Agency quiet on Kylla Pahl’s case

The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare had received no complaints about the Coeur d’Alene household where a 13-month-old girl was left unattended and suffered deadly burns Wednesday, according to the agency’s spokesman.

Spokesman Ross Mason said he couldn’t discuss the case of Kylla Pahl. The agency took her from her mother the day she was born because the infant tested positive for methamphetamine. He said the law doesn’t allow him to talk about the decision to return Kylla to her mother when the baby was about 4 months old.

The only information about Health and Welfare’s involvement in Kylla’s short life is gleaned from police reports and records from a criminal case against her mother for using meth while pregnant.

The Coeur d’Alene city attorney’s office said it dismissed charges against Megan Longoria because a November 2005 letter from Longoria’s caseworker said she had completed Health and Welfare programs and shown she “demonstrated she was a responsible parent.”

In the letter, Health and Welfare said it planned to reinstate full parental rights.

There was no mention in that letter or in the criminal file that Coeur d’Alene police found meth and syringes throughout the family’s home just two months earlier. The girl’s father, Kelley Pahl, was arrested on drug charges.

Longoria, who was home at the time with two other children, was not charged.

It’s unclear whether the city Police Department contacted Health and Welfare officials to report there were children at the home when drugs were found. According to Mason, the state never received any complaints about 1009 C St., where the family lived.

Coeur d’Alene police Sgt. Christie Wood said the department doesn’t have a protocol or policy for what to do when children are in a home where drugs are found.

“Certainly the expectation is we would act in the best interest of the children,” Wood said. She said officers could make a report to Health and Welfare and might not note that in a police report.

Longoria’s caseworker said in the letter to the Coeur d’Alene city attorney’s office that there had been home visits before Longoria regained custody. But Mason said Health and Welfare generally doesn’t do follow-up visits after children are returned to their parents.

“When the child goes back into the custody of the parents, and assuming there’s no court-ordered revisits or attachments, that family becomes that family again,” Mason said. “We have no right to walk into that house.”

Kootenai County Prosecutor Bill Douglas said Thursday that Coeur d’Alene police worked with his office to get a search warrant for the home, but he hadn’t received any reports from police. Wood said additional information about Wednesday’s deadly fire wouldn’t be released until the police investigation is complete. That could take up to a week or longer, she said.

Wood said she didn’t know how long Kylla was alone inside the home before it caught fire around 6:30 a.m. Wednesday. Fire investigators said an unattended candle ignited a dried floral arrangement.

Longoria was with a man in a car behind the home at the time, Wood said. She wouldn’t say what Longoria and the man were doing or why Kylla was left alone.

The girl’s father, who was in the Kootenai County Jail on meth charges from Spokane, was released from jail to deal with his daughter’s death. The family couldn’t be reached for comment Thursday.

Neighbors who knew the girl continued to grieve Thursday.

Phoenix Daley, 11, and Faustino Anaya, 10, said they are trying to raise money for a headstone for the baby, who died after being flown to a Seattle hospital. She suffered burns over 80 percent to 90 percent of her body.

Phoenix and Faustino live in a neighboring apartment.

They said they figure it would cost about $300 for a grave marker. The baby’s family “don’t have no money,” Phoenix said. “They don’t have any for dog food.”

The family dog, Eva, only responds to German, the boys said. “She’s skin and bones,” Phoenix said.

The boys said they always played with Kylla. She was learning to walk and would take three steps then fall, they said. She was always smiling and giggling.

She liked SpongeBob SquarePants and liked to repeat the cartoon character’s name, although she could never say it clearly. She also liked to play with Phoenix’s kitten, Nip.

“If I ever get another kitty, I’m going to call it Kylla,” Phoenix said.

The boys said they were sleeping outside when the fire broke out. When they awoke and saw what was happening, “We all cried,” Faustino said.

He said he was going to make a wooden cross with Kylla’s name on it and put it at the makeshift memorial, which included stuffed animals, in front of her home.