Stolen & starved
A poor boy died emaciated and beaten, but who was to blame?
Before Navin Jones was born in December 2013, there was red flag after red flag against his parents.
By then, Brandon Walker and Stephanie Jones had each racked up a string of arrests and convictions. A reel of police mugshots. When their first son was born in 2010, he was immediately taken into care by the Department of Children and Family Services – the DCFS – until 2012.
Then, little Navin was born with drugs in his system.
Both boys were taken into care, before going to live with Brandon’s mother, Laura Walker.
Laura officially became the youngsters’ legal guardian in 2017.
Their years with their grandmother in Peoria, Illinois, were happy ones.
Navin loved playing outside with his older brother and collecting stuffed dragons.
The boys still visited their parents. Yet this resulted in multiple calls to DCFS.
After one visit, Stephanie was accused of spanking Navin, then 4, so hard she left bruises.
But in July 2021, Laura had a family emergency.
She had to travel to help her sick mother.
So the boys were left in the care of Stephanie and Brandon.
It was supposed to be a temporary arrangement.
But when Laura returned in August, Brandon and Stephanie refused to return the kids.
Wouldn’t answer her calls.
Begging for help
Laura drove round, where she was met by a defiant Stephanie on the doorstep. ‘She threatened to kill me,’ said Laura.
Police were called and Laura showed them her paperwork proving that she was their legal guardian.
But the police said it was a ‘civil matter’.
Desperate, Laura reported that the boys had been kidnapped, and a DCFS investigation was also opened.
Laura said she’d gone round, looked through the windows.
Saw the place strewn with rubbish.
She begged for help, telling the authorities that Stephanie had a history of violence towards the children.
But Stephanie and Brandon then left the state with the boys.
A worrying game of cat and mouse followed.
In October the DCFS finally tracked them down and spoke to Brandon on the phone in Florida.
He said they wouldn’t be coming back.
The following month the DCFS closed the case.
A fresh investigation was launched the following February, in 2022.
By now the family had returned to Illinois, and an anonymous tip alleged Navin had black eyes from falling down the stairs.
And that his mother would lock him in the basement for being naughty.
The boys weren’t enrolled in school, either.
Growing concerns
A worried caseworker visited Ste
