AUGUSTA, Maine — A newly-released report shows Hailey Goding had been known to the Maine Department of Health and Human Services since the day she was born.
On Friday, her great-aunt, Allison Porter, spoke to the Government Oversight Committee about where she said the department failed her family.
"There were sufficient grounds as far as I could see for them to take other steps as far as protecting my niece," Porter said.
A public hearing was held on Friday on the OPEGA investigation on Goding, the three-year-old who died of a fentanyl overdose.
Hailey Goding's mother, Hillary Goding, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in 2022.
Now that the criminal case is closed, the Government Oversight Committee can examine the circumstances and try to make improvements in the child welfare system. The OPEGA report is now available to the public.
The family of Hillary and Hailey Goding said reading the report brings up a lot of emotions.
"I was angry at how the system failed both of the girls," Porter said.
"She should have at least been taken away for a short period of time until her mother was able to get help," Brian Picciano, Hailey Goding's grandfather, said.
According to the report, Hillary Goding tested positive for marijuana and oxycodone when her daughter was born in January 2018.
Hillary Goding was reported to DHHS one more time that year, then not again until 2020 when DHHS got a tip that she was using drugs in her car while her daughter was in the back seat.
Later that year, Hillary Goding brought her daughter to the emergency department and told them that she found a piece of tin foil at the playground. Both mother and daughter had fentanyl in their system at that time, according to the report.
In January 2021, the department got another tip that Hillary Goding had threatened a family member with a gun. The next time the department was notified about the mother and daughter was in June 2021 when Hailey Goding eventually died. The report stated she had fentanyl in her system at the time of death.
"This was the last time I got to see my niece, on a ventilator, brain dead," Porter said, showing a photo to the committee.
Porter and Picciano said there is a lot more the state could be doing, including better drug screenings and training for new DHHS case workers.
"I hate to think that Hailey is going to [be] used as a tool, a learning tool for the office. But if that's what her death means, then she won't have died in vain," Porter said.
Hailey Goding was one of four children who died within weeks of each other in 2021.
The Government Oversight Committee is looking into all four cases and if the department could have done more to save them.