GULFPORT — One year after 4-month-old Denilson Elligson died during a medical crisis while the Mississippi Department of Child Protective Services tried to find him, a Harrison County committee is pushing for a new law and stronger community partnerships they hope could prevent similar tragedies. 

Known to his family as “Baby DJ,” Denilson died in 2023 of blunt force trauma and asphyxiation. According to testimony, CPS had been attempting to locate him but was unsuccessful. 

His death shocked many in the community and led to the creation of the Harrison County Blue Ribbon Committee on Child Protection, which is now drafting a proposal called Baby DJ’s Law. 

Community’s response to tragedy 

The committee includes doctors, nurses and child welfare advocates. Despite following protocols and filing reports, they noted that Baby DJ was not located. 

“Baby DJ is the reason we’re here,” said Harrison County Chancellor Margaret Alfonso, who was previously a county youth court judge. 

She said that experience — doing everything “right” and still losing a child — pushed the group to seek systemic change with a proposed law to establish a local alert system similar to an AMBER Alert. 

“(If CPS) cannot locate the child, then intake at youth court — or anybody else — would put out an alert on all social media: ‘Help us find this child,’” she said. 

Committee member Karla Pope said enlisting the public’s help could save lives by expanding the number of people who would be looking for the child. 

“People who are abusing their children take steps to hide from CPS,” Pope said. “The purpose of the alert is not to go kick doors down and arrest the parents. It is to save the baby.” 

Andrea Sanders, commissioner of the Mississippi Department of Child Protective Services, said, while possible legislation must be carefully considered, the agency is open to increased discussion with the community. 

“The safety of children is always our top priority, and any idea aimed at improving rapid response when a child cannot be located deserves careful consideration,” Sanders said. “CPS is always open to exploring this idea in collaboration with our partners in law enforcement, the courts and the community.” 

The committee plans to present the proposal to the Harrison County Board of Supervisors as local legislation — with the goal of bringing it to the Mississippi Legislature in the future. 

In addition to Baby DJ’s Law, they are working on broader policy recommendations aimed at improving coordination between CPS, hospitals and youth courts. 

Committee targets gaps 

According to reporting by The Sun-Herald, Gulfport police Detective Justin Clifton testified CPS had been trying to take custody of Baby DJ after learning the infant spent time in a neonatal unit for drug withdrawals. 

When a newborn tests positive for certain substances, hospitals notify CPS — but doctors often have little insight into what happens next, said Dr. Jennifer Caldwell, a neonatologist at Memorial Hospital in Gulfport. 

She said medical professionals aren’t privy to state requirements on how those cases are handled since, under Mississippi law, only certain people, such as youth court officials or court-appointed guardians, are allowed to know the contents of investigative records.  

Caldwell said those restrictions created communication hurdles. To overcome those without violating state law, the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit started meeting weekly with CPS over the past year. 

“Coming into this, we had a lot of problems with communication and transparency. We did not have a direct line to CPS if something happened after hours,” Caldwell said. “If we’re talking evenings, weekends — we had no way of contacting CPS and letting them know of the situation. We weren’t able to speak to speak to a person about imminent threats to children. That’s one of the big things that we’ve started off with.” 

Sanders said CPS is actively working to strengthen coordination with hospitals and youth courts. She pointed to the NICU collaboration in Gulfport as a model and said they hope to expand it to other local hospitals, such as Singing River Health System. 

“When law enforcement, the hospitals, churches … have a working relationship — where there’s trust and information can be exchanged readily — evidence shows that that’s the type of environment where kids are most likely to be kept safe,” she said. 

CPS works to improve  

Sanders said locating children remains difficult in high-risk cases — especially when adults are actively avoiding contact. 

“We’re an agency of social workers — and we don’t have law enforcement status,” she said. “So, we’re very dependent on those relationships with law enforcement.” 

The state’s social workers use multiple background checks, run credit reports for addresses, involve local law enforcement and try to visit every place the family has a connection before making the difficult decision to close a case, Sanders noted. 

However, the commissioner said that, despite the agency’s best efforts, cases are sometimes closed when leads run cold. 

“It depends on the circumstances, but we do have to close cases out at a particular point,” she said. “We have thousands of cases that come in — and I have a limited number of staff. 

“We’re really working to beef up our ability to be responsive when we have a child that’s missing. We’ve improved our access to data over the last four years, and now we’re able to see trends that help us focus on areas that tend to have more high-risk incidents.” 

To further improve cross-agency communication, CPS plans to launch a new data system — Pathways — on Nov. 11. The platform will integrate with the statewide youth court database and allow the agency to view and analyze new case data. 

“As always, our focus is on what’s safest and most effective for the child,” Sanders said. “It’s encouraging to see local leaders, advocates and experts come together with such energy and purpose to strengthen the child welfare system.”