Might Linda Damm still be alive if she and her daughter Tess had lived in Denver?

We'll never know. But had police and social service agencies in Boulder County had the same model of early and comprehensive interventions that Denver now uses whenever possible, Linda Damm might not have suffered such a tragic fate.

She was stabbed to death in early February, and Tess' boyfriend Bryan Grove, 17, has been charged with first-degree murder. Tess, 15, faces charges as an accessory, and two other teens are also implicated.

During 2006, Lafayette police encountered Tess six times, mostly for similar reasons. Tess was out after curfew, and her mother was at home, apparently intoxicated.

That's more than enough reason to refer the family to the Boulder County Department of Social Services, and it appears that police officers even recommended that it be done.

That meant sending a fax. But somehow it didn't get through, which in the light of the tragedy is a matter of considerable frustration both to the police department that tried to send it and to the social services officials who haven't been able to find any record that they received it.

Both now say that they are looking for ways to ensure nothing like this happens again.

A more robust system of checking that messages sent are also messages received would certainly help. But a situation so out of control ought to have triggered action much sooner.

In February 2006, Linda Damm reported her daughter as a runaway, and Tess told police she didn't want to go home because her mother was too drunk. That should have been enough to alert authorities to a family in trouble.

Perhaps the situation was already so deteriorated that a court would have found that Tess was neglected and ordered her put in care. Or it could be that intensive intervention on a voluntary basis would have ameliorated or prevented the numerous subsequent incidents.

As we wrote recently, that's the kind of intervention model Denver has been trying to put into place, starting in 2002. The Family to Family program was developed by the Annie E. Casey Foundation and is administered by the Denver Department of Human Services, with help from a host of churches, nonprofits and other community groups.

Once a family is identified as troubled, even before a child is taken from home involuntarily by order of the court, it is offered the opportunity to receive services voluntarily.

A whole team of people is convened to support the family, in whatever ways it needs.

Linda Damm's family has acknowledged in a statement that she was an alcoholic, and treatment for substance abuse is among the services that may be available if needed.

Indeed, Denver officials say that the No. 1 problem leading to neglect and abuse of children is substance abuse, which in time leads to other problems as well, as seems to have happened in the Damm case.

This model is a big improvement over just sending a fax - or two or three - and handing off the whole problem to somebody else. The Casey foundation has plans to roll out its model to 34 other Colorado counties. It can't happen soon enough.