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Records cite emotional trauma for 6-year-old found hanged in garage
12:00 AM CDT on Friday, September 28, 2007
By ROBERT T. GARRETT / The Dallas Morning News
rtgarrett@dallasnews.com
Hanna Marie Mack, the 6-year-old girl who was found hanged in her family's garage in Navarro County, suffered emotional trauma linked to her father's suicide attempt when she was a baby, according to Child Protective Services records released Thursday.
When she was 11 months old, her father, Russell Mack, tried to commit suicide in front of Hanna and her two older sisters, said a CPS summary of the family's three run-ins with child-welfare workers.
About the same time, also in the presence of his three daughters, Mr. Mack threatened to kill his wife, Dana, CPS workers said. They ruled out any physical abuse of the girls.
During its 2002 investigation, CPS said it was unable to determine whether Mr. Mack sexually abused his daughters or whether Ms. Mack neglected their well-being by allowing contact with him. Unidentified people made those allegations to CPS' child-abuse hotline.
Neither Mr. Mack nor Ms. Mack could be reached for comment.
Hanna's body was found Sept. 10 hanging in a metal garage that houses an above-ground swimming pool next to her home west of Corsicana. She had been sexually assaulted, an autopsy revealed.
On Thursday, Navarro County Sheriff Leslie Cotten said detectives have not charged anyone with Hanna's murder because they are waiting on results of DNA tests of evidence collected in the case.
However, he said detectives continue to regard Kevin Wayne Anders, 32, the boyfriend of Dana Mack, as a primary suspect.
Since Sept. 12, Mr. Anders has been in the Navarro County Jail on a charge of possession of child pornography.
In January 2006, CPS received an allegation that Mr. Anders "is having a sexual relationship with an underage neighbor, which may place his three children at risk of sexual abuse," the CPS summary said.
CPS workers investigated and ruled out any sexual abuse by Mr. Anders of his children, the summary said. It was silent about whether he had sex with an unrelated minor.
It's not clear when he began dating Hanna's mother.
In 2000 and 2005, CPS received reports suggesting Dana Mack suffered from mental illness. Both times, the agency ruled that there had been no physical abuse of her daughters.
After Russell Mack's attempted suicide in spring 2002, CPS proposed a "safety plan" for Hanna and her sisters, now 11 and 13.
For most of the next year, the girls lived with a maternal aunt and uncle and weren't allowed unsupervised visits with their parents, said CPS spokesman Patrick Crimmins. The summary said the couple were given a psychological evaluation and were tested for drugs.
"Soon after this, the couple ended their relationship," it said, and Dana Mack then took college classes, underwent mental-health counseling and "found steady employment," it said.
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