Missouri – In a deeply disturbing case in Missouri, a 27-year-old father, identified as B. Dopirak, who was previously granted a second chance at raising his 4-year-old son, has been sentenced to 24 years in prison after fatally abusing the boy following a court-ordered trial reunification. Dopirak was sentenced last week after pleading guilty to one count of endangering the welfare of a child resulting in death.
The case has outraged child welfare advocates, as the incident wasn’t the first time Dopirak had seriously harmed his son. In fact, four years prior to the fatal incident, the same child had been hospitalized as an infant with a crushed skull—injuries also inflicted by his father.
On January 2, 2022, emergency responders received a call at around 8 a.m. from the home. Dopirak phoned 911 to report that his 4-year-old son had suddenly stopped breathing. First responders arrived and transported the child to a local hospital, but he died the following day. An autopsy later revealed the cause of death was “non-accidental closed head trauma,” and the manner of death was ruled a homicide. Investigators determined that Dopirak had been the only adult present at the time his son became unresponsive. This fact, along with the nature of the injuries, led to charges being filed.
Court documents revealed that Dopirak agreed to a plea deal earlier this year and admitted guilt in causing the fatal harm to his child. The conviction ended what had been a disturbing and tragic cycle of abuse that began when the child was just weeks old. In 2018, when the boy was just 5 weeks old, he was rushed to the hospital with a traumatic brain injury. Authorities concluded at the time that Dopirak crushed his son’s skull with his hands. Following this incident, the boy was removed from his father’s custody and placed with a foster family who raised him for nearly four years.
That foster family, who took in the boy after the 2018 abuse, spoke out following his 2022 death. In interviews with local media, they shared that despite multiple expert testimonies warning against returning the boy to his biological father, the court moved forward with a trial reunification. The foster parents cited warnings from a pediatrician, a court-appointed guardian ad litem, and a social worker who all advised that reunification posed serious risk to the child. “When you have so many people telling you that if this child is returned home, he will be killed, you need to listen to that,” the boy’s foster mother told local media. The tragic outcome of that decision proved devastating.
Dopirak’s 24-year prison sentence leaves lingering questions about the failure of the child welfare system to protect the 4-year-old boy. While the sentence marks legal accountability for the father, critics argue that the system missed multiple opportunities to intervene—opportunities that might have saved a child’s life. For now, Dopirak will serve his sentence in a Missouri state correctional facility. The boy’s foster family and child advocates across the state continue to call for reforms in reunification practices, hoping that no other child will face the same fate. The boy’s memory lives on, not only as a symbol of tragic loss but as a powerful reminder of what happens when the warnings of experts and caretakers are ignored.
