When child protective services took four-year-old Jamie Mayne from his father, they never bothered to tell his mother, Marie Panos, who was not living with the man.  The mother was never accused of abusing or neglecting the boy.  But after she found out about the removal two days later and offered to care for him, authorities in California refused. They decided to make a “child focused” decision, to “put the child first,” to “err on the side of the child” by placing Jamie with a stranger.

"I went up to them to get my children, and they said they’re in the system now and I had to do a case plan in order to get my kids back,” Panos said.

But a jury in Visalia, California found that while Panos was working on her “case plan,” Jamie was being tortured and murdered by his foster mother.  He died of a collapsed heart, a ruptured small bowel and an abdominal hemorrhage.  There were more than 40 bruises on his body.       “It’s hard because I can’t pick him up and kiss him,” Panos said at the foster mother’s trial.  “All I have is a headstone to look at instead of his beautiful face (source: Link )