WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The mayor of Washington and other officials said Friday that city government failed four children whose decomposing bodies were found this week in their mother's home.
Mayor Adrian Fenty called the lapses "egregious," saying at a news conference that social workers prematurely closed their files on a family that struggled on the fringes since arriving in the city in December 2005.
The parents asked for food stamps and were turned down. They asked for housing assistance and were turned down again, officials said.
And, during repeated contacts with city agencies, there were warning signs that the family was in deep trouble, Fenty said.
Those red flags included reports from a nurse in July 2006 that both parents were substance abusers and that the children were living in a van, the mayor said. The case was closed because the family did not have a fixed address -- the opposite of what should have happened, Fenty said.
In March, the children stopped attending school after their father died in a Maryland hospice.
In May, the mayor said, a suspicious school social worker alerted Metropolitan Police that the mother might be holding a truant child "hostage." But the officer reported back that the children appeared to be healthy and were being home-schooled.
Then the family dropped off the social service agency radar.
On Wednesday, the family surfaced again, tragically, when four decomposing bodies were found by U.S. marshals serving an eviction notice.
