LARGO — On Friday, a caseworker visited the apartment Jordan Belliveau shared with his mother, police said.
On Sunday, phone screens lit up with an Amber Alert that the 2-year-old boy was missing, sparking an intensive search by police.
On Tuesday, authorities found his body in a wooded area tucked behind the Largo Sports Complex. Largo police detectives arrested his mother, 21-year-old Charisse Stinson, in the child’s death.
The case has rattled the community, devastated family members and made some question how a child on the radar of multiple child welfare agencies could have fallen so far through the cracks.
“Jordan was failed by the system,” his former foster parents said in a statement. “He was failed by many people who should have protected him but didn’t.”
Stinson initially told authorities that a man had offered her and Jordan a ride Saturday night while they were walking near Belcher Road and East Bay Drive. The man, identified as “Antwan,” knocked her unconscious, she said. She woke up in Largo Central Park without Jordan.
Police Lt. Randall Chaney said Wednesday that detectives believe that was all a lie.
“During her interview, she would constantly change what she was saying based on the line of questioning,” Chaney said, characterizing the young mother as “deceptive.” “There was no feeling with them that there was any remorse, only her attempting to escape the reality of the story by making things up as she went.”
RELATED: Police: Mother faces murder charge in death of 2-year-old Jordan Belliveau
According to an arrest report, Stinson told police during questioning that she struck 2-year-old Jordan Belliveau in the face “during a moment of frustration” after the child suffered an “unexplained, serious injury” to his right leg.
She told police she hit the child in the face with the back of her hand early Sunday, causing his head to strike a wall in her home.
The blow caused him to have seizures, according to the report.
As his condition worsened, according to the report, Stinson took Jordan to a wooded area during the night and left him there. Injuries found on the child’s body are consistent with what she said, according to the report.
Detectives received information from a third party about the location of Belliveau’s body, Chaney said. Authorities found him in the woods east of Lake Avenue NE and McMullen Road behind a baseball field at the Largo Sports Complex. It’s unknown whether Jordan was dead or alive when he was dropped in the woods.
Detectives arrested Stinson on Tuesday on first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse charges. While detectives believe she acted alone, they are still looking for a passerby who may have encountered her Saturday night near the 7-Eleven at 1200 E Bay Drive.
Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Nancy Moate Ley ordered Stinson held without bail on the murder charge and $500,000 for the child abuse charge at Stinson’s first appearance Wednesday. She also appointed a public defender for Stinson, who said she could not afford a lawyer.
As the case worked its way through the court system, more details emerged on Jordan’s short life.
Family members and police confirmed Jordan had recently reunited with his mother after a stay in foster care.
His former foster parents, Sam and Juliet Warren, said in a statement the child had lived with them from January 2017 until he was returned to Stinson on May 31. The Florida Department of Children and Families said in a statement Wednesday that it would conduct a special review of prior contact with the child.
Family members and friends of the child’s father, who is also named Jordan, had biting words for the child’s mother, speaking to reporters after the court hearing.
“Why should she be given a chance? My grandson was not given a chance,” said his grandmother, Jessica Belliveau. The “death penalty’s too easy. I want her to live her life out knowing what she did to my grandson.”
They also expressed frustration at what they said was a failure of the child welfare system.
“Where was the caseworker?” said the child’s great aunt, Nakishia Pressley. “Where were you? Why didn’t you check up on this baby?”
The caseworker who visited Jordan and his mother’s Largo apartment on Friday was from Directions for Living, according to police. The Clearwater agency is a subcontractor of Eckerd Connects, which contracts with DCF to run foster care in Pinellas and Pasco counties.
Directions released this statement from president and CEO April Lott:
“We are devastated to learn the tragic details of this case as they have unfolded. We grieve alongside Jordan’s family and our community as we process this heartbreaking information.”
Lott said her organization is working with investigators in the case but would not release any other information.
DCF and Eckerd representatives said their agencies had prior contact with the family but did not release further details Wednesday. So did the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office, which conducts child welfare investigations.
Jessica Belliveau added that welfare workers were planning to conduct a study of her home Wednesday to consider whether Jordan could live with her. Stinson was unemployed and being evicted from her apartment, she said.
“He’s got a whole family,” Pressley said. “All of us would have pitched in.”
Records show Jordan’s parents had a tumultuous relationship with allegations of domestic violence flying between them. Jessica Belliveau and Pressley said they believe Stinson killed the child out of revenge. The elder Jordan had broken up with Stinson in July, they said.
RELATED: Amid strife, missing boy’s father says he doesn’t believe mother’s story
“She told him she was going to make him hurt like he made her hurt,” said another great aunt, Sheryl Pressley.
Adding to the complication is that Stinson is pregnant, Jessica Belliveau said. The grandmother said she’s planning to take that child.
“She will not hurt another baby again, and I put that on Jesus,” she said.
On Wednesday, photos from Jordan’s former foster parents circulated online. The child smiled in almost all of them, beneath a head of curly brown hair, wearing a onesie that said “Flexin’ Friday” in one, holding an American flag in another, reaching toward the camera on the hip of his foster mom in a third.
“Jordan was filled with joy,” the Warrens said. “Most folks knew the Jordan that was laid back with an easy smile and a twinkle in his eye. He was our ‘Mr. Chuckles.’”
When asked what the loss meant for his family, Jessica Belliveau answered quickly.
“Our world.”
Contact Kathryn Varn at (727) 893-8913 or <a href=”mailto:kvarn@tampabay.com”>kvarn@tampabay.com</a>. Times staff writer Christopher O’Donnell contributed to this report.

