The toddler thrown from an H-1 Freeway pedestrian overpass Thursday had been in the care of the state at at least one point in his short life, the boy's grandfather said.

Lilo Asiata said Child Welfare Services officials had taken away the toddler, Cyrus Belt, when he was about a year old or younger. Cyrus was to turn 2 in February.

The state Department of Human Services yesterday said Cyrus was taken away from his mother, Nancy Asiata Chanco, for four days last year because of her drug abuse.

The department also said Chanco was the subject of at least six state Child Welfare Services investigations into allegations that she abused drugs and engaged in behavior that endangered Cyrus and her other children, according to police sources and DHS officials.

Lilo Asiata said a relative called the state "because (of) my daughter not being around to help take care of him."

"I have no ill feelings towards anyone" about the boy's death, said Asiata, speaking outside the 'Iolani Avenue apartment he shared with his daughter and grandson. "This whole thing I pretty much blame myself because I failed to do some things that I should have done before, and I failed to heed some of the warnings that I saw."

He said there were "warnings" regarding his daughter and her boyfriend, but declined to elaborate, saying "I can't really think right now."

When asked if his daughter or her boyfriend were involved with drugs, Lilo Asiata said: "She was under CPS (child welfare services). I know she had to go in several times to get tested, but so far every time she got tested, somehow they would send the son back. CPS took the boy before and they released him the very next day."

He said his daughter, Nancy, 33, has two other sons. The oldest, a teenager, lives with his father on O'ahu. The younger son, 4, lives with Chanco's mother.

Lilo Asiata said his daughter asked him to watch Cyrus earlier Thursday morning and that he went to sleep after she returned. He said she didn't wake him before she left again.

"My daughter and her boyfriend, if only they had woken me up and let me know that they were leaving, then I would be up," he said. "I've been baby-sitting the boy ever since day one. And this boy was my whole life."

Yesterday afternoon, Asiata said his daughter is doing OK.

"She doesn't want to come home because of the pain of seeing the boy's things," Asiata said. "I'm doing fine. I'm holding out pretty good considering this boy was my whole life. I think I babysat him more than his mother."

Asiata said Cyrus was "full of life and full of mischief, and I loved every moment of it."

He said he would forgive the suspect, Matthew Higa: "that's the very first thing I do."

Asiata said his daughter did not allow Higa to watch her son, and said that might have occurred behind her back.

He said his daughter's phone was not working the day of the death. One of his sons called the phone, and he was able to hear the boy's mother, but she could not hear him.

Finally, he sent her a text message, and that's how she found out, Asiata said.

A neighbor said they heard Chanco screaming Thursday evening when she returned to the apartment.

"She was screaming (at her father and her boyfriend), 'You should have been here,' " the neighbor said. "She was yelling, 'My baby's dead, my baby's dead.'"

Neighbors said Higa appeared mentally unstable and would walk up and down the stairs at all hours of the night. They said he would often be sitting in the garage smoking a cigarette. But neighbors said they never thought Higa was capable of doing what he's accused of.

Neighbor Roy Seminuk described Higa as "kind of a loner" who kept to himself.

"I'd say hi to him ... most of the time he wouldn't respond," Seminuk said. "He'd walk around aimlessly, outside the building. The other day he was just standing at the bottom of the steps ... he didn't move, he just stood there. I never thought of him as being dangerous, just kind of strange."

Another neighbor, who didn't want to be identified, said of Chanco: "She did take care of her child. She really did love her child. Cyrus was a good kid, playful. It's a shame that this happened."

Reach Lynda Arakawa at larakawa@honoluluadvertiser.com and Eloise Aguiar at eaguiar@honoluluadvertiser.com.