Mom awaiting answers months after baby died in government care

Amber Marce's son Kolten died in the B.C. government's care on June 3, 2015. Months later, Marce still doesn't know what happened. (CTV)

A B.C. mother whose baby boy died in the government’s care months ago wants to know why she’s still in the dark about what happened.

Amber Marce, a 31-year-old single mother from Delta, was addicted to drugs when the Ministry of Children and Family Development seized her son Kolten and placed him with a relative in February.

Marce said she gave up the drugs and went into rehab in a bid to get her son back, but before she could she received life-changing news.

“I got a call my son was seizing and he had turned blue,” she said in an exclusive interview with CTV News.

Kolten was taken to BC Children’s Hospital, where doctors told Marce he’d suffered severe trauma to his head. The description of his injuries was devastating.

“They were that of a severe car accident or a fall from a four-storey building,” Marce said. “Neither of those things happened, so I was just left think [thinking] what happened to my child?”

Kolten died on June 3 at just five months old.

It’s been three months since the tragedy, and Marce said she’s still waiting to hear from the government about what led to her baby’s death.

“I’ve lost a child, and why?” she said. “I don’t get him back. I was robbed of his life and I’m left with nothing. No answers, nothing.”

Police also want to know what happened. The RCMP confirmed the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team is probing the case, but couldn’t reveal any more information.

The B.C. government told CTV News it can’t discuss the specifics of the case because of privacy laws. The Ministry of Children and Family Development would only comment that any time a child dies in ministry care, police will consider whether a crime was committed.

If investigators do decide to recommend charges, that may be when Marce finally gets a clearer picture of how her baby died.

“I just want justice brought to my son’s life,” she said.

With a report from CTV Vancouver’s Mi-Jung Lee