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Police: Mother faces murder charge in death of 2-year-old Jordan Belliveau
Amid strife, missing boy’s father says he doesn’t believe mother’s story
Largo police release sketch of man sought in disappearance of 2-year-old boy

DALLAS – An off-duty Dallas police officer shot and killed a man after walking into the wrong apartment in her building just south of Downtown Dallas.
It happened around 10 p.m. Thursday. The Dallas Police Department said the officer had just finished her shift and entered what she believed was her own apartment at the South Side Flats. The complex is near the department’s headquarters on Lamar Avenue.
But it was not the right apartment and the officer ran into a man who she didn’t recognize. She ended up shooting him. Responding officers found 26-year-old Botham Shem Jean badly wounded. He was taken to the hospital and died a short time later, police said.

Police would not say whether the female officer fired her weapon because she thought Jean was an intruder or for some other reason. It’s not yet clear how she got into the wrong apartment.

People who live nearby said they got a notification about the shooting on the app Nextdoor. They can’t believe what happened.
“Super scary because the police are supposed to protect you and then they come home and, you know, you’re just hanging out in your own house and then they come home thinking they’re home or whatever. I don’t know if she was tired but that’s pretty scary,” said Richard Healy Nelson, who lives in the complex.
Dallas police have not yet released the officer’s name. She is now on administrative leave.
The department is still investigating and will be conducting a joint investigation with the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office.

A Dallas man was killed late Thursday when a police officer returning home from her shift entered the wrong apartment in her building and eventually opened fire, authorities said.
Details surrounding the death of Botham Shem Jean, a 26-year-old native of St. Lucia, were not immediately available early Friday.

His mother, Allie Jean, said in a phone interview from her St. Lucia home that his family was stunned to learn of his death.
“He did no one any wrong,” she said.
Dallas police in a statement said that preliminary information suggests the officer involved called for help, and told responding officers that “she entered the victim’s apartment believing that it was her own.”
The incident began just before 10 p.m. CT (11 p.m. ET) at the South Side Flats, an upscale apartment complex directly south of Dallas’ downtown.

