One of the Most Heartbreaking Stories of the Year

When a fire tore through a South Boston home, killing 14-year-old Acia Johnson and her little 3-year-old sister, Sophia, the story was painful enough. Then the sad details of the life of their mother, Anna Reisopoulos, emerged, raising the question, "How could anyone let children live with this woman?" Now, their mother's lover, Nicole Chuminski, stands accused of causing the fire after a romantic spat.

Keith O'Brien and Donovan Slack chronicle just how bad things were in that home in an unsparing story that shows the Globe still has it and isn't totally fixated on moms trying to protect their babies from all-day kindergarten.

This is the kind of story that tackles every angle, and the reporters interviewed Reisopoulos and Ray Johnson, the children's father. This is also the kind of story that may result in some major changes with the Department of Social Services (DSS), which was assigned to monitor the kids, who weren't supposed to be living with their mom in the first place:

And they believed Anna when she said that Acia and her brother just happened to be visiting her home each time they checked in. The children backed up her story, as did Ray's mother, who once a year had signed a form certifying that the twins continued to live with her. DSS said the agency paid Ray's mother, who declined to be interviewed, $1,034 a month to support them.

Had DSS done the most basic cross-checking, however, it would have discovered that Anna told other state agencies a different story.

Dan Kennedy of Media Nation points out that the story doesn't mean DSS is at fault for the deaths of Acia and Sophia Johnson. This is true: The only person at fault for the death is the person who set the house on fire. But Slack and O'Brien's story could bring about change--and, even though many pundits say journalism must be unbiased, the truth is that journalism can hold government services designed to protect all of us to account and also open our eyes to might be going on in our own neighborhoods.

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