Ricky Holland Vanished

The following story appeared at WILX.com this morning:

Two GOP lawmakers were rebuffed by the state children’s ombudsman in their bid to get more details n the state’s role in the apparent murder of Ricky Holland. After that state officials turned down the request, the two legislators asked the attorney general if she had the authority to do that.

Gov. Jennifer Granholm has now stepped into the dispute saying the she also wants to get to the bottom of this case and to learn if the state Human Services Department could have done more to protect the seven-year-old.

The governor tells News 10, the ombudsman will have a report to lawmakers soon. In fact, she was meeting with state lawyers on that issue Monday.

From my understanding of another article I read yesterday, the ombudsman did not want to release records relating to the case. However, she was willling at some future date to release a report of the findings of the investigation. Hopefully the governor will make it very clear to the ombudsman that a report is not acceptable, the lawmakers want the raw data submitted by social workers who were working the Holland case to see exactly who made the errors that cause Ricky’s murder.

Ricky Holland was placed in the Holland Foster home in October 2000. Ricky was age 3 years 3 months at the time of his placement.

This according to the Holland Foster Home Study conducted on February 24, 2004:

“…{name deleted} formerly known as {name deleted} was placed in the Holland home on 10/20/2000. {name deleted} is now a Permanent Court Ward, and was recently adopted by the Hollands…”

“… previous reports stated that {name deleted} has {word deleted} and has anger issues, and can be destructive. {name deleted} behavior has improved significantly since {name deleted} placement with the Hollands…”

Even with the names deleted it is evident that the above quote is about Ricky.

Dr. Aurif Abedi, who treated Ricky for three years beginning in 2001, said in court that he diagnosed Ricky with ADHD and bipolar mood disorder, among other developmental problems.

The following excerpt is from Focus Adolescent Services regarding adolescent and childhood bipolar disorder:

Pediatric bipolar disorder is a serious mental illness characterized by recurrent episodes of depression, mania, and/or mixed symptom states. These episodes cause unusual and extreme shifts in mood, energy, and behavior that interfere significantly with normal, healthy functioning.

Ricky’s other mental disorders were said to include ADHD and Oppositional Defiant Disorder. All of the disorders attributed to Ricky are considered to be serious mental illnesses. In the case of Oppositional Defiant Disorder, that is a personality disorder which cannot be treated with medication alone. All of the disorders require some sort of therapy for both parent and child; there has been no mention of family therapy or even therapy for Ricky alone. It appears that Ricky’s disorders were being managed, or mismanaged, with medications only.

Given the disorders that Ricky was diagnosed with, some being diagnosed soon after his 3rd birthday, I question why the Holland’s were allowed to have Ricky in their home; especially after reading the following in the same Holland Foster Home Study:

“…The Holland Foster Home has demonstrated that they have the skills and competencies to foster 4 children, ages 0 to 5, male or female, with mild emotional impairments, mild learning disabilities, or children that are enuretic. The Hollands are willing to foster children of any race. The Hollands are willing to foster children on a Respite or Emergency basis, if they have openings.

Children that are inappropriate for placement in the Holland foster home include children that have moderate to severe behavior or mental health issues, children with medical needs, and children that have been sexually abused.Children that are fire-setters or who are highly aggressive, oppositional or destructive would also be inappropriate. Children that have serious medical needs, or have physical impairment that limits mobility would also be inappropriate…”

In my opinion, if Ricky did indeed suffer from all of the mental illnesses it is claimed that he had and the social worker knew about these things, then they did indeed sign Ricky’s death warrant by placing him in a home with parents who were not licensed to deal with his issues.

It appears that they were receiving extra monies for Ricky when he was alive, perhaps because of his mental illnesses.

According to this article today from WILX.com:

Payments stopped when Ricky went missing last July, but the Holland’s adopted another one of Ricky’s siblings and monthly payments went up to $1,992 compared to $2,200 the Holland’s were receiving before Ricky went missing.

I think the article meant the payments went down compared to the $2,2000 the Holland’s were receiving before Ricky went missing.

Perhaps Lisa was attempting to increase the pot even more by trying to have Ricky receive one more diagnosis from the school counselors.

There was another disturbing factor in the Holland Family Foster Reports.

During the evaluation in February 2004, at the time Lisa was 6 months pregnant, the Holland’s requested that they be put on the unavailable list until after the baby is born.

During the evaluation in March 2005, the Holland’s indicated to the social worker that they planned to close their license to foster children once they moved to their new home in Williamston.

So there were at least two instances all the way back to 2004 that the Holland’s were indicating that they really did not desire or felt unsure about continuing to open their home to foster children. The final instance of their desire to no longer be foster parents came as a request from Lisa Holland on November 15, 2005:

“…On 11/08/2005 a letter was sent to Timothy and Lisa Holland regarding their foster home license. Lisa contacted this worker and informed that due to the incident regarding {name deleted from report} and all of the stress that they were under they were no longer interested in maintaining a foster home license.

Lisa stated that she and her husband are under a lost of stress and that Tim had recently lost his clearance at work, and that things are really hectic at this time. She indicated that she is doing her best to keep things together, but that this year has been very traumatic for the entire family…”

The Holland’s got the last word. Following is how their foster care license was terminated:

“…At the request of Timothy and Lisa Holland, their license is being closed due to loss of interest…”

The date of that entry is January 6, 2006.

The report in it’s entirety is available here. You will need Adobe Acrobat to read the file. You can download Adobe Acrobat Reader here for free. If you have trouble with the link after you have downloaded and installed the reader, then leave a comment about it and I will see what I can do to help you.