CLEARWATER, Fla. — Strangers, coming together like family over 2-year-old Jordan Belliveau’s death.
“Because he had a loving home and a family and he's not here,” said Melissa Williams, who adopted a daughter out of foster care.
It is why Williams joined others in front of the Pinellas County Courthouse. The group was hoping to gain traction for “Jordan’s Law.”
“I want the system and the laws to change,” said Williams.
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The group, including Heidi Wincek, said the details of Jordan’s case speak for itself.
“I just feel like he was failed. There were so many red flags,” said Wincek.
Court documents reveal a troubling timeline. For 16 months of his short life, Jordan lived in foster care. But, in May, despite recommendations against it, a judge reunited the boy with his mother, Charisse Stinson. In July, Stinson told the biological father she did not want to care for him. Then on September 4, police found Jordan’s body in a wooded area in Largo.
Stinson admitted she struck him in a moment of frustration, killing him.
"There could be better checks and balances before a child is reunited with their biological family. That's great, that's the goal. But I feel that's not always the best situation,” said Wincek.
And Williams knows that first hand. It took her two years to adopt her little girl. A daughter she took in at six weeks old.
“I am terrified to think of what would happen to my daughter if I did not have a chance to adopt her,’ said Williams.
And this week, one one of the agencies charged with caring for Jordan will release 1200 pages in documents.
The previous confidential files will hopefully shed a light on why he was taken out of foster care.
