The tragic case of Elisa Izquierdo is an all-too-familiar tale of bureaucratic ineptitude. Her short life and brutal death was so horrendous that it reduced even the most hardened officers to tears. When she was just 6-years-old, she was murdered by her abusive mother.
New York’s Child Welfare Administration knew all about Elisa’s plight long before her death yet did nothing to save her. Young Elisa became a symbol of the failures in New York’s Child Welfare Administration and Family Court, whose bureaucracy allowed this little girl to slip right through the cracks and into her grave.
Sources:
1. Time, 24 June, 2001 – “Abandoned to her Fate”
2. New York Daily, 28 November, 1995 – “A Bitter Last Farewell”
3. Akron Beacon Journal, 30 November, 1995 – “Death of an Abused Girl”
4. New York Daily News, 30 November, 1995 – “Slain 6-Year-Old Is Laid to Rest”
5. New York Daily News, 25 June, 1996 – “Mom Pleads Guilty to Elisa’s Murder”
6. New York Daily News, 30 November, 1995 – “Girl Buried as City Asks Why”
7. New York Daily News, 30 November, 1995 – “Slain 6-Year-Old is Laid to Rest”
8. Time, 24 June, 2001 – “Abandoned to her Fate”
Audio Credit:
Ever Mindful – Kevin MacLeod
Dark Tranquillity – Anno Domini Beats
Rolonda Watts – Little Girl Lost: The Life and Death of Elisa Izquierdo
