The Banita Jacks case is the 2008 discovery, in a Southeast Washington row house, of the decomposing bodies of four girls whose mother had killed them months earlier and continued living downstairs. Banita Jacks was convicted in 2009 of murdering her four daughters and sentenced to 120 years in prison. The case exposed severe failures at the D.C. Child and Family Services Agency, led to firings and policy changes, and ended in a $2.6 million civil settlement with the girls’ estates.
How the Bodies Were Found
On January 9, 2008, deputy U.S. marshals arrived at a two-story brick row house in Southeast D.C. to serve an eviction notice. Jacks was living on the ground floor. Upstairs, in two bedrooms, were the remains of her four daughters: Brittany Jacks, 16 or 17; Tatianna Jacks, 11; N’Kiah Fogle, 6; and Aja Fogle, 5.1NBC News. SE Woman Says Four Daughters Were Possessed Autopsies determined the children had been dead for at least seven months.2DCist. Banita Jacks Sentenced to 120 Years
The three youngest girls were lined up by age in one bedroom. Brittany was found naked in a separate room that had been sealed with duct tape, with a knife nearby.3The New York Times. Washington Mother Convicted of Killing Four Daughters The home’s electricity had been cut off since September 2007, and police believed the children may have been killed as early as spring 2007.4The Washington Post. SE Woman Says Four Daughters Were Possessed
The Family Before the Killings
Nathaniel Fogle Jr., Jacks’s boyfriend and the father of the two youngest girls, died of cancer in February 2007. His mother, Jessie Fogle, later said the family unraveled after his death. They were evicted from an apartment she had helped them rent and spent months living in a van and in hotels before moving into the Southeast row house.1NBC News. SE Woman Says Four Daughters Were Possessed Shortly after Fogle’s death, Jacks pulled her children out of school.5ABC News. DC Mother Charged in Deaths of Four Daughters
Jessie Fogle tried to visit the children several times and was turned away. On one occasion, Jacks left her an abusive voicemail berating her for coming to the home.66ABC. Family Background in Banita Jacks Case
What Jacks Told Detectives
In a six-hour videotaped interview with D.C. homicide detectives, Jacks denied killing her daughters. She said the children were “possessed by demons” and had “died in their sleep.”7NBC Washington. Chilling Video Captures Jacks Demon Possession Tale She said Brittany had been possessed by a demon she called “Jezebel,” that the younger children made “horrible screeching noises,” and that she had thrown away most of the family’s belongings to “purge the demons from the house.”8CBS News. Mom Accused of Killing Kids Cited Demons
Confronted with forensic evidence that the girls had been strangled and stabbed, Jacks kept repeating, “None of this makes any sense.” She told detectives she had not sought help when the girls stopped waking up because she believed reporting the deaths would get her in trouble.7NBC Washington. Chilling Video Captures Jacks Demon Possession Tale
The Trial and Verdict
Jacks was charged with first-degree murder in D.C. Superior Court and held without bond.96ABC. DC Mother Charged in Daughters Deaths She waived her right to a jury, and the case was tried before Judge Frederick H. Weisberg beginning July 13, 2009.10DCist. Banita Jacks Found Guilty of Murder
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Deborah Sines and Michelle Jackson presented evidence that Jacks had strangled the three youngest girls and that Brittany had been stabbed.3The New York Times. Washington Mother Convicted of Killing Four Daughters Five-year-old Aja Fogle had also been bludgeoned. Prosecutors argued that through 2007 Jacks concealed the killings by keeping the blinds drawn, letting mail pile up outside, and entering only through the back door so the house would appear vacant.11The Washington Post. Jacks Defense Denies Guilt as Grim Tale Opens Trial The extreme decomposition complicated the medical examiner’s work, and Assistant Medical Examiner A. Wayne Williams testified he was only “50 percent” sure Brittany had been murdered.12The Washington Post. Decomposition Made MEs Job Difficult
On July 29, 2009, Judge Weisberg found Jacks guilty of four counts of felony murder, three counts of first-degree premeditated murder, and four counts of child cruelty. He acquitted her of one count of first-degree murder for Brittany’s death, finding the proof beyond a reasonable doubt insufficient given the condition of the remains.13CBS News. Banita Jacks Convicted of Murdering 4 Daughters After the verdict, Sines told reporters, “Nobody comes out of this courthouse happy. You can’t bring these kids back, and you can’t undo what the last moments — the last months — of their lives were like.”3The New York Times. Washington Mother Convicted of Killing Four Daughters
The 120-Year Sentence
Sentencing was originally set for October 16, 2009, but was delayed after defense attorneys sought further evaluation of Jacks’s mental state, questioning whether mental illness had affected her decision to reject an insanity plea against her lawyers’ advice.14The Washington Post. Banita Jacks’s Sentencing Stalls Over Her Mental State
On December 18, 2009, Judge Weisberg sentenced Jacks to 120 years in prison, imposing four consecutive 30-year terms. He rejected a defense request for leniency and said photographs of the victims inside the squalid home “will probably haunt me for the rest of my life.”15The Washington Post. Banita Jacks Sentenced to 120 Years16The Denver Post. 120-Year Sentence for Murder of Four Daughters
Jacks filed an appeal in January 2010 but later moved to dismiss it voluntarily. The D.C. Court of Appeals granted the dismissal on June 8, 2011.17D.C. Court of Appeals. Banita M. Jacks v. United States, No. 10-CF-0051
The Warnings D.C. Missed
The case set off a public reckoning with Washington’s child protection system, because the D.C. Child and Family Services Agency had been warned about the family more than once.