During the encounter, the officer was in full uniform and “fired her weapon striking the victim,” police said.
Jean was taken to the hospital and died. The Dallas County Medical Examiner later released his identity.
The officer was not immediately identified, and was being placed on administrative leave during the investigation.
At a news conference early Friday, Dallas police Sgt. Warren Mitchell said they had yet to interview the officer and would not speculate as to whether she mistakenly entered another apartment and believed the man already inside was an intruder.

“We still have a lot to do in this investigation,” Mitchell added.
Allie Jean said her son lived in a gated apartment complex and had no reason not to trust anyone who was at his door.
“He’s that kind of person,” she said.
But she questioned how the situation could have escalated to her son’s shooting.

“Somebody has to be crazy not to realize that they walked into the wrong apartment,” Allie Jean said. “He’s a bachelor. Things are different inside.”
“And if you try your key and it doesn’t work, that should make you realize you’re at the wrong apartment,” she added. “Every door for each apartment is also numbered.”
Allie Jean said she would speak with her son daily, usually before 10 p.m., but thought he might be out after she didn’t hear from him.
She remembered her son, who was nicknamed Bo, as a top student in St. Lucia who loved serving as a song leader in church. She said he graduated from Harding University in Arkansas in 2016, and then remained in the U.S. after getting an internship at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Dallas, where he worked in the risk assurance department.

“We were very, very close,” Allie Jean said. “We would talk about everything, about politics. Botham loved everyone, and everyone loved him.”
His sister, Allisa Charles-Findley, had spoken to him before his death: “My brother is my best friend,” she said. “My heart is broken beyond repair.”

Another constitutionally protected right in the presidential cross hairs this week: freedom of the press. In response to Mr. Woodward’s book, Mr. Trump mused provocatively on Twitter, “Don’t know why Washington politicians don’t change libel laws?”
No one enjoys criticism, especially from people who are considered supporters. Even so, it takes a special kind of leader to suggest that critical coverage should be handled by eroding the First Amendment, as Mr. Trump has since early in the 2016 race, when he began vowing that, as president, he would “open up those libel laws” to punish media outlets that did “hit pieces” on him. Apparently, denouncing journalists as the “enemy of the American people” and whipping the crowds at his rallies into an anti-media frenzy is not enough to soothe Mr. Trump’s chronic sense of victimhood.
Also back in the news this week is Mr. Trump’s war on the N.F.L. players protesting racial injustice and police brutality. In this case, Mr. Trump hasn’t moved to make kneeling during the national anthem explicitly illegal. He has simply slammed the protests as “disgraceful” and the players as disrespectful, unpatriotic “sons of bitches,” called on the offending players to be fired, suggested they maybe “shouldn’t be in the country,” stoked public rage against the entire league, and toyed with the idea of punishing the league via the tax code.
Not all of the talk Mr. Trump is itching to do away with is, strictly speaking, protected political speech. When he learned last month that Michael Cohen, his former lawyer and longtime fixer, had cut a plea deal with federal prosecutors, Mr. Trump threw a fit, arguing that “flipping” — that is, cooperating in criminal investigations — wasn’t just disloyal and disgraceful, it “almost ought to be outlawed.”
Mr. Trump has also advocated denying due process to immigrants seeking asylum. As he tweeted earlier this summer: “We cannot allow all of these people to invade our Country. When somebody comes in, we must immediately, with no Judges or Court Cases, bring them back from where they came.”
Mr. Trump, we understand that you consider the Constitution inconvenient at times. And we appreciate how vexing you find these subordinates sniping at you. But if you continue to behave as you do, and keep proving your harshest critics right, it’s only going to get worse.
Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook and Twitter (@NYTOpinion).

