Report: Washington failed slain sisters

WASHINGTON, April 2 (UPI) -- Washington social workers, teachers and police failed four sisters allegedly killed by their mother and left to decompose in her home, a report said Thursday.

Federal marshals found the bodies of the girls in January while serving an eviction notice on Banita Jacks. Investigators said the girls had been dead for months.

The report by the District of Columbia inspector general examines why no one stepped in before the sisters died or noticed after their deaths that they were missing, The Washington Post reports.

Mayor Adrian Fenty fired six social workers in January.

Other agencies share responsibility with Child and Family Services, the report said. School officials apparently did not investigate the girls' many absences and accepted Jacks' explanation when they stopped coming to school entirely that she was teaching them at home.

Police officers reportedly visited the house in 2007. While their report said they had seen the girls, the inspector general said they did not.

Jacks said her daughters were possessed by the devil and claimed they died of natural causes. The medical examiner said Aja Fogle, 5, N'Kiah Fogle, 6, Tatiana Jacks, 11, and Brittany Jacks, 16, all died violently, court records indicate.