A mother's grief is compounded by her belief that the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families (DCF) was an essential cause of her daughter's heartbreaking death. Cheryl Gaulin blames DCF and the state-licensed foster family for the trauma and loss of her daughter, Kristine.
As reported by NECN, Kristine had been placed in the foster home of Ray and Susan Blouin when she was just two weeks old. According to Gaulin, her daughter had been subjected to horrific abuse throughout her childhood, impacting her mental and emotional well-being. Kristine endured sexual, physical, and mental trauma, but the red flags were seemingly missed and ignored by DCF.
Documents including court records, police reports, and DCF records obtained by the NBC10 Boston Investigators highlight a pattern of abuse of foster children within the Blouins' home. Kristine was one of many foster kids who were cycled through the household, experiencing a "dehumanizing situation" according to John Williams, another foster child who lived with the Blouins during the same period.
Both Kristine and Williams eventually ran away from the Blouins' home, seeking reprieve from the torment they faced. At the age of 15, Kristine found refuge in the home of Gaulin and her husband, arriving with only one photo from her entire childhood and a myriad of traumatic memories.
In 2003, Ray Blouin pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting Kristine, while his daughter faced accusations of molesting Kristine and was charged as a juvenile. Despite these alarming issues, DCF allowed children to continue to live in the Blouin household, as noted by NBC Boston. Though Blouin registered as a sex offender, he didn't face adequate consequences and DCF remained complicit in providing an environment for abuse to continue.
Kristine, a loving mother of two young girls, dealt with substance abuse disorder for years. Though she had been working at a nursing home, she tragically overdosed and passed away at the age of 35 in October after using cocaine laced with fentanyl. Her untimely death was a cruel end to a life filled with pain and heartache. Gaulin maintains that the failures of the foster care system and the abuse inflicted upon her daughter led to the devastating outcome.
Kristine was one of four former foster children who filed a civil suit against DCF and the social workers involved in their cases. The historic settlement reached last month amounted to $7 million. Yet, this sum is a small consolation for the lives irrevocably damaged by the system's inadequacies to truly protect its children.
