SPRINGFIELD, IL – Illinois House Minority Leader Tony McCombie (R-Savanna) last week asked for a moment of silence in the House chamber for Markell Pierce, an eight-year-old who died on February 6th after the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services failed him.
McCombie went on to call on the House Speaker Chris Welch to immediately establish a formal, bipartisan working group on child welfare, to give House the opportunity to work with DCFS Director Miller and deliver the statutory changes needed to protect children and support caseworkers doing this very difficult work. She also asked the governor to be accountable for these failures, manage, and to put similar effort governing our state that he does fighting the federal government.
Police say child, Markell Pierce, was found unresponsive inside a home in the 1900 block of Cedar Lake Road of Round Lake Beach around 2:05 p.m. Friday, February 6th. Officers arrived first and began CPR before paramedics transported him to Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville, where he was pronounced dead.
First responders reported that he appeared malnourished and had bruising on his body, prompting police to request assistance from the Lake County Major Crime Task Force.
Markell’s mother, 33-year-old Dominique Servant and her boyfriend, 38-year-old Joey L. Ruffin, are charged with first-degree murder and child endangerment. A judge ruled last week that both will remain in jail while awaiting trial.
A daycare director in Round Lake Beach says she noticed troubling signs in the eight-year-old boy months before his death and tried to warn the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.