Burn victims’ parents have history of abuse, neglect

David Kihara and Molly Ball

Thursday, Oct. 27, 2005 | 6:44 a.m.

The parents of the two boys who were burned as their father siphoned gasoline had been a subject in child neglect or abuse investigations at least twice in the last four years.

The 4-year-old boy, who remains in serious condition at University Medical Center with severe burns, had previously been taken from his parents' custody because he had been neglected and because of concerns about possible substance abuse by his father, Raymond John Kesteloot, and the boy's mother, according to Susan Klein-Rothschild, director of the Department of Family Services.

Kesteloot, 28, who was arrested Monday, is charged with two counts of child endangerment and two counts of child abuse causing substantial bodily harm.

The 4-year-old and his 2-year-old brother were burned Sunday night while in Kesteloot's care, Metro Police said.

Police said Kesteloot was siphoning gasoline out of one vehicle and into a 2-gallon gas can that he had put in the back seat of his 1989 Chevrolet Camaro -- between the legs of his sleeping 2-year-old in the back seat.

When Kesteloot sparked a cigarette lighter, apparently to check the gauges on an electric fuel pump, gasoline on his hand caught fire, according to the Police report.

Kesteloot panicked and pulled a hose out of the gas can, spilling gasoline and setting the inside of the car on fire, police said.

The mother of the children, Heather Luther, 26, was also arrested and is facing two counts of child neglect and failing to seek medical help for her children.

Police said she and Kesteloot drove the children home to concoct a story rather than take them to the emergency room.

The couple waited about 45 minutes before calling for an ambulance, said Lisa Teele, supervisor for Metro's abuse and neglect detail.

After the fire, Kesteloot got the children out of the vehicle and walked about a half-mile to a gas station, where he called Luther instead of 911, Teele said.

According to a Metro Police report, Kesteloot carried the 2-year-old, but the 4-year-old, who had second- and third-degree burns over much of his face and body, walked to the gas station barefoot and screaming.

Luther and her sister picked them up at the gas station and drove them to a house in the 4100 block of Las Lomas Avenue, near Decatur Boulevard and Sahara Avenue, where the couple had been staying, according to police.

They eventually called 911 after making up a story about how the children were burned, according to police.

Luther, who is six months pregnant, and Kesteloot had been residing at the house on Las Lomas for a few weeks after losing their previous apartment because they didn't pay the rent, the police report stated.

Kesteloot and Luther are unemployed.

Luther told police she had smoked methamphetamine earlier in the day and that she assumed Kesteloot had smoked hashish that day because he usually smoked it throughout each day.

This is the second case in less than four months of a child who had contact with Child Protective Services dying or suffering serious injuries. In August, 2-year-old Adacelli Snyder was found dead in her family's trailer.

Snyder died from malnutrition and neglect. Child Protective Services had provided services to Snyder previously and closed its case on the family about a year before Adacelli was found dead.

In the case of the Kesteloot children, the 4-year-old had been placed in foster care in 2001 after Child Protective Services received a call about "concerns about the parents' ability to meet the child's needs," Klein-Rothschild said.

Child Protective Services opened a case file on the family in July 2001, and the boy was returned to his parents' custody sometime before August 2003, Klein-Rothschild said. She said she could not provide an exact date because she did not have that information available when interviewed.

"The issues were addressed and the services (from the Department of Family Services) were rendered," she said.

The 2-year-old and 4-year-old were placed in protective custody after the siphoning incident on Monday, Metro reported.

Klein-Rothschild said once a case is closed, her agency does no follow-up wihtout a specific complaint filed or a request from the family.

Klein-Rothschild said Child Protective Services did receive another complaint against the parents in August 2003, but CPS found no evidence of abuse or neglect, so case workers took no further action.

In June 2004, the federal government released a report criticizing the child welfare and foster care agencies in Nevada. The review of Nevada's child welfare system, by the Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families, criticized agencies' inability to stop repeated maltreatment of children.

In nearly half of the cases where child welfare workers found abuse or neglect, the mistreatment happened again within six months, the reviewers reported.

The review was based on a survey of a small number of cases in February 2004. The federal auditors reviewed 21 cases in which abuse or neglect was substantiated; in nine cases, or 43 percent, mistreatment recurred within six months.

Nevada's Department of Child and Family Services "is not effective in preventing recurrence of child maltreatment," the federal report said.

Similar problems were found in a report by the Georgia-based Child Welfare Institute, hired to give recommendations to the Department of Family Services.

The institute's report, completed in June, is based on a review of 11 deaths of children with open CPS cases over a period of a year and a half. The review states that some of the deaths were natural but does not say how many or when they occurred.

"Among the cases reviewed, there existed a serious problem with recorded documentation of critical information," the report states.

"Evidence used to make findings was routinely not documented. Progress toward case goals, or lack thereof, was often not documented. The basis for safety decisions was usually not documented."

Molly Ball can be reached at 259-8814 or at molly@lasvegassun.com. David Kihara can be reached at 259-2330 or at davidk@lasvegassun.com.