FITCHBURG, Mass. (WHDH) — A third Department of Children and Family Services worker with ties to the Jeremiah Oliver case has now been fired.
It has been more than three months since 5-year-old Oliver was last seen and four weeks since police learned of his disappearance.
"We will ensure that our workers and supervisors are providing the proper supervision and the proper oversight of all cases to ensure that this doesn't happen again,” DCF commissioner Olga Roche said.
The social worker assigned to Oliver’s family reportedly never made the monthly visits required. That employee and a supervisor were fired earlier in December.
"Because they never visited the home, neither the worker nor the supervisor could say that this was first hand information, so they entered what we call false information, and misled the department to believe that this was a family that was stable,” Roche said.
The commissioner also said a second manager was fired and a third was suspended and will be moved in the department.
Jeremiah Oliver’s mother, Elsa Oliver and her boyfriend are both behind bars. Neither one has said where the five-year-old is.
DCF said no excuse can be made for the state workers responsible for this little boy.
"This was not a workload issue. This was a worker that failed to do the basic needs of their responsibility,” Roche said.
Police have not released any updates on their investigation into Jeremiah Oliver’s disappearance.