It’s hard to truly fathom just how broken our foster care system is here in the United States. There are approximately 400,000 American children from infants to 21-year-olds in some states who are deeply embedded in the system. Although some have happy stories of finding their forever home with their foster family, reuniting with their birth family, or transitioning into a loving home, that is not the case for many of our country’s children. In fact, kids slip through the cracks all the time, and it often leads to heartbreaking fates that might have been prevented.
Families are calling for justice for Californian baby Jaxon Juarez.
The sweet infant, referred to as “Baby Jaxon,” was allegedly sexually assaulted and murdered by his now 18-year-old foster brother and cousin, Law & Crime reported. The teen reportedly used a hair tie around the child’s neck to strangle him. The baby was placed in the teen’s mother’s care even though she has a child endangerment conviction on her record. The Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office is withholding the teen’s name as he was a minor and was being tried in a juvenile court for the crime. Now that he is 18, the DA’s office is motioning to have his case moved to the adult court of law.
“The San Jose Police Department found Baby Jaxon’s small, bruised, and battered body on April 5, 2026,” the DA’s release reads. “Evidence showed that the child, who is also the cousin of the suspect, had been repeatedly assaulted, sexually and physically, since he was placed in the foster family home in February.”
Jaxon reportedly suffered ‘several’ traumatic injuries that led to his hospitalization.
He died shortly after he was admitted on April 9, 2026. District Attorney Jeff Rosen described the case as nothing short of “horrific.”
“We are left with broken hearts and serious questions about who was watching out for the safety of these extremely vulnerable children,” Rosen expressed in his office’s news release.
Jaxon is the third foster child to have been murdered under the care and custody of California’s Department of Family and Children’s Services since 2023, Law & Crime noted.
“Today, we sadly add the name of Baby Jaxon alongside Baby Phoenix and others on a list of children whose short lives have been snuffed out through cruelty and recklessness,” Rosen added in the news release. “Jaxon will never have a chance at life. Jaxon will never have any way to tell his own story. My Office will speak for him and all the lost children as we seek justice.”
Bridget Michelle Martinez, the teen’s mother and cousin to Jaxon’s father, had Jaxon placed in her care despite felony convictions.
“It is completely unacceptable,” Riley Wallace, Jaxon’s aunt who lives in Arizona, told KQED. “They did not protect a child, and that’s their job…That’s what they took the child for, to protect him. And they failed him so terribly.”
Wallace claims Jaxon was originally taken into the system in 2025 after his mother died from alleged alcohol abuse. Wallace said she offered to take in Jaxon, but the state refused as she lived too far from the father’s permanent address.
Court documents obtained by KQED show that Martinez had been charged with child endangerment in 2014 and was caught on a separate occasion driving drunk with her 1-year-old daughter in the car.
“It’s critical that whatever placement they decide, the first consideration should be, is it safe? And are the people there capable of meeting this child’s needs?” Steve Baron, a member of Santa Clara County’s Child Abuse Prevention Council, stated to KQED. “Were they aware of those records? And if not, why not? Because they should have been.”
If you suspect child abuse, you can call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-422-4453 (1-800-4-A-Child) or go to Childhelp.org. The hotline is available 24/7.
