A one year old baby boy is dead, and the woman entrusted by the state to care for him now faces a second degree murder charge.

Kemari Morgan died on May 24 after being found unresponsive in his crib while in foster care in Person County, North Carolina. This week, state investigators announced that a grand jury has indicted 49 year old Latisha Annette Linzsey in connection with his death. According to the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, toxicology results revealed that the child died after receiving a fatal dosage of multiple medications.

The indictment comes months after Kemari was removed from his biological family and placed in foster care, a decision that his mother says never should have happened.

For Briauna Morgan, the call she received that day still echoes.

No one told her how her son died. She was only told that he was gone.

She has said the moment shattered her. The shock was immediate. The grief unbearable. Her son, alive one day, gone the next. Not from an accident in her care. Not from a medical condition. But while under the supervision of the state.

Family members have confirmed that Linzsey was Kemari’s foster parent. Kemari’s three year old sister was also living in the same foster home at the time. She has since been moved to another placement. Briauna’s two other children remain in state custody.

The investigation into Kemari’s death began with the Person County Sheriff’s Office. In November, the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation was asked to step in. After several weeks, investigators consulted with the district attorney and presented the case to a grand jury. The indictment followed. Linzsey was taken into custody immediately and is being held on a three hundred thousand dollar bond.

But while criminal accountability is finally moving forward in Kemari’s case, the family says justice remains incomplete.

Briauna Morgan is still fighting to get her surviving children back.

She has said plainly that her son would still be alive if the state had never intervened in her home. In her view, the removal was not protective. It was catastrophic. The system that claimed to act in her children’s best interest delivered them into harm.

In May, family members and advocates marched outside the Person County Courthouse, demanding answers and accountability from Child Protective Services. They protested not only Kemari’s death, but the larger system that allowed it to happen.

Briauna’s fight did not end with the indictment. Her children have remained in foster care since June of 2024. A judge ordered her to complete additional substance abuse treatment, citing past DWI convictions and a charge earlier this year. She says she has complied fully with every requirement placed before her.

Still, her children have not come home.

This case forces an uncomfortable question into the open. When children are removed from their families under the promise of safety, who is held accountable when the system fails them?

Kemari Morgan did not die in a home deemed unsafe by the state. He died in a placement approved by it. He died while under the watch of a system that often operates behind closed doors, insulated from scrutiny, and slow to accept responsibility when harm occurs.

For Briauna Morgan, the grief is layered. She is mourning a child she lost while fighting for the ones she still has. She has said she will not stop. She will not give up. She will keep fighting until her children are back where they belong.

Kemari’s case is now moving through the criminal courts. But for many families watching, it is also a reminder of what is too often missing from child welfare. Transparency. Accountability. And a willingness to confront the consequences when the system itself becomes the source of harm.