The grandfather of an infant who died after being thrown onto H-1 Freeway Thursday told police who awoke him after the tragedy that the child was outside walking with a neighbor, according to court documents and Department of Human Services records.

That information was contained in the more than 185 pages of documents released Saturday night by the Department of Human Services and in court documents filed in connection with the second-degree murder charges against Matthew M. Higa, 23, in the death of 23-month-old Cyrus Belt.

Higa, who is being held on $1 million bail, is scheduled to appear in District Court tomorrow. Investigators are trying to confirm how the child came to be with Higa, who has not been charged with kidnapping.

According to documents filed by county prosecutors, police responded to a 911 call Thursday of a small child walking in the middle of the road in the area of the Punchbowl area apartment where the family lives. The call came in at 11:12 a.m.

Police sources have said the toddler wandered off from the apartment at some point that morning and was returned to the home by a police officer in the area.

At 11:43, the call came in that a child had been thrown onto the freeway.

Witnesses told police they saw a man later identified as Higa, who lived in the same 'Iolani Avenue apartment building as the child's family, throw the baby from the Miller Street overpass.

Lilo Asiata, Cyrus' grandfather, has said that his daughter, Nancy Chanco, 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.

Chanco has said that she would never have left the child with Higa, whom she distrusted. "I would have never, ever let that weirdo watch my baby," she told The Advertiser last week.

DHS documents said: "Police subsequently learned that (the) grandfather allowed neighbor (name blacked out in document) to take the child for a walk, precipitating the freeway overpass incident resulting in the child's death."

The documents from the prosecutor's office said that after the child's death: Police went to the family's home and "found an adult male, later identified as Lilo Asiata, sleeping in the residence ... When asked where the child was, Asiata related that the boy was outside walking with a neighbor."

The DHS documents released Saturday describe an unhappy life for Nancy Chanco and her three children. (Chanco has two other children — a teenager who lives with his father and a 4-year-old who lives with Chanco's mother, according to Lilo Asiata.)

The pages describe a pattern of drug use and the risk of child neglect and abuse.

Higa's name never came up in Social Services' investigations of any abuse or neglect of Chanco's children, said Lillian Kohler, DHS director. Many family members have played a role in Cyrus Belt's short life, but no one could foresee Higa's involvement, Kohler said.

"We investigate the risk of a child for abuse and neglect," Kohler said. "There was nothing in our records about Matthew Higa at all. He and his family were never involved in the child welfare system."

She said police and DHS are investigating why after the boy was found wandering across the street.

Chanco's drug relapses and intervention by social workers is typical of families affected by substance abuse, Kohler said.

"Drug addiction is the No. 1 risk factor for children," Kohler said.

LACK OF SUPPORT

Department of Human Services records describe Chanco as having a history of troubled relationships and of drug abuse without much of a family support system — except for a hanai auntie and a paternal grandmother.

April 14, 1997: Police report that Chanco and her then 7-year-old son were fighting and Chanco put a rope around the child's neck and threatened to kill him. The child was described as "incorrigible and beyond parental control."

July 13, 2002: A case is opened by the Social Services Division because of a threat of neglect and abuse of Chanco's 11-year-old son. Chanco had left her 11-year-old son with the paternal grandmother who then left the child with the hanai auntie in June. She was five months' pregnant with a history of drug abuse including marijuana, crystal methamphetamine and cocaine. Chanco was unemployed and attending weekend classes at Chaminade University to study paralegal work. The father of the 11-year-old was in jail on the Mainland. She had a live-in boyfriend who was recently released from prison.

Jan. 9, 2003: Police found the 11-year-old son in a car of an unrelated man who had drugs in his possession. The boy was released to the hanai auntie. Social workers write that the unidentified man "is allegedly known as a drug dealer."

Chanco is also said by social workers to not "bond" with her newborn second son. She exhibits inappropriate parenting skills like almost dropping the infant, holding the baby incorrectly and feeding the baby over-heated formula.

Feb. 7, 2006: Cyrus N. Belt is born. At the time, his mother has had limited prenatal care.

April 6, 2006: Social workers and Healthy Start workers make unannounced visits and find a clean apartment that Chanco shared with her father, stepmother, Cyrus and Chanco's boyfriend, who was Cyrus' father. The baby appeared to be thriving, although he suffered from colic. Social workers, however, couldn't meet with Cyrus' father as he had been arrested and jailed for parole violations. Chanco's two other children were not living with her.

June 19, 2006: The Department of Human Services takes Cyrus, then 4 1/2 months old, into protective custody, then returns him. Chanco had left Cyrus with the baby's father and girlfriend, who had no electricity.

Aug. 10, 2006: Social workers meet with Chanco and feel that the baby appears healthy and thriving.

Jan. 17, 2008: Cyrus is killed when he is thrown from an overpass onto H-1.

Reach Suzanne Roig at sroig@honoluluadvertiser.com.