Five days after two-year-old Avalena Conway died and a 22-month-old foster child living in the same Auburn home was rushed to the hospital in critical condition, what caused the girls to become unresponsive remains a mystery.
But four people close to their foster mother Kim Malpass and the six children living in her home confirm the two toddler girls were seen with rashes covering their bodies in between when DCF visited the home last Wednesday and the 9-1-1 call on Saturday.
"Kim had brought the kids up to me, after seeing the doctor, after seeing DCF and she was concerned about a rash, they were open sores, they were from head to toe except for the stomach and the back, one of children was bleeding from the sores," said Malpass's close friend and neighbor, who says she saw the girls on Thursday, a day after Kim told her she took them to the doctor.
"They didn't seem in distress, they were running around," said Malpass's friend, "Ava came up to me, put her hands up to me, I was holding her."
But while the two girls didn't seem overly concerned, she says Kim certainly was.
"She was concerned it wasn't a virus so she came to get my opinion also because she was concerned it wasn't only a virus as the doctor stated," she said.
Malpass's friend said she also understands why investigators came back with a second search warrant Tuesday and looked into the air quality inside the home because she lives in the same type of apartment.
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"I have to have two ACs going and fans at all times or we're sweating, the AC read itself the other night 89 degrees," said Malpass's friend, "because it gets hot in these apartments, very hot."
