Foster father seems suspicious

Scrutiny follows foster parents
Cincinnati Enquirer. News, pg. 1A
Eileen Kelley and Quan Truong Enquirer staff writers
Date: August 27, 2006

Questions intensify amid search for missing boy
CLERMONT COUNTY

Cherise Adkins stood in line at a Speedway when the conversation about Marcus Fiesel started.

"The foster dad must have done it; a little boy just cannot vanish."

"That's my family," Adkins blurted out, hoping the conversation would stop.

It didn't. The conversation got heated.

Adkins said she wasn't trying to defend her family, she just wanted the speculation to stop.

The scene wasn't unique.

Across Greater Cincinnati, debate about what happened to 3-year-old Marcus Fiesel continues to build the longer the child is missing.

Marcus disappeared Aug. 15, according to his foster mother, who told police she passed out from a heart condition and when she revived in the ambulance Marcus was gone.

Since he vanished, foster parents David and Liz Carroll as well as a live-in girlfriend, Amy Baker, have come under increasing scrutiny.

At the time of the Speedway incident, Adkins didn't know what to say.

Now, after 13 days of soul-searching, Adkins said she wants to talk about Marcus' foster father David Carroll Jr.

Through an unusual mix of marriages, relations and divorces, David Carroll Jr. is both Adkins' stepbrother and a second cousin. The truth is thicker than blood, she said.

The picture Adkins, other friends, family and court records paint is not flattering.

David Carroll Jr., 29, isn't a poster boy for foster dads. He hasn't held a regular job in about three years. He fathered three children by three women - two of whom are sisters - within a month of each other eight years ago. He moved his girlfriend into his rental house with his wife, Liz, 30.

"Where are the morals?" asked Adkins, 27. "Would you care to send your kids to a wife, a husband and a girlfriend?"

Family members and friends say that side of David Carroll Jr. must not have surfaced when he and Liz Carroll started taking care of children. They also question how thorough the background checks are when they allow people like the Carrolls to raise vulnerable children at taxpayers' expense.

David Carroll Jr. was charged with domestic violence in June, a little more than a month after Marcus was placed in his home. The complaint filed with Union Township Police on June 18 said Liz Carroll reported he pushed her into a door and a pool table. The next day she received a temporary protection order against him.

The case was mediated and the charges dismissed although he had to pay fines. He had no criminal record when the couple's license was renewed in January.

The Carrolls failed to report the arrest to their caseworker with Lifeway for Youth, the agency that placed Marcus with the Carrolls. The state requires families to report any arrests within 24 hours.

Friends and family say David Carroll Jr. didn't care for Marcus and told people about it. Marcus, they say, needed Liz Carroll and Amy Baker's constant attention, and that made David Carroll Jr. feel left out and upset.

A few months ago, David Carroll Jr. left his wife and told friends he wasn't sure the life he had with her rearing foster children was what he wanted.

"He said he was tired," said Cynthia Smith, who has been friends with the couple about four years. "He didn't know if he liked coming home and being around kids all day."

David Carroll Jr. brought Baker with him when he moved back into the house.

Baker denies being his live-in girlfriend. "I've stayed a night or two, but I don't live there," she said.

Friends and relatives say that's not true. As for Liz Carroll, no one denies she is loving and patient with children. However, some friends and relatives question her recent behavior.

Efforts to reach David and Liz Carroll were unsuccessful.

Retracing steps
On Aug. 15, television stations broke into regularly scheduled programs mid-afternoon to announce the "critical missing" case of Marcus. The boy's foster mother said she took four children to Juilfs Park in Anderson Township and passed out from a heart condition.

When she regained consciousness, just three of the children were nearby: a child she had with David Carroll Jr., a foster child since removed from the house and a toddler girl they were baby-sitting.

Marcus, who was removed from a filthy home in Middletown in early May, was wandering around the park, many thought. Searchers by the hundreds fanned the 28 acres and surrounding neighborhoods. The dogs found no trace of Marcus.

Neither did anyone else.

"I was sick to my stomach, shaking all over. I was hurt. I could feel the pain in my heart knowing I wasn't getting there fast enough," Adkins said of the drive to the park.

But something else wasn't sitting well with Adkins.

At the park, Adkins approached David Carroll Jr.

"I thought, 'We're gonna find this baby.' And then I hugged Davey and looked at my brother-in-law and said, 'Something's just not right.' Davey had no emotion; no fear."

As the search went on, Adkins said, she heard David Carroll Jr. blurt out, "I'm going to prison."

Adkins said she has talked to investigators about the case.

Other relatives also have been interviewed.

Inconsistent comments
Investigators with the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office have not named a suspect in the case. They also refuse to talk about who has taken a lie-detector test.

Liz Carroll initially told the media her husband took and passed the test.

On Tuesday, Carroll's story changed.

"They told him he failed," Liz Carroll said during a 40-minute press conference.

Since Marcus' disappearance, Liz Carroll's comments have been inconsistent. She's changed her comments about whether her husband passed a lie-detector test, when a case worker last saw Marcus and when she first learned he was missing. "How can they come out in public and say as many lies as they did? How can you lie so many times in one public viewing? It's bogus," Adkins said.

The Carrolls have moved out of a middle-class neighborhood rental home in Clermont's Union Township. It is not clear where they are living.

They have lost - at least for the time being - their licenses to provide day-care and foster care.

Liz Carroll told The Enquirer last week that she made more than $3,000 a month tending to children.

Relatives say David Carroll Jr. worked at a Rent-A-Center in Clermont County a few years ago and may have held a job for about a week sometime this year. He has pursued a futile quest to get on Social Security disability for mental instability, his relatives say.

Emotional toll
Adkins said the search for Marcus has taken an emotional and physical toll on the family.

Dave Carroll Sr. and his wife Joyce, Adkins' mother, both cry often over the loss of a child and the pressure on the family. Joyce Carroll is David Carroll Jr.'s aunt.

"My mom, she don't sleep. She's a mess. She took the TV out on the front porch and the radio is outside. She waits and cries and waits," Adkins said.

Dave Carroll Sr., she said, is having a difficult time at work with the U.S. Post Office with many mistakenly accusing him of covering for his son.

"He's so depressed he won't even leave his bedroom when he comes home," Adkins said.

Adkins said she only came forward with her doubts after several discussions with Dave Carroll Sr. "I'm risking a lot and I am risking the relationship that my children will have with their (family). But there's a baby's life. There's Marcus," Adkins said.

"I pray and I hope they didn't do nothing. I wish there was breaking news that he was found in Alaska or something. But nothing they are saying is adding up," she said.

"I don't believe that he was in the park," Adkins said of Marcus. "I want him to be alive. I don't want to believe one of my family members or someone I know could do something like this. I want him to be alive. I want him to have a life; to live. But it has been just too many days."

E-mail ekelley@enquirer.com and qtruong@enquirer.com

Where to call
Anyone with information about Marcus Fiesel is asked to call 911. Or to report anonymously, call Crime Stoppers at 513-352-3040. A $10,000 reward has been offered. To pass along information: Call The Enquirer's tip line at 513-768-8651 or e-mail localnews@enquirer.com