Jasmine doesn't remember the mother who Nancy used to be. She had been too little to recognize the drug use and the unclean home in which she lived - too young to see her mother beaten by a father she wouldn't recognize if he returned from prison. But at 18 months she was old enough to reach the razor blades, butane lighters, broken mirrors and syringes left on the table while Nancy lay unconscious, passed-out in her bedroom closet.
This was how the Eureka Police Department found the home. A neighbor had called anonymously to report an unattended and screaming child. After finding Jasmine alone, the police arrested Nancy and took Jasmine to a temporary shelter. Nancy was arrested and incarcerated for willful harm to a child.
"At first," said Amanda, the CASA volunteer assigned to help Jasmine, "Nancy acted real put-out – like what she'd done wasn't that bad and people were just picking on her. Her attitude was poor and she really seemed very resistant to anyone helping her."
For three months Nancy remained in jail and Jasmine was moved into the home of her Great Grandmother. "Things started off really well with Jasmine's placement with (Great) Grandma," said Amanda. "But it didn't take long for us to realize that the abuse issues didn't begin and end with Nancy. The family had a legacy of drugs, child abuse, incest, rape, molestation and child pornography. The mother (Nancy) had been sexually abused as a child and after a few allegations of drug abuse at the (Great) Grandma's home, the child was placed into the care of a local Foster family"