An inquiry into the death of Phoenix Sinclair is hearing about the last chance social workers had to intervene before she was killed.

In March 2005, a foster parent relayed an anonymous complaint that four-year-old Phoenix was being abused by her mother and locked in her bedroom.

Jacki Davidson, who worked in the after-hours unit of Child and Family Services (CFS), was the social worker who took that call.

Davidson told the inquiry on Monday that she didn't act on a tip about Phoenix being at risk because it wasn't happening at that particular moment. She also said she responded only to immediate threats to a child's safety, not to allegations.

"Locking young children in a bedroom … it's not an uncommon thing. Sometimes kids, it depends on the level of parenting, sometimes parents sleep in and kids are too young to be wandering the streets alone," Davidson testified.

Instead, she passed the tip on to a crisis response unit for "consideration."

Davidson also told the inquiry she didn't know about the long history that Phoenix's mother, Samantha Kematch, had with CFS, even though she had handled Kematch's file a year earlier.

In Januaury 2004, Davidson got a call about Kematch leaving Phoenix in the care of someone who was taking drugs. She told the inquiry she did not consider it an emergency.

"She [the caller] hadn't heard anything about the family since Christmas and so I had no information that Phoenix was at present being babysat by somebody who was smoking crack," Davidson said.

Kematch and her boyfriend, Karl McKay, along with Phoenix, eventually moved to the Fisher River First Nation, about 150 kilometres north of the city, where Phoenix was beaten, neglected and eventually killed in June 2005.

Her body was not found until nine months later, in March 2006, wrapped in plastic in a shallow grave near the landfill at the reserve.

The inquiry is looking at how CFS officials handled the girl's case and why her death went undiscovered for months.

Worker could not access apartment

The inquiry also heard on Monday from Richard Buchkowski, a CFS crisis response worker who received Phoenix's family's file in March 2005.

Buchkowski testified that he tried to check out allegations that Phoenix was being abused, but he was unable to see the girl.

His goal was to get into the home, assess the child and speak with the child's mother, the inquiry heard.

Buchkowski said he went to Kematch's Winnipeg apartment twice, but he could not get into the building on either of those occasions.

Phoenix's file was later referred to another CFS unit for follow-up, Buchkowski told the inquiry.

Phoenix died three months later, after Kematch and McKay had relocated the family to Fisher River.

With files from The Canadian Press