DAYTON — Miami Valley lawmakers are taking action after hearing about the death of 7-year-old Hershall Creachbaum.
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Creachbaum’s remains were found less than half a mile from his mother, Ashley Johnson’s home on Xenia Avenue on Saturday.
He had been reported missing earlier that day by his mother’s boyfriend, Michael Kendrick. Police later revealed he had been dead for “several weeks” before his remains were found.
Kendrick admitted to dumping Creachbaum’s body.
Both Johnson and Kendrick are now facing charges stemming from his death.
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As shown on News Center 7 at 6:00case has gotten the attention of state lawmakers in the Miami Valley.
“The community mourns with this family. It is so unfortunate,” State Senator Willis Blackshear, Jr. (D-Dayton) said. “This is something that should have never happened.”
Now, they’ll use their positions at the Statehouse to get answers about what happened.
“I think we’re definitely gonna look a things from a policy perspective, but then also to an administrative perspective as well,” Blackshear, Jr. said.
State Representative Phil Plummer (R-Butler Twp.) said they could subpoena people for hearings.
“We can subpoena people in for hearings, but we need to know exactly what happened. And if there was a failure, we need the fix the failure,” Plummer said.
Creachbaum’s family and a parent volunteer at Ruskin Elementary, where he went to school, said several people called Montgomery County Children Services about his welfare before his death.
In 2020, the News Center 7 I-Team’s reporting exposed gaps within the child welfare system that was supposed to protect 10-year-old Takoda Collins before his murder in Dayton.
The I-Team found that a lack of communication played a role in Takoda’s death.
Our reporting prompted Plummer to draft a Child Welfare Reform Bill that became law in 2022. It’s aimed at increasing communication between agencies and added oversight within the system responsible for protecting children in danger.
Now, after Creachbaum’s death, Plummer and Blackshear, Jr. tell the I-Team they want to make sure a child welfare case didn’t potentially fall through the cracks again.
“We’re going to work to make sure that this doesn’t happen again,” Blackshear, Jr. said.
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