Colorado boy drowning questioned
Colorado Boy's welfare questioned before death; Adams fielded 20 complaints prior to 7-year-old's drowning
Adams County, Colorado social workers had been called 20 times about the welfare of Virgil Wagner and other children at an alleged drug-manufacturing compound before the unsupervised 7-year-old boy drowned in a pond last spring, Colorado state officials said. The Colorado Department of Human Services announced Friday that it will review how the county handled those calls.
Donald Cassata, the Adams County social services director, said his agency responded appropriately to child-neglect reports and that most of the calls concerned children other than Virgil living in a loose-knit community where the adults allegedly produced methamphetamine.
Virgil's father, 44-year-old William Fred Wagner, was arrested Wednesday and accused of running one of the largest meth businesses in Colorado history from his home in the 8300 block of Ulster Street.
In response to a written request from The Denver Post, the Colorado state human services department confirmed that Adams County, Colorado had an open case on Virgil and "20 prior referrals" at the time of his death. It did not explain the nature of the child abuse or neglect allegations, nor when they reportedly occurred.
"We are going to proceed with a review of this case," said Susan Ludwig, head of the Colorado state child-fatality review team.
If a Colorado child dies of abuse, neglect or suspicious causes, and the county child welfare system has been involved with the family during the previous five years, the state asks the county to provide records of that involvement within 60 days.
Virgil had been playing with friends by a murky retaining pond near his home when he disappeared May 12. By the time he was pulled from the water hours later, rescuers could do nothing to revive him.
Cassata said Adams County's case file showed two reports this year concerning Virgil's failure to attend school and no other recent signs of trouble.
However, child-abuse workers had received "many referrals on that compound" where Virgil lived, Cassata said. "This was a complicated case because there were umpteen other families involved."
He said an agency visit the day after Virgil died found no evidence that children in the compound were neglected.
Cassata said his agency became involved with Virgil's family about six years ago when "the father got into some kind of shooting situation."
According to Colorado Department of Corrections records, William Wagner was imprisoned in 1997 on weapons and criminally negligent homicide charges, paroled in 1999 and eventually reunited with his son.
Cassata said that to his knowledge, social workers checking on Virgil's welfare this year were unaware his father was the target of a drug-surveillance operation.
Before raiding the Wagner home, "we had information for the last six to eight months that they were cooking meth in that place," said Colorado Sgt. Jerry Peters of the Colorado North Metro Drug Task Force.
Peters said the drugs were well-hidden, the adults were secretive, and that on the night Virgil drowned, his father denied Colorado police access to the premises.
