.... On August 4, 2014, the 12-year-old boy walked up to Michael Connor Verkerke — with whom he had no prior acquaintance — and repeatedly stabbed him, then walked over to Glen Stacy's house and asked to borrow his phone.

"Hi, I just stabbed somebody," the boy said. "Please pick me up, I want to die. I don't want to be on this earth anymore. Please pick me up."

When asked by the dispatcher why he had done so, the boy only said that he "hated his life" and "taken many pills" because he felt like "no one loved him."

Child welfare workers later confirmed that the boy had been physically abused by both his mother and his stepfather. Even though the Department of Human Services (DHS) was aware of the abuse, it allowed the boy and his three siblings to remain with their parents — although the DHS recently filed a petition to have his siblings removed....