A history of complaints in foster child’s death

A woman jailed on suspicion of first-degree murder and felony child abuse in connection with the death of a 2-year-old foster child was described by police on Thursday as a “professional foster parent.”

Jules Lynn Cuneo, 34, was being held without bond Thursday in the El Paso County Criminal Justice Center.

Authorities identified the victim as Alizé Vick, who died Wednesday afternoon, a day after suffering what a neurosurgeon described to police as a “violent blow to the head.”

Cuneo looked ashen and cried throughout a short video hearing before El Paso County 4th Judicial Magistrate John Paul Lyle. She waived the reading of allegations against her, quietly answering, “Yes, sir” when asked if she understood the proceedings.

In addition to the homicide investigation, sheriff’s deputies are looking into a series of child abuse complaints against Cuneo for incidents that allegedly happened in her home dating to 2003.

These included one made to the county Department of Human Services on May 8 — a couple months after Alizé and her 9-month-old brother, Anthony, were placed in Cuneo’s home, said Joe Breister, law enforcement bureau chief for the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office.

A neighbor had heard and recorded the sounds of screaming over her baby monitor, which was picking up activities in the Cuneo home, Breister said.

On the tape, the neighbor said she could hear the child screaming for Cuneo to get off her and Alizé crying that she couldn’t breathe, Breister said. According to the jail booking record, Cuneo weighs 300 pounds.

Breister confirmed sheriff’s investigators had picked up a copy of the three-hour tape, which was in a file at the DHS office.

Unlike three earlier complaints, Breister said there was no indication the May 8 complaint, which included a letter from the neighbor, had been investigated.

“The letter is crying out for DHS to take some type of action to protect the child,” Breister said. “But there is nothing in the file to indicate anyone has looked into this. We have a handwritten intake sheet with the letter attached to it.”

Barbara Drake, director of the Department of Human Services, said Thursday the law prohibits her from talking about specific cases.

She said any credible complaint would have been investigated by her staff, which monitors foster parents in El Paso County. About 400 children are in foster care at any given time, she said.

Drake, who has been with the agency 30 years in various capacities, said she couldn’t remember the last child who died in foster care.

“This is a terrible tragedy,” Drake said. “We are going to do a thorough internal investigation. We’ll turn every stone to understand and improve our role in terms of this.”

Breister said deputies were called to Cuneo’s home on Calle Corvo, a street in an unincorporated neighborhood west of Colorado Highway 115 near Fort Carson, on Tuesday evening and found the child in “grave condition.”

She was flown to Memorial Hospital.

Deputies interviewed Cuneo, who told them Alizé had fallen out of a parked sport utility vehicle earlier in the day and hit her head.

Later in the afternoon, Cuneo told deputies, she was bouncing the child on her knee when she fell off and struck her head on a coffee table.

Deputies didn’t believe her, Breister said, and pressed Cuneo for details.

“The head trauma was too severe to be caused by a fall from a parked vehicle,” he said, citing assessments of neurosurgeons at the hospital.

In an arrest affidavit, detective Cliff Porter said Cuneo confessed “she had gotten angry” with Alizé and had “thrown the victim hard enough that she landed on the opposite side of the table on the floor.”

Breister said his agency was getting a subpoena for the files of Kids Crossing, the child-placement agency that hired Cuneo as a foster parent. Besides the complaints filed with the county, Breister said several complaints were made by Alizé’s grandparents to Kids Crossing.

A Kids Crossing spokesperson declined to comment Thursday.

Alizé’s grandmother, Kathleen Heil, confirmed that she had made three complaints after picking up Alizé and Anthony from Cuneo’s home for visitations.

“We saw bruising on her face, a fat lip, a black eye and a broken tooth one time,” Heil said through sobs and tears. “At first, I thought Jules was a godsend. Then things changed. She didn’t want to give me information about my grandkids.”

Heil said the children were put in foster care because their parents, 20-year-old Ashley Lindenberger and 22-year-old Christopher Vick, are in jail.

Heil said Lindenberger is being held on drug charges. Vick, who has a tattoo of his daughter’s name, is serving six months for assault, according to the sheriff’s jail log.

Heil said she reported Cuneo after seeing a change in Alizé.

“One time when I picked the kids up, Alizé said ‘Mommy hit me,’ meaning Jules. I called Kids Crossing,” Heil said. “It got to be bad when I tried to drop them off at the end of our visits. Alizé would kick and scream and cry. She’d say ‘Grandma, don’t leave me.’”

Heil sobbed when she learned of the audiotape made by Cuneo’s neighbor.

“Oh, my God, they should have taken my grandchildren out of there,” Heil said. “My granddaughter is dead because of them.”

Cuneo is a single mother with twin 8-year-old children, who are now in foster care, Breister said. Alizé’s brother, Anthony, also remains in foster care, Heil said.

A spokeswoman at Central Christian Church on West Pikes Peak Avenue confirmed Cuneo was children’s event coordinator at the nondenominational church. But she declined to identify herself, and pastor Derry Gibson did not return phone calls.

Breister described Cuneo as a “professional foster parent” who supported herself on the payments for caring for foster children. Drake said payments range from $400 a month up to $1,000 for special-needs children.

Cuneo’s next court date is Oct. 22, when formal charges may be filed against her. The homicide is the first in unincorporated El Paso County this year.

Gazette reporter Dennis Huspeni contributed to this report.