Maryland leaders demanding accountability and seeking answers after a teenager in foster care was found dead in a Baltimore City hotel Monday.
The 16-year-old girl was found dead at a hotel in the 800 block of N. Wolfe Street in Baltimore after Baltimore Police were called to the scene just before 11:15 a.m. on Sept. 22. Dispatch audio reviewed by FOX45 News described the call as a fatal overdose.
“I don’t care if you’re a Republican, Democrat, liberal, conservative, you’re more interested in the Kardashians than you are in politics,” House Minority Leader Jason Buckel said. “All of us as human beings understand that we have to take care of kids in these situations.”
The Residence Inn by Marriott Baltimore at The Johns Hopkins Medical Campus lists the address that BPD responded to as its address. FOX45 News first reported the death of the 16-year-old Wednesday night. The Department of Human Services is investigating the incident, according to DHS Press Secretary Lily Price.
“The Maryland Department of Human Services joins the community in grieving this heartbreaking tragedy,” Price said in a statement to FOX45 News. “The well-being of Maryland’s children is our top priority, and we will not rest until every child in our state is safe, thriving in a permanent home, and surrounded by loving family.”
There were no signs of foul play or trauma on the 16-year-old’s body, according to a BPD’s spokesperson and the case is listed as questionable. The girl’s remains were transported to the Medical Examiner’s Office to determine a cause of death.
The child was supposed to have a one-on-one aide, according to FOX45 News sources, and it’s not immediately clear if the aide was with the child at the time of the incident.
“If we find that our standards for care were not met, we will hold our contractors accountable,” Price said.
But the situation comes after a scathing audit from the Office of Legislative Audits revealed several gaps in policies and procedures within the Social Services Administration. The audit, dated Sept. 12, 2025, found that SSA – which is a subagency of DHS – did not ensure local departments of social services placed foster care children in settings authorized in state law. The audit identified 280 children placed in hotels under supervision of providers that were not licensed and, according to the audit, housing the children in hotels comes at a significantly higher cost to the state.
The audit also revealed SSA did not have a procedure to ensure criminal background checks were obtained for vendors providing one-on-one services to foster care children in hotels.
“[This happened due to] human negligence,” Buckel said. “If this was done by private sector entities, there would be lawsuits and there might be lawsuits anyway.”
“Unfortunately, in Maryland, we’re too over-reliant and over-protective of the government,” Buckel continued. “Every government employee has a job for life and there need to be consequences.”
Del. Buckel, a Republican from Western Maryland, said he hopes Gov. Wes Moore “is sitting down today” with DHS Secretary Raphael Lopez and other key leaders to figure out how this situation happened. Buckel said Gov. Moore should ensure every kid in the foster care system is accounted for and is in a safe environment.
“If you just want to say, we’ll have another hearing, we’ll do another bureaucratic end around, we’re just going to keep winding up with the same problems,” he said. “There’s a teenage girl that’s dead that never should have been.”
FOX45 News reached out to Gov. Moore for a comment to the death of a 16-year-old in the state’s care. David Turner, Gov. Moore’s communications director and senior advisor, issued a statement to FOX45 News and said, “the death of any child anywhere in our state is tragic.” Echoing what DHS said previously, Turner said DHS is “working expediently to investigate this incident and is committed to holding its contractors accountable.”
“As we mourn the loss of this young life, the Moore-Miller Administration remains steadfast in our resolve to do everything in our power to prevent these tragedies from occurring,” Turner’s statement continued. “We will continue to work toward ensuring that every child in the state’s care finds a safe and healthy permanent home.”
FOX45 News asked DHS for details on the vendor in question, but the state agency cited privacy laws and did not provide details.
“They should be able to do an investigation in six hours. This is not the most complicated fact pattern in the world. It should have been already done by now,” Buckel said. “And if the answers are, we screwed up, we let her go home, we didn’t do what we were supposed to do — you’re fired.”
But that requires what I have very rarely ever seen from Maryland bureaucracy, a sense of urgency, Buckel added.
According to the audit’s findings, during fiscal years 2023 and 2024, SSA “used 14 vendors to provide continuous care for children in hotels, including transportation to school and medical appointments, administer medication, and meal preparation.” However, the review found “these vendors were not subject” to local departments of social services or DHS Office of Licensing and Monitoring oversight and “consequently criminal background checks for the vendors’ employees were not obtained.”
“Since one-on-one vendors are not licensed providers, there is a lack of assurance that children in their care received satisfactory services,” the audit concluded.
In response to the audit’s findings, specifically referring to the one-on-one care issues, DHS said a request for proposal was issued to ensure “all individuals who interact with children under our care comply with criminal background check requirements.”
“The RFP scope of work requires all employees providing one-on-one support to undergo criminal background checks, consistent with the requirements for private providers. As of August 2025, the evaluation committee is reviewing technical proposals,” the response from DHS stated.
Buckel isn’t the only lawmaker to voice his frustration with the foster care system. Sen. Clarence Lam, a Democrat representing Baltimore and Howard Counties, said he hopes “the investigation to identify what happened can be completed quickly.”
“The state has an obligation to ensure the safety of children in our care,” Lam said in a statement to FOX45 News.
The state needs to find funding for “permanent placements so children aren’t being housed in hotels and motels,” Lam added.
Ultimately, Buckel said he hopes the death of this 16-year-old sparks change in the system across Maryland.
“I hope there’s somebody out there, some family somewhere that cared, that loved about her,” he said.
“I hope she doesn’t die in vain.”