Before Santa Cruz infant’s death from possible fentanyl exposure, friends and family expressed worry 

Friends and family of an 18-month-old Santa Cruz girl whose death might have been related to fentanyl exposure — referred to as “Baby Z” in court documents — say they’d expressed fears for her safety following a series of troubling incidents, including child abuse charges lodged against her father and then his death by overdose in April.

“I witnessed abuse in February with my own eyes in my own home, and I told the authorities about both physical abuse and neglect to the children,” said Carol Halpin, a close friend of the baby’s family. “Nothing was done. They had an opportunity to maybe save Curtis’ life and Baby Z’s life.”

Curtis Tillman was Baby Z’s father and the previous partner of Korisa Woll, Baby Z’s mother.

Woll has been charged with murder in an amended complaint the Santa Cruz County District Attorney’s Office filed Tuesday. She was initially charged only with two counts of felony child abuse and a misdemeanor charge of destroying evidence.

Tillman’s mother, Cher’ie Lynn Brown, and Halpin said they reached a point in February when they grew increasingly worried about Baby Z and other children in the household because of what they called abuse and neglect. They said that they tried to get child protective services and Santa Cruz police to intervene, but that did not happen. Brown recalls how difficult it was to make that call.

“It was an extremely heartbreaking decision, but I had to do it,” she said.

Halpin and Brown were in court with other friends and family on Wednesday for Woll’s arraignment, which was continued. The 38-year-old was arrested when she arrived at Dominican Hospital with her already deceased daughter.

Although Brown said that Baby Z meant everything to her and her loved ones, they also “love Korisa very, very much.”

Jon Bush, deputy chief of the Santa Cruz Police Department said that typically when a child is shown to be in danger, police can take the child into custody and turn them over to Child Protective Services: “That can be drug-related, alcohol-related, or any otherwise unsafe situation.” He said SCPD does not have a record of investigating this child.

Santa Cruz County Human Services Department spokesperson Adam Spickler told Lookout that the agency declined to comment on the matter.

However, court documents from March show that Tillman was charged with seven felonies — four for corporal injury to a child, three for assault likely to cause great bodily injury and one for ammunition possession. He was also charged with another misdemeanor count of assault likely to cause great bodily injury.

Further, Housing Matters Executive Director Phil Kramer confirmed on Thursday that Woll was at an apartment operated by the homelessness nonprofit immediately before Baby Z’s death, where it is believed that the infant was exposed to fentanyl. He said Woll was not a tenant of the Casa Azul apartments, and his understanding is that she was simply visiting. Police had previously said the same.

Kramer called the event “incredibly tragic,” and said that while there are still many unknowns, substances are not allowed at any of Housing Matters’ properties and that any criminal activity is an evictable offense.

Kramer said Baby Z’s death speaks to the greater intensity of the opioid crisis — particularly in the Coral Street area surrounding Casa Azul and the Housing Matters campus near Harvey West.

“Many folks that we and our partners work with are dealing with times of crisis, trauma, substance use disorder or are otherwise disabled,” he said, adding that the combination of those factors further fuel the opioid scourge and other tragic incidents. “We do the best we can to get them the resources and help that they need.”

Woll is due back in court Aug. 29 for a continued arraignment.

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