A six-month-old baby was found alone in a stroller outside a Michigan motel while the child's 20-year-old mother was nowhere to be found — just one case in a week where children across the country paid the price for adults who failed them.

The pattern is unmistakable. From Albion to Newport News, from Abilene to Eureka, the stories keep coming: children discarded, beaten, burned, orphaned, and killed. The welfare state was supposed to fill the gaps left by broken families. Instead, the most vulnerable keep falling through.

In Albion, Michigan, a resident discovered the infant alone in a shaded area outside the Super 9 Motel on July 15, according to MLive. Police arrested the 20-year-old Texas mother and discovered the baby, the mother, and the child's 38-year-old father were living in what authorities called "deplorable conditions." Child Protective Services removed the baby to temporary foster care. The next morning, police inspected every room at the motel and condemned 18 of them for unsafe living conditions. The motel was housing families in squalor — and nobody noticed until a stranger found a baby alone outside.

In Newport News, Virginia, a 5-year-old boy is dead from blunt force trauma, and his mother is behind bars. The Norfolk Virginian-Pilot reported that Katrina Marie Sudberry, 27, was charged with second-degree murder and felony child abuse after an autopsy determined her son died from internal injuries. No further details released. A mother allegedly beat her own child to death, and the system that should have seen it coming had nothing to say.

In Abilene, Kansas, a father faces first-degree murder charges after his 2-year-old son died in a house fire. WIS10 reported that James Bradley Crump, 33, was outside the burning home with another child while his 2-year-old remained unaccounted for inside. The boy was found dead after the fire was extinguished. Crump was held on $250,000 bond. What a father was doing while his toddler burned remains unanswered.

In Eureka, California, a 4-year-old girl watched her parents die. The New York Post reported that Russell Martin Albers, 45, forced his way into a home and fatally shot Jennifer Paddock and Danny Garcia in front of their child. He also shot a family friend and his own ex-girlfriend before dropping her at a hospital and fleeing. Albers was sentenced to nearly 141 years to life. Judge Kelly Neel told him he "earned every day." The child now grows up without parents because a man with every chance to stop chose not to.

In Las Cruces, New Mexico, a 14-year-old boy named Alejandro Roman is dead over a traffic dispute. The Albuquerque Journal reported that Jonathan Estrada, 19, pursued a vehicle after being cut off, then fired several shots into the car, killing Roman. Estrada pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and received 18 years. Prosecutor Spencer Willson told the court: "The gun violence in this town is out of control." Roman's mother, Samantha Salaiz, said through tears: "He deserved a future."

Five states. Five children failed. The institutions — from the motel that packed families into condemned rooms to the child welfare system that only shows up after the damage is done — keep operating as though the bodies are just statistics. They're not. They're the cost of a country that stopped putting its children first.