G.C. v. G.D.

CRAWLEY, Judge.

C.D. is the daughter of G.D. In 1994, when C.D. was three years old, her mother died of cancer. Less than a year later, G.D. remarried. In May 1995, two petitions alleging the dependency of C.D. were filed in the Bibb Juvenile Court: one by C.D.’s maternal grandparents — G.C. and E.C., and one by the Bibb County Department of Human Resources (DHR).

When the petitions were filed, C.D. was in the burn unit of Children’s Hospital in Birmingham being treated for second- and third-degree burns from scalding water, injuries allegedly inflicted by her stepmother. On May 15, 1995, the…