The Times tells us how nobody was paying enough attention

Disintegration of a Mother’s Life Was Long Hidden in Plain Sight

"Last Sunday, Ms. Brewer dialed 911 to report that she had drowned the children one by one in the bathtub in their small, neatly kept apartment here. Ms. Brewer said she first had subdued the oldest, 6-year-old Jewell Ward, by stabbing her repeatedly with a knife. Ms. Brewer then threw herself from the second-floor bedroom window."

In a tight-knit community where a dozen churches and scores of family members were within walking distance, where individual social workers and case workers were known on the street by sight, the social safety net in all its guises seemed to have been as much at a loss as Ms. Brewer herself was in those solitary walks with the empty stroller.

Among the factors contributing to the failure of government to protect Ms. Brewer’s three children, officials said last week, were privacy regulations. Police, mental health, child protection and Family Court officials all had case files on the family, Dr. Curtis said, yet none was in communication with workers in the other agencies — a problem officials said they would try to remedy.