alleged dealer and said the cases exposed gaps in how agencies track at-risk children, according to a news release from the district attorney’s office. Coverage by CBS Bay Area describes those prosecutions, while a release from the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office said the prosecutions prompted reviews of child-welfare practices in that county.
Child-welfare files and court filings raise questions
Prosecutors say Child Protective Services investigated allegations involving Michelle Price in at least four earlier cases. Two of those cases were still open when Stevie died, and one prior neglect claim had already been substantiated. In a Feb. 14 motion, an assistant district attorney wrote that prior CPS supervision failed to prevent continued neglect and urged a judge to keep Price jailed while she awaits trial…