DENVER -- The Colorado Springs Police Department and the El Paso County District Attorney will re-examine the death of a 4-year old boy who died while playing on a trampoline at a foster home in Colorado Springs after a Call 7 investigation uncovered new information about the foster home that neither police nor the DA were aware of.

Angel DeHerrera died in February at the Colorado Springs foster home where he and two siblings had been placed by Denver Human Services. He had been playing, unsupervised, on a trampoline in the back yard when he fell and was strangled by a cord that supported the safety net.

Angel's foster mother, Manuela Tooker, told police she was in the kitchen preparing lunch and wasn't watching when the 4-year old fell.

Angel's death was ruled accidental, and no charges were filed.

"He was so smart and he was funny. He would just do silly things to make you laugh," said Angel's mother, Sabrina DeHerrera.

Personal legal problems and the lack of a permanent home ultimately cost DeHerrera and her husband custody of their children.

She tried to visit them often and was planning a visit to the Colorado Springs foster home when she received a call to come directly to Denver Human Services.

"They just said that he got caught in the trampoline and he strangled -- that he was outside by himself and that when he got to the hospital he was already gone," DeHerrera said.

While the El Paso County District Attorney did not file charges in the case, 7NEWS uncovered documents of an investigation, immediately after Angel's death, by the Colorado Department of Human Services indicating Tooker's foster home was fraught with danger for small children.

State officials noted in the report that the trampoline "could not be seen or supervised while in the foster home" and that there was no safety plan for use of the trampoline.

The report also noted a can of gasoline on the front porch and parts of the home were "cluttered" with "evident dirt and filth."

"It was just nasty," said a teenage mother who had lived in the foster home with her baby and Angel DeHerrera. 7NEWS spoke with the woman in person but has chosen not to release her name.

"What did the house look like?" CALL7 Investigator John Ferrugia asked.

"There was dog hair everywhere and on the floor. She would smoke and I have asthma," said the teenager.

She also told Ferrugia that Tooker rarely supervised the children.

"[Tooker] would always send them outside. She would always just sit on the computer and smoke," said the teenage mother.

"And when she was on the computer, was she ever watching the kids?" Ferrugia asked.

"No," said the teenager.

When Ferrugia asked Tooker about what the teenage mother had to say, Tooker responded, "She has her opinion."

"You didn't sit at your computer and smoke?" Ferrugia asked.

"I did, but not all day long," said Tooker.

Ferrugia then asked, "Was the young woman lying to us?"

"No, I guess not," said Tooker.

Two days before Angel died, the teenage mother and her baby were removed from the foster home by a Denver caseworker on an "emergency referral" but, inexplicably, Denver Human Services left Angel and his siblings there.

Why?

"There is no notification system that would automatically alert a worker about the situation of another child," Denver Human Services manager Patricia Wilson-Pheanious said.

Wilson-Pheanious refused to speak with the Call 7 Investigators about specifics of the case or her agency's actions in the case, claiming that despite written permission from the mother, Sabrina DeHerrera, for DHS to talk publicly about the case, state rules prevented her from speaking specifically. Even so, she said each child's care must be independently addressed, even when a foster home has been deemed unfit for one set of children.

But, having said that, she added, "When that information becomes known to them it would be my expectation that it would be looked into."

"Immediately?" Ferrugia asked.

"Yes ... especially if it was a serious matter. The worker would want to have contact with that child, to talk with the resources people that have licensed that home ... a variety of things that would happen," she said.

"But, right away?" Ferrugia asked.

"As quickly as possible," Wilson-Pheanious said.

In fact, DHS called El Paso County Human Services on Feb. 5, 2009 to inform the agency about the home. That is one day after the teen mother was removed and one day before Angel died. But no one from DHS went to the home to check on the DeHerrera children. The home wasn't investigated until after Angel's death.

"They didn't tell me anything. Everything was hush-hush. They didn't want to discuss it -- nothing," DeHerrera said.

Neither the El Paso County DA nor Colorado Springs police investigators were aware of the complaint by the young mother. And neither agency were aware that she had been removed from the home because of the conditions only about 36 hours before Angel's death. She now becomes a potential witness in the case.

Meanwhile, the CALL7 Investigators also found a complaint filed against Tooker for lack of supervision in May 2008, but that complaint did not spark a state inquiry because El Paso County didn't file the complaint with the state until January. Tooker wasn't cited for that complaint until a month later, after Angel died.

State investigators found Tooker had violated "a child's right to reasonable and appropriate adult guidance, supervision and support" under licensing guidelines. Neither the El Paso County DA nor Colorado Springs police investigators were aware of the state finding.

Because the state department of human services had no knowledge of the complaint until January 2009, it had no reason to closely examine the home prior to Angel's death.

Ferrugia asked Tooker to review the complaints in totality.

"If I am looking at this file, would you agree there is a pattern of lack of supervision?" Ferrugia asked.

"I guess, based on the file, yes," Tooker said.

Angel's mother said of the Denver Department of Human Services, "They didn't do their job. They didn't do what they were supposed to do."

But Wilson-Pheanious disagrees.

She said an internal investigation, that will not be made public, found no one in her agency did anything wrong. She said no one has been disciplined and no policy changes will be made as a result of Angel's death.

But DeHerrera, citing the fact that the teenage mother and her baby were removed from the home while her children were left behind, says, "If it was unfit for her and her baby, it was unfit for my son and daughter ... And maybe Angel would be here today if they would have done what they were supposed to do."

These new questions about DHS policies and practices come as the agency is facing massive budget cuts and layoffs raising further concerns about the most vulnerable of children in the county.