Less than a year after 3 years old Victoria ‘Tori’ Rose Smith was placed in her new home in Simpsonville, South Carolina, her adoptive parents were charged with her murder.
Now, your biological family – and the community – need answers.
After the tragedy, more than 3,800 people signed a petition asking state lawmakers to reform the South Carolina Department of Social Services (SCDSS) – an agency marked by scandals whose shortcomings are now in the national spotlight.
Proponents of the petition also want the state to return Victoria’s remains to her biological family so they can bury her properly.
“We feel that we deserve your body because we are your family”, Victoria’s mother Cayce Phares begged on Facebook.
Phares said they have family land ready and paid for. They just need your girl’s body.
“At the end of the day, they failed and hurt her,” said Phares of SCDSS. “She deserves to be buried with her family.”
Victoria’s adoptive parents Ariel Shnise Robinson, who is known for winning America’s 20th Worst Cook Season, and Jerry Austin Robinson were charged with child abuse homicide on January 19 – five days after the death of their adopted daughter.
Michelle Urps, Victoria’s biological great aunt and family spokeswoman said the SCDSS did not notify her family of the death of her 3-year-old son. They found out on the news.
When Phares called SCDSS to ask if the girl who died was his daughter, she was shut down by a SCDSS employee, Urps said.
Urps said the SCDSS official told the grieving mother that they did not owe her an explanation because of her daughter’s murder. So they hung up.
Victoria’s body is now in the Greenville County coroner’s office, she said.
“All we want now is Victoria’s body,” she said. “We need to give her a proper funeral. We need that little closure. “
Why Victoria was in SCDSS custody
Phares, a young mother, was first flagged by the SCDSS when she tested positive for marijuana in her system when she was pregnant with Victoria, she said.
Victoria also tested positive for marijuana when she was born, according to Urps. One of his older brothers was negative and the other brother’s test was not conclusive.
“Things just skyrocketed from there,” said Urps.
Phares and Urps were clear – children were never abused while they were with their biological family.
In an interview (below) with a family advocate, Phares said he did everything he could to get his kids back. She said she had several classes for parents and classes for battered women through the SCDSS.
“I didn’t have a vehicle at the time and tried to call for help several times,” she said. “I just kept hitting roadblock after roadblock.”
Phares’ SCDSS social worker did not answer her calls and offered no assistance when she needed help, Urps said.
One day, still under the SCDSS radar, Phares fell asleep while watching the two boys and Victoria, who was a newborn at the time. She had been up all night with the baby the night before.
The two boys ran to the neighbors while their mother was sleeping, Urps said. The neighbors contacted the police and that was the “last straw” for the SCDSS.
Phares was also struggling to find housing at the time, which made his case with SCDSS even worse.
“Instead of (SCDSS) helping her get housing, they looked at (Victoria’s mother) and said ‘find out’,” said Urps.
When Victoria’s mother went to court to ask for custody of the children, the SCDSS social worker did not warn her of what would happen, Urps said. They said she didn’t need a lawyer. She didn’t know that she could have a lawyer with her, or that she needed one.
Unprepared, she lost custody of her three children, which made them available for adoption.
“(SCDSS) made me feel that it was better for children,” she said. “I thought they were going to be a loving family. I thought that if they could have better and happier lives and become better versions of themselves, that’s fine. I trusted them and they failed. “
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Urps said he last saw the three children in February, when they were in an orphanage.
“We saw these children happy, healthy and prosperous for the last time, because the foster families who took care of them before going to the Robinson home were incredible,” said Urps.
Urps said the biological family was not allowed to know the details of the adoption.
When they saw Victoria’s pictures on the news, the family barely recognized her. Urps said he has lost a significant amount of weight since it was adopted by the Robinsons in March 2020.
SCDSS declined to comment on the child’s case due to privacy concerns. They confirmed with FITSNews that they are investigating together with the authorities.
What happened to Victoria Rose Smith?
Ariel Shnise Robinson told her husband Jerry Austin Robinson call 911 when her daughter was unresponsive at her home in Simpsonville, South Carolina, around 2 pm on January 14, 2021, according to the incident report.
Ariel claimed that a 911 dispatcher told her to move (Victoria) to the ground and start CPR, which she said she did. According to Ariel’s podcast, she was certified in children’s CPR.
Since the 911 call was originally for a child who did not respond, the Simpsonville Fire Department was first dispatched at 2:16 pm and they arrived home three minutes later. EMS arrived around 2:25 pm
The first respondents immediately took over CPR in Victoria and rushed to Prisma Health Greenville Memorial Hospital, the report said.
