Another Texas state employee has been implicated in the 2012 Dyess Air Force Base case in which three sisters were found neglected, including a 22-month-old who died.
Gretchen Denny, 42, was arrested Dec. 19 for tampering with Child Protective Services documents during the investigation of the death of Tamryn Klapheke, who died from malnutrition and dehydration in August 2012.
Tamryn's mother, Tiffany Klapheke, was sentenced in February 2014 to 30 years in prison for first-degree felony injury to a child and for neglect of her other two daughters, who were aged six months and three years at the time. Her husband, then-Senior Airman Thomas Klapheke, was deployed at the time.
A social worker connected to a high-profile Dyess case was recently arrested on charges that she tampered with documents which led to the death of an Air Force child at the Texas base.
Gretchen Denny, 42, was arrested on Dec. 19 for tampering with Child Protective Services documents during the death investigation of 22-month old Tamryn Klapheke who died from malnutrition and dehydration in Aug. 2012.
Court documents obtained by BigCountryHomepage and KTXS-TV show that Denny did "intentionally and knowingly alter or conceal ... Child Protective Services documents detailing the investigation of the Klapheke children and/or medical records of the Klapheke children and/or Dyess Family Advocacy office records of the Klapheke children, with intent to impair its availability as evidence in the investigation," the website says.
Denny is out of jail on a $10,000 bond, according to jail records. Arraignment is scheduled Jan. 29.
Denny is not the first Texas state employee implicated in social worker reprimanded or arrested in connection to the toddler’s death, according to previous Air Force Times reporting:
- -- In 2014, Martha Keil Whitaker, 58, who was a CPS regional director in Abilene for the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, was also charged with evidence tampering during one of four investigations surrounding the case. A jury trial is scheduled in March. Whitaker appeared in court for her pre-trial hearing in September. She was scheduled to go to trial in November, but it is unclear if her trial was postponed.
- -- CPS investigative supervisor Tiffany Gann resigned in 2013 during the fourth investigation after officials uncovered she and then-Senior Airman Thomas Klapheke, Tamryn’s father, began an "inappropriate relationship."
- -- Another employee assigned to the Klapheke case resigned for failing to report the relationship, CPS spokesman Patrick Crimmins told Air Force Times at the time. Two more CPS specialists were disciplined for their knowledge of the relationship. Of the four employees who resigned or were disciplined, the two who resigned were involved in the Klapheke investigation.
According to BigCountryHomepage, Tamryn's mother, Tiffany Klapheke, is currently in Taylor County Jail in Abilene for the retrial for Senior Airman Christopher Perez, with whom she was having a relationship when the children were neglected.
A military judge sentenced Perez to three years of confinement for adultery and three counts of child endangerment in connection to the Klapheke case. When an airman is sentenced to one or more years of confinement, the case is automatically appealed, unless the individual waives his or her right to appeal, a Dyess spokesman told the website.
A jury in 2014 convicted and sentenced her to 30 years in prison for the death of Tamryn and neglect of her other two daughters.
Thomas Klapheke was deployed during the time of Tamryn’s death. Hehas since left the Air Force and divorced Tiffany Klapheke.
After sentencing, Tiffany Klapheke signed her parental rights over to Kathy Boorman, Tamryn's paternal grandmother, according to KTXS.It is unclear if the two siblings still live in Tennessee with Boorman and under the same roof as ex-husband Thomas.
