Lafayette police attempted last summer to notify Boulder County's department of social services after several run-ins with a troubled teenager and her alcoholic mother, but something apparently went wrong.

Lafayette Police Chief Paul Schultz said Monday that records showed that a clerk in the department's records section tried to fax a police report to the agency Aug. 14.

However, it never got there - for reasons no one can explain.

"I don't have an answer for you," Schultz said Monday. "I can tell you we're reviewing all our procedures very thoroughly. We're conducting a very thorough examination of everything on our end."

The report dealt with Tess Damm and her mother, Linda.

Today, Tess, 15, is one of four teenagers implicated in the stabbing death of Linda Damm.

The Rocky Mountain News reported Saturday that social services officials could find no record they ever were notified about Linda Damm's struggles with alcohol and her problems with her daughter.

The finding that an effort to fax the report was apparently made - but failed - is frustrating for Paula McKey, director of the Boulder County Department of Social Services.

"It really is just a very unfortunate situation," McKey said Monday.

Schultz and McKey met Monday afternoon, and both are exploring ways to make sure the same kind of mix-up doesn't happen again.

Schultz said he's considering a new form that would require someone at the department of social services to acknowledge receipt of specific case reports. And McKey is looking at new technology, including a fax system that would provide a better log of all incoming documents.

Linda Damm was stabbed to death in early February, stuffed in the back of her Subaru, and briefly buried in a cemetery, according to court records. Late Feb. 27, officers responding to an anonymous call found her decomposing body in the car in the garage of her Lafayette home.

Her daughter's boyfriend, 17- year-old Bryan Grove, has been charged in her killing.

Tess Damm, 15, and Jared Guy, 18, face charges of being accessories. A fourth teen, Jared Smith, 16, has been implicated in helping move Linda Damm's body after the slaying.

In 2006, Lafayette police dealt with Tess six times - with many of the encounters including the same issues: Tess out late at night or early in the morning, and her mother apparently intoxicated at home.

On May 29, after an officer saw Tess, then 14, walking with another girl at 2:45 a.m., he took her home and talked with Linda, described in a police report as "unsteady on her feet" and "holding onto the wall."

"This officer told Linda that I would be contacting the department of social services," the report said. "Linda stated that she did not care."

On July 15, after another early morning incident, an officer took Tess home to find Linda with a "strong and obvious odor of an alcoholic beverage coming from her breath."

That officer dictated a note that the report should be forwarded to the department of social services.

After reading about Linda Damm's killing, McKey launched an exhaustive search of records to determine whether her office was notified that Lafayette officers had repeated contact with the teenager and her mother.

She found nothing.

"We do think we'll have a better process in the future," Schultz said Monday.

Staff writer Bianca Prieto contributed to this report. vaughank@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5019