NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- The I-Team recently uncovered some disturbing information about juveniles who escape from state custody.

Video: I-Team: Juveniles Escape DCS, Continue Lawlessness

In some cases, children who escaped from the Department of Children’s Services custody did not commit any more crime, but in others, the results were costly.

Three-month-old Kevionna will never know her father, Montrell Stewart. She will never know of his plans to be a chef and how he called his sister, Latiesha Marable, every day, because he was killed before she was born.

What will be hard for Kevionna and others to understand is how four months after her father’s death, police said the man who they believe killed Stewart, Dijon Simon, killed 16-year-old Brandy White. Police said when he killed White, he was supposed to be in DCS custody.

"I think they should have known where this kid was. I think they should have been checking in more often,” Marable said.

Simon is one of 300 juveniles who have escaped from the DCS since 2005. According to the I-Team, no one knew what happened when the escapees ran away from the state.

While the majority of runaways never committed another crime, the DCS list obtained by the I-Team shows that 18 minors are charged with some of the worst of adult crimes while on the run. Aggravated arson, robbery, kidnapping, rape, assault and murder are among some of the charges some of the former escapees face.

For one runaway, officials said, his freedom cost him his life.

According to the state, the runaway stole his foster parents’ vehicle and was killed in a car crash. He, like many others, was placed in a foster home, despite an earlier conviction of aggravated assault.

Critics have blamed the DCS for putting violent children in non-locked-down facilities.

"Do you feel at all that DCS failed these kids?” the I-Team’s Jeremy Finley asked DCS representative Steve Hornsby.

"I don't know. I can't say that, because I don't know the specifics of their cases,” Hornsby said. “We can do the best job we can do, Jeremy, but that doesn't mean we fail the kids. They can still make poor decisions, poor choices. That doesn't mean that we failed them."

Then there's Smith. Despite his alleged gang ties, he was placed in a non-locked-down facility, ran away, and, according to court testimony, obtained weapons like an AK-47 and was driven around and housed by gang members.

Before prosecutors said he killed White, he shot another teen in the face. They said the teen Smith shot was also a runaway from the state.

The runaway problem has forced the state to make changes. A special absconder unit has been charged with catching runaways, and it has caught more than 200 so far.

DCS has also increased bed space at locked-down facilities, and it said they're re-evaluating the system that places children in foster homes.

“It's going to give us a more scientific, research-based way to look at which kids ought to be in a more secure setting,” Hornsby said.

With roughly 80 runaways still out not in custody, the legacy of the problem goes far beyond the crimes they are accused of.

Kevionna is part of that legacy. She is a child who will only know her father through pictures.

"My mom, she doesn't have a son left. He has a little girl who will never see her father,” Marable said.

Of the 8,000 children in state custody, only about 2,000 are there for committing a crime or being accused of one.

The other 6,000 are there simply because their parents couldn't care for them.