The horrific death of a 10-year-old boy and the many missed chances to save him

LOS ANGELES - Anthony Avalos was the fastest runner in his fourth-grade class at El Dorado Elementary School in Lancaster.

He earned a place on the honor roll, and his teacher, Harmony Bell, noticed an uncommon emotional maturity for a boy his age. He often collected his thoughts before speaking, asking Bell if he could step out of the room and take a few deep breaths.

When a new student joined the class, he asked to move to a neighboring seat, hoping to be the friend the newcomer needed.

Yet Bell saw that Anthony was often nervous about something. He held his Bible tightly throughout the day, once quaking with tears when it fell to the floor.

Anthony would never return to school after classes ended last year. The next month, the 10-year-old arrived at a hospital emergency room with fatal bleeding in his skull.

His body showed signs of prolonged abuse. His skin was bruised and burned from head to toe. His once-healthy frame had wasted to skin and bones. Andranik Madikians, one of the physicians at UCLA Mattel Children's Hospital who tried to save Anthony, recalled looking down at the boy and saying, "Oh, my God. How does this happen?"

Anthony had been under the supervision of the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services sporadically over a four-year period beginning in 2013 and ending in 2017 - more than a year before his death.

During that period, at least 13 calls were made by teachers, police, counselors and relatives to the child abuse hotline about Anthony's welfare.

But child protective workers and others tasked with protecting Anthony missed numerous warnings and opportunities to intervene before his death, according to dozens of interviews and a review of court records, documents from DCFS and records of outside agencies hired by the county to help Anthony and his family.

Anthony's mother, Heather Barron, and her boyfriend, Kareem Leiva, have been charged with first-degree murder in the boy's torture death. Prosecutors intend to seek the death penalty if they are convicted. Both have pleaded not guilty, and Anthony's siblings have been removed from the home. The county's child welfare agency has faced scrutiny after a series of high-profile child abuse cases in recent years, including the suspicious death in July of 4-year-old Noah Cuatro in Palmdale. Case workers had left Noah with his family despite a court order to remove him

Anthony's case struck many people as having similarities to the 2013 death of another Palmdale boy, 8-year-old Gabriel Fernandez, whose mother and