{"id":2498,"date":"2026-06-05T13:05:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T13:05:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/raleighmovingnews.com\/?p=2498"},"modified":"2026-06-05T13:05:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T13:05:15","slug":"lawmakers-press-nc-county-leaders-over-avoidable-death-of-6-year-old","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/raleighmovingnews.com\/?p=2498","title":{"rendered":"Lawmakers press NC county leaders over \u2018avoidable\u2019 death of 6-year-old"},"content":{"rendered":"
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RALEIGH, N.C. (WJZY) \u2014 An hours-long hearing is still underway in Raleigh as state lawmakers question Mecklenburg County leaders about the death of 6-year-old Dominique Moody, who was under social services supervision when she died late last year.<\/p>

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Investigators say Dominique was abused for months. Her death in December 2025 has prompted intense scrutiny of local agencies and the state\u2019s child welfare system.<\/p>\n

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Estella Patterson, Mecklenburg County Sheriff Garry McFadden, and County Manager Mike Bryant all faced questions during a tense House Oversight Committee hearing. Each agreed that Dominique\u2019s death was avoidable.<\/p>\n

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Photo: 6-year-old Dominique Moody, courtesy of family\/Queen City News<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Representative Carla Cunningham says \u2018too many eyes were closed\u2019 as lawmakers in Raleigh tried to get to the bottom of who failed Dominique Moody. Was it CMPD, the Mecklenburg County Sheriff\u2019s Office, or the entire child welfare system in the state of North Carolina? <\/p>\n

Chief Patterson called the case a tragedy. \u201cAs everybody has stated, this is a tragedy. We should have done everything in our power,\u201d Patterson said.<\/p>\n

Sheriff McFadden told lawmakers his office did not know about the abuse.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish we had the opportunity to help this young lady, but we didn\u2019t have any knowledge, we didn\u2019t have anything as it relates to our visits,\u201d McFadden said.<\/p>\n

Lawmakers pressed Mecklenburg County leaders about what they described as a number of failures in the case and why officers or deputies did not do more during visits to the east Charlotte home where Dominique was being abused by her three caretakers.<\/p>

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\u201cThere seems to be a lot of willingness to shirk responsibility and to try to place the blame on someone else or circle the wagons,\u201d said State Rep. Mike Schietzelt (R-Wake County).<\/p>\n

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Queen City News\/Oversight House Standing Committee meeting in Raleigh<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chief Patterson said officers entered the home during one incident in March 2023, more than two years before Dominique\u2019s death, and reported the children appeared to be in good health.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there could have been more communication. There could be more thorough investigations on all sides to potentially prevent something like this from happening,\u201d Patterson said.<\/p>\n

Some of the toughest questions were directed at County Manager Mike Bryant. He told lawmakers his office fired case workers who failed to do enough in the Moody case. Bryant also said the county is working to correct shortcomings identified by a state investigation and plans to hire more staff.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Dominique\u2019s uncle, J. Vernon Peterson, said what he heard during the hearing points to systemic failures.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t take a sightless person to see what was going on. Someone should have spoken up for the children,\u201d Peterson said.<\/p>

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Authorities say the young girl suffered months of abuse and neglect at the hands of her caretakers at a home in east Charlotte before she died in December 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2495,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nLawmakers press NC county leaders over \u2018avoidable\u2019 death of 6-year-old - Raleigh Moving News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/raleighmovingnews.com\/?p=2498\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lawmakers press NC county leaders over \u2018avoidable\u2019 death of 6-year-old - 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