WASHINGTON – Who is the anonymous senior official in the Trump administration who wrote the New York Times opinion piece attacking President Donald Trump? According to some oddsmakers, Vice President Mike Pence and Attorney General Jeff Sessions are two of their favorites.
As of Thursday night, gambling site MyBookie placed Pence as a 2-to-3 odds favorite while Secretary of Education Betsy Devos came in behind him at 2-to-1. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House Chief of Staff John Kelly were placed with 4-to-1 odds. Here’s the rest of their list:

– James Mattis – Secretary of Defense– 5-to-1
– Jeff Sessions – Attorney General – 5-to-1
– Ryan Zinke – Secretary of the Interior – 6-to-1
– Sonny Perdue – Secretary of Agriculture – 6-to-1
– Wilbur Ross – Secretary of Commerce – 7-to-1
– Alex Acosta – Secretary of Labor – 7-to-1
– Alex Azar – Secretary of Health and Human Services – 8-to-1
– Ben Carson – Secretary of Housing and Urban Development – 8-to-1
– Robert Wilkie – Secretary of Veterans Affairs – 8-to-1
– Kirstjen Nielsen – Secretary of Homeland Security – 10-to-1
– Ivanka Trump – 12-to-1
– Jared Kushner – Trump Senior Advisor – 12-to-1
– Stephen Miller – White House Senior Advisor – 15-to-1
– Field – 1-to-3

According to Bovada, Sessions was their favorite at 11-to-4 odds as of Thursday night. Sessions was followed by Pence at 7-to-2 and Kelly at 9-to-2 odds. Here are the rest of Bovada’s contenders:
– Dan Coats – Director of National Intelligence – 5-to-1
– James Mattis – Secretary of Defense – 6-to-1
– Nikki Haley – United States Ambassador to the United Nations – 10-to-1
– Kellyanne Conway –White House Counselor – 15-to-1
– Don McGahn – White House Counsel – 15-to-1
– “Javanka” (Jared Kushner/Ivanka Trump) – 20-to-1
– President Donald Trump – 25-to-1
– First lady Melania Trump – 50-to-1
Many of Trump’s top officials in his administration on Thursday have denied being the author of the op-ed, which included Pence, Pompeo, Coats and other Cabinet members.

Since the fall of the Soviet Union, Spain has been a haven for Russian crime bosses and corrupt officials fond of Lamborghinis and sprawling villas on the Costa del Sol. Some are believed to have ties to the Kremlin.
Mr. Skripal’s continued visits to Spain were confirmed by a current senior official, who would not provide additional details. But former officials said that Mr. Skripal would have been especially useful in crackdowns on Russian organized crime.
“From the beginning we had a big problem,” said a retired Spanish police chief, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss confidential investigations. “We ignored the Russian phenomenon and its organized crime. We didn’t know how they operated.”
“Skripal, Litvinenko,” he said, “they gave a more accurate idea of the reality.”
Spanish prosecutors and police investigators have acknowledged working with Mr. Litvinenko, an expert in Russian organized crime who fled to England after publicly falling out with Vladimir V. Putin when he was director of the Federal Security Service.
At the British inquest into Mr. Litvinenko’s death, his family’s lawyer claimed that he was also a paid agent of the Spanish intelligence agency and had planned to travel to Spain to hand over evidence about possible links between the Kremlin and Russian organized crime figures. He was killed before he could make the trip.
Officials would not say whether Mr. Skripal was involved in similar work, or, as in Estonia and the Czech Republic, was simply giving lectures to Spanish spies. Such visits would not have been illegal, nor are they uncommon for former spies trying to remain useful.
Mr. Skripal’s Russian colleagues, though, might have viewed things differently.
Aleksandr Gusak, a retired Federal Security Service colonel, has spent a lot of time thinking about traitors. He was Mr. Litvinenko’s superior officer at the time he defected to Britain. Russians, he said, had a kind of genetic antipathy toward traitors, though he added that if he had carried out the attack on Mr. Skripal he would have used “a sword rather than a spray.”
“I was raised on Soviet ideas,” Mr. Gusak said. “For me, a traitor, you spit on them, grab them and shoot them. Or hang them and piss on their grave.”