Child-welfare administrators who returned two young boys to their father — who later stabbed one son to death during a Broward police standoff and plunged a knife blade into the head of the other — have completed an internal review of their role in the bloodbath.

The conclusion: Although the agency’s three-year history with the family ended tragically, administrators had no choice but to return the boys to their parents.

The review — actually, a short chronology of the Department of Children & Families’ legal efforts, and a longer analysis of the work of investigators, caseworkers, supervisors and their lawyers — was produced hastily after 41-year-old William DeJesus went on a murderous rampage Feb. 9 in Deerfield Beach. DeJesus shot a man outside the man’s motor home, and held the victim’s wife hostage. During the seven-hour standoff, DeJesus stabbed his own wife and two sons before killing himself.

Jeshiah DeJesus, DeJesus’ 9-year-old son, who had suffered from autism, was dead at the scene. His 7-year-old brother was stabbed in the head, but is recovering, as is the boys’ mother.

The younger boy is not being named by The Miami Herald to protect his privacy.

DCF’s involvement with the DeJesus family began in September 2007, when the agency’s abuse hotline received a report that DeJesus had choked his wife in the midst of a drunken binge. DeJesus also had punched a hole in a door leading to his children’s bedroom, and investigators were shown another hole he had punched or stabbed in the children’s bedroom wall that had been covered up with a picture of the boys. DeJesus, whose gun was on the couch when police arrived, was charged with domestic violence.

“The mother told them the father would kill her if she left with the children,” DCF’s review said.

DCF closed that case by concluding the two boys were at risk due to ongoing family violence. The agency sought domestic violence services for the family, and suggested the parents place the two boys in day care.

In February of the following year, the hotline received a new report: “The father touches (rubs) the children’s private parts” and masturbated them.

In the ensuing days, investigators were told DeJesus had raped his wife, and then followed her to her mother’s house in another drunken binge. DeJesus’ wife, Deanna Beauchamp, “told police that she was fearful that the father may purchase a firearm,” the report said. Worse, Beauchamp disclosed that both she and her husband had been molesting the children for months. “The mother said she acted alongside the father as she feared he would kill her if she did not.”

The February 2008 investigation was a pivot in the agency’s handling of the case: DCF investigators took custody of Jeshiah and his brother immediately, and filed a petition to permanently sever the couple’s legal rights to their two sons.

But on May 14, 2009, the department dismissed its petition to terminate the parental rights of DeJesus and Beauchamp.

“The only evidence of sexual abuse was the mother’s statement, which she recanted” the case review says. And, the review added: “The children did not demonstrate any behaviors associated with possible sexual abuse during their stay in foster care.”