In August 2006, a nurse called the CFSA hotline to report that the family was living in a van and that the parents were abusing drugs. A hotline operator refused to accept the report because the family had no fixed address.18NBC News. DC Child Services Failed to Intervene In April 2007, school social worker Kathy Lopes called the hotline twice after Brittany stopped attending school. Lopes reported that Jacks had refused to let her inside and expressed concern that Jacks was holding the children “hostage” because of mental illness. A CFSA caseworker went to the home, got no answer, and left a note. A police officer who visited that same month spoke with Jacks and reported that the four children appeared “well and healthy,” though Jacks did not let him inside. She told him she was homeschooling them.19NCCPR Blog. Return of the Queen of Hearts
Caseworkers returned twice more and got no answer. The case was handed to a “Diligent Search Unit,” which heard the family had moved to Maryland. When a Maryland county reported it could not find them, CFSA closed the investigation. No one followed up on the three younger children, who had been enrolled at the Meridian Public Charter School. Lopes later said she had been shuffled among city departments when she tried to escalate her concerns to police.18NBC News. DC Child Services Failed to Intervene
Firings, Reforms, and Lingering Problems
On January 14, 2008, Mayor Adrian Fenty announced that at least six CFSA employees would be terminated, including at least one division director.20CBS News. Girls Deaths Spark DC Agency Firings CFSA Director Sharlynn Bobo said publicly, “We deeply regret — I deeply regret — our failures in responding effectively and rapidly to this family.”18NBC News. DC Child Services Failed to Intervene
Three of the fired non-management social workers, who were represented by a union, appealed. In September 2008, arbitrator John C. Truesdale ruled the firings unfair, found that Fenty had acted “without any investigation,” and ordered the workers reinstated with back pay and expunged records. The administration said it would appeal.21The Washington Post. Reinstate 3 Social Workers, DC Told
Once the case became public, the agency saw a 400 percent increase in active clients as reports flooded the hotline. Roughly a quarter of its social workers left, some fired and some resigning, and the director stepped down. Caseloads required a major infusion of resources and a new director.22The New York Times. DCs Child Welfare System Under Scrutiny
The city adopted a new tracking system for students withdrawn from school for home instruction and required that abuse or neglect cases stay open until the child is physically located and confirmed safe.18NBC News. DC Child Services Failed to Intervene CFSA also began work on better screening of hotline reports and rewrote regulations that had previously forced investigators to close cases within 30 days, a timeframe blamed for superficial investigations.23Washington Examiner. DCs Child Welfare System Leaves Kids at Risk
A 2011 D.C. Inspector General report found that CFSA had “failed to undertake necessary reforms following the Jacks case.” Court-appointed monitor Judith Meltzer had reported in May 2009 that the agency was “still failing to offer adequate care for abused and neglected children,” noting that 60 percent of the roughly 2,200 children in foster care had been in the system for two years or longer.22The New York Times. DCs Child Welfare System Under Scrutiny
The Civil Settlement
In May 2013, the D.C. Office of the Attorney General announced a $2.6 million settlement with the estates of the four girls. Under the terms, $260,000 went to Safe Shores, a charity serving abused and neglected children. The city denied liability and said the payment was meant to avoid “uncertainty” and provide closure to the family.24WJLA. Banita Jacks: DC Approves $2.6 Million Settlement