SUNSET PARK, Brooklyn (PIX11) — The updated death certificate of 3-year-old Shalize Carter Clarke, who died in a Bronx foster home on March 7, revealed she died from acute amphetamine intoxication.
“They are failing children over and over,” the child’s godmother, Yvette Ramos, told PIX11 News on Tuesday as she cried outside a Sunset Park funeral home, where she picked up the death certificate. “But this story will not be untold.”
Amphetamines are stimulants that can be found in crystal meth, designer drugs like ecstasy, and even Adderall, which is used to treat ADHD. Shalize Carter Clarke attended day care on the day she died and then went home to her foster family.
Dr. Kristin Hord was the medical examiner who reached the conclusion about the amphetamine overdose and signed the death certificate on Dec. 16, the day Ramos was notified.
The findings came more than nine months after the little girl was found in distress in the foster mother’s Bronx apartment in the very early hours of March 7. The child’s biological mother and godmother live in Brooklyn.
“They called me and they told me to rush to Lincoln Hospital,” Ramos said.
The godmother said she has already retained a lawyer on behalf of the little girl’s biological mom.
Ramos has dealt with numbing loss in the past.
In March 2013, her son — up-and-coming rapper, Kenny “Nu Money” Casilla — was fatally shot in the head in Miami.
“I lost my son,” Ramos said. “I’m still not over my son. This is my god baby.”
Ramos showed PIX11 News some documents that indicated the little girl had been treated for a burn mark on her arm, not long before her death. She said the child made allegations about physical abuse in a FaceTime call in December 2021, before weekly visits with Ramos and the mom stopped for about two months.
Two days before the girl’s death, Ramos said the biological mother, Ahshanay La-Shea Carter, had an in-person visit with her daughter while Ramos was on FaceTime.
“She said, ‘Ya Ya, You got my car seat in your car?’ I said, ‘Yes.’ She said, ‘You and my sister Gigi come get me. I want to go home.’ And two days later, she was dead,” Ramos recalled.
A preliminary look at documents relating to the case revealed Shalize had a sad, short life, and moved between several foster homes.
PIX11 News has reached out to the Administration for Children’s Services and the NYPD seeking more information in the case.
