Joshua Hill and his wife lost their two-year daughter to foster care in November because of "neglectful supervision" (they smoked pot in the house). On Wednesday, Alexandra Hill died of head injuries. The foster mother has been charged with murder.
It's unclear how the Hills were caught smoking marijuana in their Round Rock, Texas apartment. The Department of Family and Protective Services took Alex and placed her in a foster home. Hill, of course, was not happy about this, but when he saw she had bruises during a visitation he took action and got her placed with another family. Hill thought that was working out until Thursday when he received a call that Alex had been rushed to the hospital. By the time he got there on July 29, she was in a coma. Alex was taken off life support two days later.
Police arrested Sherill Small of nearby Rockville. (Both towns are just north of Austin.) She's being held on $100,000 bail.
This is clearly a case of the drug war trampling all over peoples' lives. Had marijuana been legal in Texas or federally, Alex Hill would be alive today.
“We never hurt our daughter," Joshua Hill says. "She was never sick, she was never in the hospital and she never had any issues until she went into state care.”
