Avrett lost custody of her daughter after a former boyfriend was accused of abusing her. According to the suit, Avrett left "the person accused of abusing Haleigh" and planned to regain custody. However, she stated that the Department of Social Services threatened to take her unborn child if she did not sign the adoption papers.
So Haleigh's mother was safe enough to leave a newborn in her care/custody, but not safe enough to leave Haleigh with her? If they thought she was such a terrible mother, how could they leave any child with her?
This story has stunk from the beginning, and it just gets more putrid as more details emerge.
You nail it. Nothing makes sense here on the surface. We have to look deeper. There is one constant at every evil turning in Haleigh's life, and that's the sister, Holli Strickland. She was source of deceit, over and over.
Clearly, Holli had connections in DSS. She played them like a harp. For one, she was some sort of "welfare queen," swindling state agencies -- she had four fraudulent social securities numbers issued for Haleigh. Then later, when Haleigh was showing repeated signs of physical battering, Holli always managed to con the DSS case workers that the child was hurting herself! It should have been a giant alarm going off -- especially to trained personnel in a child welfare agency. The DSS is rightly condemned for overlooking the abuse until it was too late, but we can't rule out that Holli's connections in the bureau had much to do with it.
I think Holli simply stole the child from her sister, Allison Avrett. We should dig up that story again. Details were sketchy, but as I recall it, Holli invited Haleigh for a visit (Allison was some distance away, in Virginia, I think). Then, when the child was in her possession, she reported Allison and/or her boyfriend for abuse. The DSS conveniently turned custody over to Holli. I don't think Allison was even there to defend herself. In any case, the DSS threat against Allison's unborn baby decided the matter.
There is no question that Holli had a deep, violent hatred for Haleigh, and beat her sadistically. The only way I can get any sense out of this is that Holly hated her sister Allison and schemed to hurt her. I guess in her twisted mind, she was getting even with Allison by stealing and torturing Haleigh.
I'll bet the mother knew all about Holli's schemes.
Whew, I should read the news before I start writing! I just now saw the lawsuit story, and that's right to the point. Now I have to go read it and see if any of my theories go up in smoke :-)