Elizabeth “Lizzie” Feaster was six years, 10 months and seven days old when her father, Billy Feaster, shot and killed her in her grandmother's backyard before turning the gun on himself. The killing happened during court-ordered, supervised overnight visitation, a detail that has since driven her grandmother to demand changes to how Oklahoma handles custody and visitation cases involving children at risk.
According to KFOR, Lizzie's grandmother, Jill Walsh, gave emotional testimony remembering her granddaughter, describing a little girl who loved ice cream, popsicles and blue ring pops, with blue as her favorite flavor. Walsh told lawmakers that Billy Feaster had not participated in any of the required tasks set by the court, yet he was still granted overnight visitation with his daughter. She said the family had trusted the court system and the Oklahoma Department of Human Services to keep Lizzie safe, and that overnight visitation should not have been granted without the father completing what had been required of him.
A Grandmother's Case for Change
Walsh asked state Senator Carri Hicks to help add another layer of safety for vulnerable children in similar situations, the outlet's report notes. Her testimony centered on a warning that visitation supervision without clear standards may be inconsistent, passive or ineffective, leaving children vulnerable to exactly the kind of harm that took her granddaughter's life.
Hicks hosted an interim study bringing together special judges, child-welfare professionals, DHS officials and domestic-violence-awareness professionals to examine the state's visitation-rights system, per the same account. Interim studies allow the Oklahoma Legislature to dig deeper into a specific issue outside the regular session, and Hicks said the goal was determining whether the state is doing everything it should, or could, to keep vulnerable children safe.
Searching for Gaps in the System
Hicks said there is a loophole, gap or emerging pattern in how the state protects vulnerable children, and she filed the interim study involving DHS stakeholders and the judicial system to try to pin it down. She said she hopes the study will help legislators identify any potential gaps in the system meant to protect Oklahoma's most vulnerable children.
Separately, Oklahoma lawmakers have introduced Senate Bill 803, which, according to the Oklahoma Legislature's bill information page, concerns parental rights and would create the Parental Rights Protection Act, providing certain penalties and immunities and establishing a Parental Rights Review Board. The bill's connection, if any, to the interim study or to Lizzie's case has not been established.
For now, the record left behind is what Walsh carries forward: a granddaughter who loved sweet summer treats and was excited about starting second grade, killed in the one place — her grandmother's own backyard — where a family believed the courts had made her safe.
