Sylvia likens autopsy

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In July , Lester and Betty Likens, traveling fair concessionaires, left two of their children, Sylvia Marie, 16, and Jenny Fay, 15, as boarders in the home of Gertrude Baniszewski alias Gertrude Wright , 37, a divorced mother of seven. Likens was lying on a soiled mattress on the floor of an empty upstairs bedroom. Her body was covered with cuts, severe bruises, and a variety of open sores—some from over cigarette burns, peeling scald marks, and missing skin. She had two black eyes, shredded lips, and fingernails broken backward. The official cause of death was a subdural hematoma from a blow to the temple, but shock and extensive injuries contributed to her death. Jenny Likens approached the investigating officers and offered to make a statement, provided she was immediately removed from the home.

Sylvia likens autopsy

It has been the most enduring nightmare in Indianapolis True Crime history — the Oct. Other crimes have involved a greater number of victims, often including children, but the villains in those stories were hardened criminals or madmen, and their acts of violence played out rapidly within a span of minutes or hours. In the aftermath of grief and anger, good people could at least comprehend the chain of events that had just unfolded. On the surface, the Likens murder is not much different from any number of heinous crimes. It was a Cinderella story without the happy ending — a teenage girl left under the care of a strict authoritarian whose idea of discipline is physical abuse that escalates until the abuse victim dies. If that was the extent of it, this case would likely have been lost to history long ago like so many other long-forgotten murders. For weeks, even months, the torture of Sylvia Likens was casual entertainment, something to do in the afternoon before dinner and favorite TV shows. At least a dozen children participated or at least watched, and none felt sufficiently disturbed to tell their own parents. None pushed to be sure she was safe. Neither said a word because, as Jenny would later explain, they thought it would only make things worse. Neither could conceive of the possibility that authorities would move to protect them, remove them from the house or arrest their tormentors. On Oct. New York St.

December 27, at pm. A video taken of the inside of the former Baniszewski house shortly before it was torn down. Ha ha ha!

Sylvia Likens. John Jr Baniszewski and Gertrude Baniszewski. Via Wikimedia Commons. The autopsy of the sixteen-year-old girl from Indiana read like that of a horror movie. Her skin had receded, and she had open wounds nearly down to the bone. Sylvia and her sister Jenny were sent to live with Gertrude Baniszewski in July Their parents, Lester and Betty, were in desperate need of money and had joined the travelling carnival, which was no place for children.

It has been the most enduring nightmare in Indianapolis True Crime history — the Oct. Other crimes have involved a greater number of victims, often including children, but the villains in those stories were hardened criminals or madmen, and their acts of violence played out rapidly within a span of minutes or hours. In the aftermath of grief and anger, good people could at least comprehend the chain of events that had just unfolded. On the surface, the Likens murder is not much different from any number of heinous crimes. It was a Cinderella story without the happy ending — a teenage girl left under the care of a strict authoritarian whose idea of discipline is physical abuse that escalates until the abuse victim dies. If that was the extent of it, this case would likely have been lost to history long ago like so many other long-forgotten murders. For weeks, even months, the torture of Sylvia Likens was casual entertainment, something to do in the afternoon before dinner and favorite TV shows. At least a dozen children participated or at least watched, and none felt sufficiently disturbed to tell their own parents. None pushed to be sure she was safe. Neither said a word because, as Jenny would later explain, they thought it would only make things worse.

Sylvia likens autopsy

Sylvia Marie Likens January 3, — October 26, was an American teenager who was tortured and murdered by her caregiver, Gertrude Baniszewski, many of Baniszewski's children, and several of their neighborhood friends. The abuse lasted for three months, occurring incrementally, before Likens died from her extensive injuries and malnourishment on October 26, , in Indianapolis , Indiana. Likens was increasingly tormented , neglected , belittled, sexually humiliated , beaten, starved , lacerated, burned, and dehydrated by her tormentors. Her autopsy showed wounds across her body, including several burns, scald marks and eroded skin.

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The pair then subjected Likens to a scalding bath in order to "cleanse her of sin," with Gertrude grabbing Likens's hair and repeatedly banging her head against the bath to revive her whenever she fainted. One immediate neighbor of the Baniszewskis would later inform police she had heard the desperate commotion and that she had identified the source as emanating from the basement of East New York Street, but that as the noise had suddenly ceased at approximately a. That afternoon, several of Likens's other tormentors gathered in the basement. Lester and Betty Likens divorced. Just watched that film. Following her release from prison, Gertrude Baniszewski relocated to Iowa. Gertrude weeps during the reading of the verdict. No, she died on October 26th, She tried to escape from the basement, but Gertrude caught her at the bottom of the stairs and stamped on her head. Although discussions were held about the possibility of purchasing and rehabilitating the house and converting the property into a women's shelter , the necessary funds to complete this project were never raised. This was a good tribute to her. Her teachers and other adults likely noticed the open sores, bruises, or early signs of abuse.

It was called the most terrible crime ever committed in Indiana, and half a century later, that title still holds. The details of her demise, revealed at the trial, defy belief. But when one of their checks arrived late, Baniszewski took out her frustration by beating the girls.

Mike K. Gertrude Baniszewski eventually allowed Likens to sleep upstairs, on the condition that she learned not to wet herself. The official cause of Likens's death was listed by coroner Dr. Gertrude began beating the girls with a paddle when the payments failed to arrive on their pre-agreed day. And to set her free?!?! January 29, Retrieved June 14, Members of both groups initiated a sidewalk picket campaign. Gertrude moved Likens into the kitchen and, having propped her back against a wall, attempted to feed her a doughnut and a glass of milk. Deputy Prosecutor Marjorie Wessner delivered the state's closing argument before the jury on behalf of the prosecution. Two neighbourhood kids, Coy Hubbard and Richard Hobb, were also involved in the mess.