New Mexico’s child welfare agency is supposed to safeguard children in its custody and report them immediately if they vanish. In this case, they didn’t.
This story was originally published by Searchlight New Mexico.
On Sept. 25, 16-year-old Vincent Chavez — Junior, as his family calls him — ran away from his aunt’s house, where the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department had placed him and five of his siblings in foster care the month before. Vincent has Tourette’s syndrome and post-traumatic stress disorder, and he had become agitated and angry before running, according to an Albuquerque Police Department report.
His aunt called the police and officers arrived quickly. They briefly spotted someone matching Vincent’s description running into an apartment complex off of Central Avenue and Wyoming Boulevard; they found his red…
