‘Our community failed this child’: Toddler’s murder highlights family abuse in Hawaii

HONOLULU, Hawaii (HawaiiNewsNow) - Child welfare experts are sounding the alarm in the wake of Kytana Ancog’s murder, saying that more needs to protect innocent kids like her.

Police say her father, Travis Rodrigues, has confessed to beating the 18-month-old to death and then arranging the disposal of her body. On Wednesday, a grand jury indicted Rodrigues with second-degree murder and he remains behind bars on $2 million bail.

After reading reports that two witnesses saw baby Kytana with injuries, experts say someone should have come forward before her disappearance.

“Our community failed this child. There’s no question the neighbor saw something,” said UH criminologist Meda Chesney-Lind.

“Any time a child is bruised that should be a cause for concern,” she added.

Steve Lane, who has served as a court-appointed investigator on several high-profile child abuse cases, said Kytana’s death is reminiscent of other investigations.

“This is how kids die in Hawaii all the time,” he said.

“If they didn’t report they abuse as they are required to do, they are complicit in this child’s death and disappearance,” he added.

Chesney-Lind says Hawaii’s low murder rate doesn’t tell the whole story.

“When we look at the proportion of those murders that involved with domestic violence we see a huge proportion,” she said.

A state Department of Heath study showed Hawaii’s child death rate by ethnicity as the highest among Pacific Islanders, Blacks and Native Hawaiians.

“The ethnic groups are really a proxy for poverty, inequality and marginality,” said Chesney-Lind.

“The loss of this baby belongs to all of us,” added Nanci Kreidman, executive director of the Domestic Violence Action Center.

She says calls to her agency jump after a high-profile case of domestic violence.

“It makes all moms very, very frightened to think that it could happen to their child,” said Kreidman.

“When the community has lost someone to domestic violence, our calls and contacts increased quite a bit,” she added.

It’s not publicly known if Child Protective Services was aware of baby Kytana before her disappearance. Hawaii News Now has asked CPS for information.

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