Philadelphia Teacher Caprice Williams, 36, Is Charged With Murder After Her 10-Year-Old Foster Daughter Malayshia Alford Was Found in a Car Trunk

Philadelphia prosecutors have charged a foster mother with murder in the death of a 10-year-old girl who had been missing for more than a week. According to the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office, the accused is Williams, 36, and the child is Malayshia Alford. The District Attorney’s Office spells the defendant’s first name Carprice, while some news reports spell it Caprice. FOX 29 Philadelphia identifies Williams as a Philadelphia public school teacher. She has been charged, which is not a finding of guilt, and the investigation is described as active and ongoing.

What the District Attorney announced

District Attorney Larry Krasner and other officials announced the charges on Nov. 5. The office’s announcement lists seven counts: murder generally, endangering the welfare of a child, criminal use of a communication facility, possession of an instrument of crime, abuse of a corpse, tampering with evidence and recklessly endangering another person.

“This is truly a sad day for Philadelphia,” Krasner said, according to the announcement. Assistant District Attorney Ashley Toczylowski said prosecutors would “hold this defendant accountable for this brutal crime.”

FOX 29 Philadelphia reported that Toczylowski described the case as “an active and ongoing investigation.” FBI Special Agent Wayne Jacobs, who also spoke at the announcement, said the bureau’s work was not finished.

The timeline from Oct. 22 to Nov. 4

The District Attorney’s Office says Malayshia was last seen going into her home on Oct. 22. On Oct. 26 at 5:13 p.m., police responded to a missing-person call at a home on the 500 block of North Simpson Street in West Philadelphia. Williams, the girl’s foster mother, told officers that Malayshia had not come home from school, according to the announcement.

Video from the area later became central to the case. FOX 29 reported that surveillance footage from around 1:53 a.m. on Oct. 26 reportedly shows what officials believe was the girl’s body being moved from the home. That is the account given by officials, and it has not been tested in court.

Police and the FBI followed leads from the video and from an interview with a person connected to the vehicle, FOX 29 reported. Malayshia’s body was found at 10:58 p.m. on Nov. 4 in the trunk of a car in Lindenwold, New Jersey, according to the District Attorney’s Office. An autopsy determined the cause of death was blunt force trauma and ruled the death a homicide, the office said.

What the estate’s attorney says about the foster mother’s history

A separate set of claims comes from Nadeem Bezar, an attorney with the firm Kline & Specter who represents Malayshia’s estate. Speaking to FOX 29, Bezar said Williams had been deemed unfit for foster care after a 2021 case involving a 4-year-old girl who was removed from a home following abuse.

Bezar described that earlier child as having “bruises and beatings” and “severe malnutrition.” He said he recently settled a case against the contracted agency that handled that child’s placement. These details are Bezar’s account as the attorney for the family, and the FOX 29 report did not include a response from Williams.

“They took her from an abusive situation, and they put her into a deadly one. That is unacceptable,” Bezar said. FOX 29 reported that Malayshia had been placed with Williams after she was abused at another foster home, though the report did not explain how that placement was made.

The same report noted that Philadelphia’s Department of Human Services has outsourced foster care programs to contracted agencies. It did not include a statement from the department.

How foster parents are approved in Philadelphia

The case has raised questions about how foster homes are approved, and the city and state publish the basic steps. According to the City of Philadelphia’s foster parent page, applicants must be at least 21, pass child abuse, criminal history and FBI clearances, and have room in the home for another child. The city says DHS works with many state-licensed agencies, and that the certification process takes about three to six months.

Certification includes an application, an orientation, the agency’s pre-service training, a medical exam and a home visit to help determine whether the home is safe for a child, according to the city’s page.

The Pennsylvania Department of Human Services lists similar steps on its become a foster parent page: a home approval process that includes a review of family history and finances, background checks for every household member age 14 and older, and a home evaluation to confirm there is enough space and that safety requirements are met.

The state’s child abuse clearance page says Pennsylvania law requires certain people to submit clearances in order to be employed with children, volunteer with them or serve as a foster or adoptive resource parent. Those clearances must be renewed every 60 months from the date of the oldest one, and may be required more often depending on licensing or employer requirements.

Where reporting concerns can go

The state’s clearance page lists ChildLine, 1-800-932-0313, as the number to call for anyone who suspects child abuse or neglect. Families who want to learn about fostering in Philadelphia can reach the city’s foster care team at (215) 683-5709 or [email protected], according to the city’s page.

The District Attorney’s announcement did not list a court date, and neither of the FOX 29 reports cited here did either. Williams has not been convicted of any crime, and the allegations about her past come from the attorney for Malayshia’s estate rather than from a court finding.

Families who are fostering, or thinking about it, can find the same requirements in one place on the city and state pages linked above. Both describe clearances, training and a home visit as steps every applicant goes through, and both give phone numbers for questions before an application begins.

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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.

Image: John Phelan – CC BY-SA 3.0/Wikimedia Commons