FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Just 12 hours before a man fatally threw his 5-year-old daughter off a Tampa Bay bridge last month, his own attorney called the state's child abuse hotline, warning that John Jonchuck was suffering from mental delusions.
The attorney said Jonchuck had shown up in her office wearing pajamas with his daughter Phoebe with him. He was holding a Bible, and his behavior was bizarre.
"He asked me to read the Bible and I said I don't know how to read it. And he said, 'Yes, you do. You are the creator. You are God," the woman said.
Johnchuck was also questioning if he was really Phoebe's father.
"Now that he's telling me the child may not be his, I'm worried about the child," she said.
According to documents released by Florida child welfare officials Monday, the operator didn't refer the call to investigators because she didn't think the child was in danger.
The counselor who took that call told investigators she was under the impression Phoebe was with relatives and no longer with her father by the time the call was made.
The counselor didn't think the 5-year-old was in immediate danger. Police officers who met with Johnchuck that day came to the same conclusion, but hours later, Phoebe was killed.
The newly released report also lists multiple investigations involving family violence, neglect and substance abuse.
One week earlier, another friend alleged Jonchuck's daughter Phoebe had been physically abused in the past. But that call also failed to get to investigators because the operator hung up before she got Jonchuck's address.
The lapses have prompted the Department of Children and Families to change hotline protocol. Going forward, if a caregiver seems to be experiencing a psychotic episode, a child protective investigator will be required to visit within four hours.