MEMPHIS, Tenn. — An East Memphis mother said her 16-year-old daughter was supposed to be in DCS custody Monday night.
Instead, she ended up jumping from a motel balcony with a man twice her age, and is now recovering in the hospital.
“Where was DCS when my daughter was jumping out this window?” said the girl’s mother, Tomorrow Bonds. “I’m enraged. I’m upset and I am mad because no one cared.”
Bonds said her daughter was removed from her home around the age of 13 following allegations of abuse, which Bonds denies.
Since then, she’s been staying with various foster families, but each time, ends up running away.
“From that time on, I have been searching for my daughter night and day, and finding her, and bringing her home,” said Bonds.
In January, she said she saw her daughter and another girl working the streets as prostitutes.
She believes their pimp was Marcus Ross, the same man she was discovered with at the motel.
“When I got in touch with the caseworker, she told me that she wasn’t on call and to call someone else,” said Bonds.
DCS emailed WREG a statement that reads in part, “They’re (kids in foster homes) not locked up, nor can they be. A determined teenager can certainly run away. When that happens, we alert law enforcement by policy, and our social workers reach out to families.”
It continues, “While we cannot go into details because of confidentiality laws, we will continue to investigate this case and to supply the care and services that children in these circumstances require.”
WREG spoke to a woman at the girl’s last known foster home near the airport, where we’re told she didn’t stay long.
“She just stayed on the phone. That’s all. She wasn’t here but two days,” said Verenestine Burnette, a friend of the girl’s foster mother.
Bonds said she is upset because she was never notified her daughter had left the foster home even though the foster family filed a police report.
She said she wants her daughter back home and may take legal action to make that happen.
“I want my child home because if not, she’s gonna end up dead,” said Bonds.
