DA Krasner announces independent investigation into death of Malayshia Alford

All day, all week, for the past couple of weeks, you've been working on this story. Ten-year-old Malaysia Alford, she went missing. She was not reported missing initially by her foster mom. And then we learned now that foster mom is charged with her death. So earlier today, there was a big press conference with the DA in Philadelphia. What spoke to you from that press conference? Well, Jen, we know, you know, obviously last week they announced criminal charges against Malaysia's foster mother, Caprice Williams. You mentioned that. And today they announced an independent investigation. And the district attorney would not say and really cannot say that this is going to be a grand jury investigation. But that's certainly what he was alluding to. And what a grand jury investigation would allow his office to do is to cast a much wider scope And look at not only. What was happening in the days leading up to Malaysia's tragic death, but years and the systems and the institutions that were meant to protect her, a grand jury investigation could look at all of that and it could result in criminal charges. We've seen that before against. You know, workers that should have been having better oversight, but it could also, or in addition, lead to recommendations for systemic change. And there's a lot more that could come from that. And that's certainly what stuck out to me today. We also went to a city council session where not only did they hold a moment of silence for Malaysia, but they introduced three different resolutions today in light of her murder. And again, they're calling for public hearings to examine everything, the city's community umbrella agencies, the school district of Philadelphia's hiring and screening practices, Because as you know, Williams was a school teacher, as well as the oversight of child welfare case management and foster care placement within DHS. This is what Councilmember Phillips had to say. We needed to find out how can they improve upon their observation processes when they go into these homes. Are they doing thorough checks on these CUAs, these Community Umbrella Agencies? Are they also finding ways to make sure that they're doing security background checks on these families that are watching our children? And also the school district of Philadelphia. What did the school district of Philadelphia fail to do? Because there was a way in which that reporting could have been connected to DHS. So this hearing is about making sure that we're protecting our children. And so we're also saying this will never, ever, ever happen again. I did ask Councilmember Phillips, what is going to make this different from previous hearings in the past involving DHS and previous investigations in the past? And you said that we know so much now, there are several. Facts of this case that have come to light, including that Williams was involved in an incident in 2021 where she was investigated for child abuse. And there are a lot of questions as to how she was able to be a school teacher and then have another foster child in her care in Malaysia. So now that that's out there, they feel that not only will they be able to get to the bottom of what happened here, but how they can prevent this moving forward. And council members I spoke with are adamant that There will be change. Several of them have been calling for change for a long time. And they said now, you know, but that's all coming to light. There's no choice but to move forward in a better and bigger way. I think I saw on social media, and it might have been from you, did you get video of her singing a song of love in a classroom, Malaysia? Yes. I mean, I think, yes, we need to remember who she was that, you know, we've talked about this. She must have been so scared. And the fact that she was able to fight through that at times and love on her classmates is just a testament of who she She was and, you know, maybe we need to mention that as well a little bit. We absolutely do. I had been trying for days to get that video. It was taken by a former teacher of hers. And you can imagine that teacher is absolutely heartbroken and devastated. She's also scared because she has a full-time job with the district. So she was not sure if she could talk to me, but we kind of got to the bottom of it. And she agreed to share that video and she wasn't ready to do an on-camera interview yet for the reasons I just discussed. But she said She said that Malaysia was such a bright light. And I think that video shows. Such a sweet, happy, normal, young girl, and it just puts into perspective who we're talking about here, and I think we haven't seen recent video of her. We've seen those adorable pictures, and then we've seen stuff from when she was younger, but it's just a glimpse into who she was, her personality, which seems amazing, and it's heartbreaking. I was personally heartbroken I'm so broken to see that video because that, yeah. She just seems so happy and just like a normal girl trying to have a normal life and sadly in so many ways that was not possible for her. I know. Thank you for getting it because we need to let people know who she was. All right. Thank you, Kelly.