In Draheim's case, Bunker recalled confusion about Draheim's whereabouts and no information on where she was staying. Neither had Bunker, whose Child Advocate Team took over representation of Draheim just months before her case was dismissed.ĬAT contracted with the county in an effort to improve representation of children, promising to meet face to face with them - something that hadn't always been done here. The last reports filed in Family Court by DHS said Draheim was not employed since quitting a job at Domino's Pizza, and noted social workers have had "no face to face contact." She had been there before: It was where her mother had taken her when she was a baby - and where her grandmother, Sue Rushton, had rescued her before she turned 2.Ĭourt supervision of Draheim continued until May 2004, and she continued to be a ward of the state until July 12, 2004, the same year adult films featuring her started to be released. 10, 2001, when she was just 15, until caseworkers found she had run to Florida. The Flint Journal could not reach Draheim despite attempts to contact her through relatives, a former agent, former foster parents and an apartment complex where she has lived in Florida.ĭHS records show the state considered Draheim missing from Aug. "When you place them in a foster home that is typically more restrictive. "The (missing) children are typically 14-17, typically more independent, and when we intervene and remove them (from home), they pretty much have been living on their own (already)," Mehren said. "We want to engage them around planning for their future (and) find a placement for them where they will not run," said Mary Mehren, manager of Foster Care and Children's Protective Services for the state. They would not discuss how they lost track of Stephanie Draheim, what efforts were made to find her or why she was allowed to stay in Florida once she was found there.Ĭourt files indicate that DHS in Genesee County received a report from Florida almost four months after it made an inquiry in late 2002, indicating Draheim's home there was approved for her to stay in - but her grandparents moved in 2003, and Draheim moved in with a friend.Ī top DHS official now says supervision of kids in the system has improved. She doesn't fault the judges or the system in the Draheim case, but things aren't perfect.ĭHS officials will talk only in generalities about missing foster children. Some, like Draheim, have been on the run for more than a year.Ĭorrigan said foster children who run away in Michigan today are more likely to be found than they were three years ago. Today, even more - 19 - are missing from the county, and the state's numbers are steady. Too often, she said, they find trouble - even death - as they look for a place to stay and money to survive on their own.ĭraheim was one of 15 children from Genesee County and 230 from Michigan were missing from foster care when Corrigan, as chief justice, ordered local family judges throughout the state to step up efforts to find and keep track of runaways in late 2002. "Whenever I see a story like Stephanie Draheim's, it's like somehow we all failed her," said Karen Bunker, an attorney whose Child Advocate Team briefly represented her in Genesee County Family Court.Ĭorrigan called Draheim's case an example of what can happen to foster children who run from the system set up to protect them from abuse and neglect. Some may have been filmed while she was still an 18-year-old ward of the state, a Journal review of court files and other documents shows. Genesee County, Michigan - When adult filmmakers were looking for the perfect new girl next door in 2004, they had no trouble spotting Stephanie Draheim, a freckle-faced 18-year-old from Flint.īut finding the same runaway foster child turned into a frustrating game of cat and mouse for the state Department of Human Services and an end result that state Supreme Court Justice Maura Corrigan told The Flint Journal is "very disturbing."įor 20 months, Draheim flew under the state's radar, running away at age 15 and ending up in Florida, more than 1,000 miles from the social workers who were charged with looking out for her.īy the time she was discharged from Michigan's foster care system in 2004, Draheim was headed to X-rated stardom, performing in 13 different pornographic films that year.
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