Father alleges state negligence in son's death

Two years ago, on a warm winter night in Bethel, 14-year-old Randy Beaver went missing after leaving a school dance. He was found a week later, frozen face down in a slough, wearing a red hooded sweatshirt, a black baseball cap, and two earrings in his left ear. Animals had chewed away pieces of his body.

Randy Beaver was a foster child, and his death raises questions about how the state Office of Children's Services selects and monitors foster parents. Last month Randy's father, Vincent Beaver, sued the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services and its Office of Children's Services, claiming that OCS' negligence caused Randy's death. Beaver alleges that Arlene Galila, the relative with whom OCS placed his children, was an unsafe foster mother. Galila was too young, he alleges in the suit, and she had both a criminal record and a drinking problem.

Galila denies Beaver's claims, and says she loved and cared for Randy as if he was her own son.

OCS, which has come under criticism in recent years for letting foster children slip through the cracks, won't comment on active litigation, but stories like Randy's have caught the attention of child advocates, lawmakers and lawyers who would like to see changes in the way the agency is organized.

A ‘great kid' and an unexpected death

Randy Beaver grew up in Goodnews Bay. By all accounts he was an outgoing and happy child who helped his elders and took care of his younger sisters.

"Randy was a great kid. He had a great sense of humor, and a village full of friends here," said Chris Carmichael, the principal of Randy's school in Goodnews Bay.

Carmichael remembers Randy hauling wood and water for his grandfather when the old man was dying of lung cancer, and recalls that both Randy and his brother Terry, a year older, were always taking care of their younger sisters.

In 2006, the four Beaver children -- brothers Terry and Randy and younger sisters Dancy and Brandy -- moved from the Kenai Peninsula, where they'd been living with relatives, back to their hometown of Goodnews Bay. Their mother, Nancy Beaver (who was convicted of child neglect in 2005), spent most of her time in Anchorage, and their father, Vincent Beaver, was serving a prison term for sexual assault. At first the four stayed with different family members in the village, just as they had when they were younger and their mother left them behind when she went to Anchorage.

A second cousin, Arlene Galila, says she was the only adult who stood up to say she would take care of the children.

"Nobody else wanted those kids," Galila said. OCS placed the four children with Galila, who was 23 at the time, and they moved into the two-bedroom house she shared with her brother and her son Tucker, who is now 5 years old. The family would go for walks together, and Friday evening was pizza night. Randy's favorite was pepperoni.

"We became a family," Galila said. "My son started calling them brothers, and the girls his sisters."

Galila and the five children moved south from Goodnews Bay to hub city Bethel around January 2007. On a November night that same year, Randy and his older brother Terry told Arlene they were going to a school dance. Randy had stopped going to school by that time, Galila said, and was angry and confused about why his parents didn't contact or take care of him. The low that night was 28 degrees.

When Randy didn't come home from the dance, at first Galila thought he might be staying at his girlfriend's house. It wouldn't have been the first time, she said. By the next evening she was worried enough to file a police report.

"Nice parenting," Galila recalls the officer who took her report saying sarcastically.

When Galila started asking Randy's friends what happened, the boys told her they had all been drinking and Randy had split off at some point.