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Report: Philadelphia Foster Mother Charged in 10-Year-Old's Murder Was Once Recommended to Be Barred from Caring for Children
A state review recommended four years before Malayshia Alford's death that Carprice Williams never care for foster children again after a 4-year-old in her home nearly died, yet the 10-year-old was placed with her in 2025. Williams now faces murder charges, and advocates say the case exposes gaps in how Pennsylvania tracks and shares abuse findings.
PHILADELPHIA â Four years before Carprice Williams was charged with murdering her 10-year-old foster daughter, Pennsylvania child welfare officials concluded she had abused and neglected a different foster child and recommended she never be allowed to care for children again, according to a state review obtained by NBC10.
The Act 33 report, finalized in November 2022, examined a January 2021 incident in which a 4-year-old girl in Williams' care nearly died. Williams told investigators she heard a thump upstairs, called for the child, then found her unresponsive on the floor with labored breathing and called 911, saying the girl fell frequently.
Hospital doctors found something far more troubling: an L-shaped injury to the upper leg that the report said was most likely caused by a strike from a manmade object, along with acute subdural hemorrhaging, possible signs of older injuries, poor nourishment, a distended abdomen and multiple small abrasions on the child's face. Investigators determined the child had been abused and neglected while with Williams and recommended she be barred from caring for other foster children.
Philadelphia police investigated, but no criminal charges were ever filed. Williams appealed the state's findings that she was a child abuser, and her record was expunged.
Despite the recommendation, Malayshia Alford began living with Williams in 2025 â a placement that raises urgent questions about how the girl ended up in her care.
"Well, we don't fully know that," said Cathleen Palm, founder of the Center for Children's Justice. Palm noted that the same Department of Human Services that produces Act 33 reports also maintains the state's foster parent registry, and questioned whether that system is built to flag past findings. "If that foster registry doesn't have an ability to kind of click and say, 'Hey, going forward this person shouldn't be considered,' then one of the recommendations from the Department of Human Services probably should have been to the legislature, 'We should create this or build this into the system,'" she said.
Palm also criticized the reports themselves as heavily redacted and of "such minimal value" in their current form.
Williams, 36, was arrested Nov. 4 and charged in Malayshia's murder. The girl was last seen alive at a West Philadelphia home on Oct. 22; her body was found that same Nov. 4 day in the trunk of a car in Lindenwold, New Jersey. The medical examiner ruled her death a homicide caused by blunt force trauma. Investigators said Williams had also repeatedly physically abused the girl during the roughly year she was in her care.
Williams remained employed by the Philadelphia School District after the 2022 report. A district spokesperson said Tuesday that officials do not comment on personnel matters.
The case has intensified calls for reform at the Department of Human Services and renewed scrutiny of how abuse findings are shared among the agencies responsible for placing and monitoring foster children. For West Philadelphia neighbors and child welfare advocates, the central question is why a recommendation that Williams never care for another foster child failed to prevent Malayshia from being placed in her home three years later.