* The Coes had abandoned Bradley before. Now they had a baby girl and a third on the way. "Will Bradley become the target child as an outlet for stress?" the Kirklands asked.

On May 23, 1989, Judge Fulmer considered the evidence. She decided Bradley should be returned to the Coes so long as HRS monitored the home.

The Kirklands never saw Bradley alive again.

The boy's move back to his mother left Mary Coe uneasy. Her son Tom Coe was the boy's stepfather. Mary Coe considered herself Bradley's grandmother.

Her son, she said, has been in constant pain all his life because of a congenitally crippled hip and hereditary kidney disease. She described him as an angry young man.

"His dream was to have a camp in the mountains where he could play war games," his mother said.

Mary Coe intensely disliked her daughter-in-law. She called her vicious and manipulative.

This past June, Coe said, Sheryl complained she was having trouble potty-training Bradley. She punished him by putting his underpants on his head and rubbing his face in the mess, Coe said.

Upset about the potty training, Joe Anders, a drug store manager who is engaged to Mary Coe, said he called the HRS child abuse hot line.

The hot line is a highly publicized toll-free number that is supposed to ensure that all abuse complaints are investigated.

HRS spokesman Konicki said the agency has no record of a June hot line call about Bradley.

On July 4, Mary Coe took Brad for the day. She said she found more than 30 bruises on his legs, arms, back, buttocks and genitalia. She said she asked Sheryl what happened. Sheryl told her the toilet lid fell on Bradley's privates. Sheryl also told her the boy was clumsy and fell on his toys.

Mary Coe took Brad to her friend Reba Woodard's house.

"Do these look like normal bruises?" Woodard remembers Coe asking. "I said no. . . . When he left his foster home, he was your normal two year old -- happy and talkative. That day, he was real lethargic. He wasn't the same little child."

When time came for Mary Coe to take Bradley back to his parents the evening of July 4, the little boy pleaded, "Brad stay Grandma's," Mary Coe recalled.

Anders, Coe's fiance, said he called the hot line again. HRS spokesman Konicki said the agency received only one call to its hot line, on July 3. The complaint was investigated and deemed unfounded, Konicki said.

Mary Coe, who sells medical equipment, said she called the HRS office in Lakeland a day or two later. She said an investigator told her to quit harassing the family.

"HRS blew this one royally," said Coe.

Mary Coe said she later stopped by her son's mobile home. Her daughter-in-law told her the child was asleep, she said.

"I'd hear him in his room crying. I'd say, 'How's Gammy's little boy?' And he'd tap on the paneling of the trailer," Coe said.

Coe now feels guilty she didn't just take Bradley. "I wish I'd had more guts."

During June and July, HRS caseworker Barber and counselor Judy Broesder made regular visits to the home. Neither reported any signs of physical abuse.

On July 21, Broesder, who worked for a private mental health center under HRS contract, wrote Judge Fulmer that Brad was adjusting well, though she also noted "his lack of bonding with his parents."

In reports to the court, both Broesder and Barber said Brad should stay with Sheryl and Tom Coe. The couple had missed two mental health appointments but had maintained a stable home and generally been cooperative.