According to the heavily edited report (below), it appears that the first respondents on the scene immediately suspected child abuse. The fire department called the police department for child abuse / assault with aggravating and emergency protection custody at 2:25 pm.
Incident-Report_Robinson-1-14-21
When the police arrived at the scene at 2:30 pm, Victoria had already been taken to the hospital.
The police interviewed Ariel Robinson first. Almost the entire interview with Ariel Robinson was written, except when she told the police that something had happened the day before.
The police also interviewed Jerry Robinson, who claimed his right to a lawyer and was transported to the Simpsonville Police Department. The report does not say when this happened.
Victoria Rose Smith was pronounced dead in the hospital that day.
Jerry Austin Robinson, 34, and Ariel Robinson, 29, were charged with child abuse homicide at around 2:20 pm on January 19 – five days after the death of their adopted daughter.
The case was investigated by SLED, under South Carolina law, in the unexpected death of a child.
Ariel and Jerry Robinson are accused of “inflicting a series of blunt injuries” that caused the death of Victoria Rose Smith on January 14, according to arrest warrants in the case.
The police said in the warrants that they had sufficient probable cause to charge based on the investigation.
Simpsonville Police officers told FITSNews on Monday that they would not release any further information about the case.
SCDSS
As FITSNews has reported many times before, SCDSS has failed South Carolina children and taxpayers on virtually every front in the past decade.
Unfortunately, Victoria’s case is not the first time that SCDSS has been held responsible for the death of a child.
In 2013, a 4 year old child Robert Guinyard, Jr., who was placed in an abusive home by the SCDSS despite repeated warnings about his safety, was brutally murdered.
In 2018, 8 month old baby Camden Shaw Kidder Anderson County was murdered by his birth parents just a month after the SCDSS reportedly completed its 11th investigation against the baby’s father.
“Where was Baby Camden’s help when it mattered?” Founding editor of FITSNews Will Folks wrote in 2018. “Why is this still happening in South Carolina? Does our state expect these horror stories to end as long as our government continues to perpetuate the underlying problem? “
And here we are in 2021 asking the same questions about the tragic death of another child in South Carolina.
According to the SCDSS Office of Child Fatalities, more than 20 SC children die each year due to mistreatment by a caregiver.
In 2020, 24 children died in South Carolina due to abuse. Richland County had the highest number of child deaths from abuse in 2020.
These are all the children the state should have protected …
Victoria’s aunt told FITSNews that she is working with lawmakers on the “Victoria bill” that would reform the SCDSS.
“The system failed to keep Victoria and her brothers safe. And there are many others, ”Urps told FITSNews. “We have to select and maintain contact with the families that care for and adopt children”.
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The online petition specifically calls for frequent, unscheduled visits to adoptive and adoptive parents, even after adoptions have been finalized.
Urps said the family has been informed that Victoria’s brothers are in foster care, but they do not know where.
Ariel Robinson
Ariel Robinson is best known for winning the 20th season of “Worst Cooks in America” on the Food Network in August. This week, the Food Network has removed Ariel’s season from its streaming services.
According to her website, Ariel was an elementary school teacher trying to become a comedian, radio presenter and TV personality.
As the case gained national attention this week, web detectives across the country searched Robinson’s social media sites for answers to this tragedy.
Specifically, many are asking: Could the SCDSS have predicted this?
In one of his standups, Ariel Robinson joked on video about threatening to punch his son in the throat while social workers visited his home during the adoption process.
However, Ariel Robinson showed a much more sensitive personality in his podcast (below) In one of the episodes, she talked about how she couldn’t watch the news because she gets really upset – especially when it comes to news about children being abused or killed.
“I’m very sensitive when it comes to stories about children and things like that,” said Robinson in his podcast (below) “So when the news started talking about children being abused or murdered or left in a car or something, I thought I can’t watch this for my mental health because I can’t bear to hear about a child being hurt. So I stopped watching the news. “
Ariel and her husband Jerry Robinson face life imprisonment if they are convicted of child abuse homicide. They are currently behind bars at Greenville County Detention Center and have both been denied bail.
To report child abuse in South Carolina, call 1-888-CARE-4-US or use this online portal.
We hope to bring more details to this case in the future. Stay tuned.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …
Mandy Matney is the news director at FITSNews. She is an award-winning Kansas journalist who worked for newspapers in Missouri, Illinois and South Carolina before moving to FITS. She currently lives on Hilton Head Island, where she enjoys life on the beach. Do you want to contact Mandy? Send your story ideas, comments, suggestions and tips to [email protected].
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