Dakota “Levi” Stevens’ grave doesn’t have a headstone yet.
His family had hoped to have one in place by the first anniversary of his death, on Sunday, but it won’t be ready until later this spring.
On a concrete pad where the 10-year-old boy’s headstone will soon sit, his family wrote “We (heart) you” in blue and orange chalk. There’s a shark figure and a snail figurine, a nod to Levi’s love for sharks and bugs, as well as a small bug catcher.
On a recent afternoon at Old Maplewood Cemetery in Crown Point in the days before Easter, his family also had festooned his grave with small pastel eggs and other holiday items. Solar-powered plastic flowers decorated the site too, along with one of the signs remembering Levi that still dot lawns across the region.
On April 27, 2024, Levi was removed from life support at South Bend Memorial Hospital, two days after his foster mother, Jennifer Lee Wilson, 49, sat on him until he stopped breathing in Eagle Ridge subdivision in Liberty Township, outside of Valparaiso. Wilson pleaded guilty to a felony count of reckless homicide in Levi’s death and is serving a five-year sentence in an Indiana Department of Correction facility.
His family has now had a year to ponder what happened, what could have been done differently, and what impact they can have moving forward as they continue to wrestle with their grief over the loss of a bright boy they believe could have grown up to do amazing things, if he had been given the chance.
“We fully believe if he had made it out of the system, he would have been impactful,” said Eva Parrish of Gary, one of his maternal aunts and one of several biological relatives who shared their thoughts at his gravesite on a cool, sunny afternoon earlier this month.
They struggle, too, knowing Levi was a ward of the state when he was removed from life support. At that point, they had little if any contact with officials from the Department of Child Services and did not hear directly from the state agency about what happened.
“My nephew left this earth thinking he was unwanted and unloved because he died alone,” Parrish said. “We were robbed of being able to say goodbye to him.”
Levi and his younger sister were removed from their parents’ custody at ages 5 and 3 because of their parents’ reported drug use, the family has said. His father died from an infection related to drug use and his mother, whose parental rights were terminated, is now living in North Carolina with scant contact with relatives here. Levi’s sister was eventually adopted.
“I lost a whole section of my family — my niece, my nephew, my sister. They were just gone one day,” said Ana Parrish-Paker, another maternal aunt who lives in Gary.
Though the children were placed with Parrish-Parker for the first year after they were removed from their parents’ Merrillville home, they were later transferred to foster care. Levi continued to cycle through foster homes and mental health treatment centers after his sister’s adoption.
Both children also spent periods with family members, though none were awarded custody, and also spent several months at a foster home in Hammond, though adoption plans there fell through. A relative of Wilson’s also was trying to adopt Levi at the time of his death.
According to the 2025 Indiana Kids Count Data Book, consisting of 2024 statistics and put together by the Indiana Youth Institute, 18,371 youths experienced foster care last year, breaking a steady decline observed from 2018, when 34,269 children were in foster care at some point.
Statistics on the DCS website reflect that children spent an average of 491 days in foster placement as of April 2024; in March of this year, that figure had dropped to 449.21 days.
Deaths in Indiana foster homes appear to be rare, according to DCS.
“In calendar years 2022 and 2023, zero children died from substantiated abuse or neglect while in foster care. Numbers for 2024 are not available yet. We do not track data for deaths not caused by abuse or neglect,” Brian Heinemann, deputy director of communications for the Indiana Department of Child Services, said in an email to the Post-Tribune.
Levi, according to court records, had been staying with Wilson less than three weeks when he died and had previously been in foster care with the Wilson family. He was placed in their care through Lake County Child Protective Services.
Initially, Levi’s family fought for justice for his death, bringing what they dubbed “Dakota’s Army” to Wilson’s court hearings clad in orange, Levi’s favorite color, and gathering outside the Porter County Courthouse in downtown Valparaiso.
For months, they gathered at U.S. 6 and Indiana Road 149 in Portage Township, a busy intersection, waving signs, gathering petition signatures and calling out to passing cars with a bullhorn. One of their goals then was for Wilson’s charges to be upgraded to a higher-level felony.
The family and supporters planned to be at the intersection again on Saturday and to be there regularly now that the weather is warming. They planned to spend the anniversary of Levi’s death at his gravesite and participate in a child abuse awareness and prevention candlelight vigil on Wednesday outside the Old Lake County Courthouse in Crown Point for Child Abuse Prevention Month.
With Wilson’s sentencing behind them, family members are looking forward. They still want the Indiana Department of Child Services held responsible for Levi’s death in some fashion. Levi and his sister were removed from Parrish-Parker’s Gary home after she refused to increase the already heavy load of therapy that the siblings had every week, though she’s never received notice from the state agency about why they were taken away.
The Change.org petition, “Let’s Get Levi’s Law Started,” went online in February. The petition asks that child protection laws be changed to mandate that anybody concerned about a child’s safety and welfare contact police first, rather than DCS.
Two days before he died, when, according to charging documents, Levi ran away after a disagreement about getting chores done before playing outside, Levi approached a neighbor and asked her to adopt him “because his parents hit him in the face and didn’t let him call his caseworker” before Wilson arrived in her car and took him home. The neighbor told investigators that she didn’t observe any signs of injury to Levi.
According to the family’s petition, the neighbor contacted DCS “to seek assistance at Levi’s frantic requests.” The neighbor was instructed to return Dakota to Wilson or face possible legal repercussions.
“Despite Levi’s pleas for help, the proper authorities were not promptly notified, and a devastating outcome ensued,” the petition says.
“We’re shifting our gears now,” said Eva Parrish, of Gary, another of Levi’s maternal aunts. “Levi’s death has transformed our lives and we’re hoping to transform other people’s lives.”
The family’s first step, Parrish-Parker said, is the Indiana legislature.
“We always feel that if police had been dispatched immediately, we wouldn’t be here today,” said Linda Hobock of Calumet Township, Levi’s great-aunt.
Deputies from the Porter County Sheriff’s Department were called to Wilson’s home around 3:37 p.m. on April 25, 2024, for a report of an unconscious 10-year-old who wasn’t breathing, according to Wilson’s charging documents.
Wilson, frustrated that Levi had tried to run away, found him in their neighborhood and brought him home.
She said in court documents she didn’t recall how she landed on top of Levi but while she sat on him, she had a video call with the boy’s caseworker on her phone and with her husband on their home’s doorbell camera until she got off of him and realized he was not breathing. The episode was captured on a doorbell camera at the family’s home.
Wilson was on top of Levi for well over seven minutes, according to charging documents, which also reflect that Dakota could be seen screaming and crying in two, 20-second videos.
Wilson was still on top of Dakota in the third video and his arms were above his head “and he does not move” for the entire 6-minute, 48-second video.
The St. Joseph County coroner’s office subsequently ruled that Levi died from mechanical asphyxiation and ruled his death a homicide.
Levi didn’t like seeing other people hurt, Hobock said at his gravesite as she began to sob.
“How my nephew must have felt in those last moments,” she said. “He never would have hurt anyone.”
Wilson submitted a guilty plea to reckless homicide, a Level 5 felony, on Oct. 29. Senior Porter Superior Court Judge Michael Bergerson sentenced her on Jan. 17 to five years in the Indiana Department of Correction, followed by one year of probation; she has filed notice of appeal of her sentence.
Wilson is serving her sentence at Madison Correctional Facility. Her earliest possible release date, if she is not able to successfully appeal her sentence, is Oct. 13, 2028.
The advisory sentence under state statute for a Level 5 felony is three years.
During Wilson’s sentencing, she addressed Dakota’s Army by name in court, turning from her seat to speak with Levi’s family, often weeping, and said she did not expect forgiveness.
“I cannot ask you for forgiveness because I cannot say for certain I would forgive someone who was responsible for the death of my loved one,” Wilson said, sometimes sobbing so hard she could barely speak.
“Because of this tragedy, you lost him all over again. I am deeply saddened for the role, my role, in this horrible tragedy.”
Bergerson, the senior judge who oversaw Wilson’s sentencing, said any mitigating factors in her case, including her lack of a criminal background and the unlikelihood that something similar would happen again, outweighed Wilson’s actions.
“Obviously she applied more force than was necessary and that created the circumstances that led to his death,” he said, adding that instead of trying to resolve the situation, Wilson was “talking on a cellphone with callous disregard” for Levi.
Wilson weighed 340 pounds and Levi weighed 91 pounds, according to charging documents.
“All the while this beautiful boy was crying for his life — crying for his life — the defendant is just completely oblivious that she had just killed a foster child,” Bergerson said. “It’s hard to think of a more egregious set of circumstances.”
Wilson’s court-appointed attorney for her sentence appeal, Haley McCleary, did not return multiple requests for comment from the Post-Tribune.
A representative from DCS has said Wilson was first licensed as a foster parent in 2017 and was in good standing with the state agency at the time of Levi’s death. Her license was initially placed on hold and then revoked by the state on June 30.
Levi’s family said they have heard from many people about the impact he had on them, including a former foster family, now living in Pennsylvania, who housed Levi when they lived in South Bend.
“The outpouring of support we’ve received from everywhere is incredible,” Parrish said. “I don’t want to say it made it easier but it made it a little bit easier at times.”
Melissa Mahler, Levi’s maternal grandmother, said she messages Levi’s mom periodically to ask how she’s doing. The response, Mahler said, is typically the same: She’s doing OK, and could she get $20?
“I just tell her I love her and hope she’s doing well,” said Mahler, of Gary, adding her daughter knows what happened to Levi. “She’s talked about coming home and doing things but it will never happen.”
