Memorial Wall : victims of child abuse
Laura Ashley Skinner
died on January 19th, 1987
3yo Laura from Ohio, USA, lived with her mom and mom's boyfriend. Mom worked two jobs, and the boyfriend was babysitting Laura. She was raped, sodomized, and battered to death. The boyfriend was sentenced to 12 years in prison for involuntary manslaughter; rape was never prosecuted. There's a bench in Antrim Park, in Columbus, Ohio, with a plaque in memory of Laura, with this quote from a song by Martina McBride, Concrete Angel:
A statue stands in a shaded place
An angel girl with an upturned face
A name is written on a polished rock
A broken heart that the world forgot
Through the wind and the rain
She stands hard as a stone
In a world that she can't rise above
But her dreams give her wings
And she flies to a place where she's loved
Laura Ashley Skinner
died on January 19th, 1987
3yo Laura from Ohio, USA, lived with her mom and mom's boyfriend. Mom worked two jobs, and the boyfriend was babysitting Laura. She was raped, sodomized, and battered to death. The boyfriend was sentenced to 12 years in prison for involuntary manslaughter; rape was never prosecuted. There's a bench in Antrim Park, in Columbus, Ohio, with a plaque in memory of Laura, with this quote from a song by Martina McBride, Concrete Angel:
A statue stands in a shaded place
An angel girl with an upturned face
A name is written on a polished rock
A broken heart that the world forgot
Through the wind and the rain
She stands hard as a stone
In a world that she can't rise above
But her dreams give her wings
And she flies to a place where she's loved
Chloe Valentine
died on January 20th, 2012
4yo Chloe from Australia lived with her mom and mom's boyfriend. Mom had a problem with methamphetamine addiction, the house was unsanitary, Chloe witnessed domestic violence, and was often left unsupervised. Child protective services received 22 reports. Chloe's grandma wanted to take custody of her: her mom would drop her off at grandma's house for a few hours and not pick her up for a few days. "It was really hard knowing I had to give her back because I didn't know if she was going to come back the same way," said another woman who cared for Chloe while her mom was drinking. Yet Child Protective Services found no grounds for removal of the child from her mom's custody. Chloe died because she was forced to ride (and repeatedly crash) a motorbike, while her mom and mom's boyfriend were filming it. They only called for ambulance when Chloe stopped breathing, and left the hospital as soon as her life support was turned off, before she died. Chloe's grandma said in her victim impact statement, "They say people look peaceful in death. Chloe didn't. She looked battered and bruised and alone."
Malaya Faith Heun
died on January 21st, 2014
Malaya was a 15-month-old girl from North Carolina, who was beat to death. Her mom worked 18hr shifts 5-6 days a week, supporting the family, and left Malaya with her aunt. Malaya died of septic shock following blunt force trauma to the abdomen. The autopsy report listed several injuries including clavicle and rib fractures, some bruising on her head and hemorrhaging. "That was my sister. I left her with people I thought I could trust, " said Malaya's mom.
Sirita Sotelo
died on January 21st, 2005
Sirita was a 3yo girl from Seattle, USA, whose mom was incarcerated on drug charges. Sirita was placed with foster parents who loved her. She liked to sing, dance, dress up, and used to delay her bedtime by asking to look at Mars. She could point it out in the sky because her foster dad taught her how.
A year later Sirita was removed from her foster parents and placed with her dad and stepmom. And another year later Sirita was found dead, with a fractured skull and severed liver. "My intentions were to help Sirita, never to harm her in any way," said her stepmom. "I tried so hard... but she struggled every day, never smiled. (...) I do remember that I lost it; my mind went blank," she said.
The stepmom suffered from depression, PTSD, and other mental health issues, because she was sexually abused as a teenager, and had a drug-addicted father. However, the prosecutor said, "It is inconceivable anyone could be so depressed, so angry they would commit the acts of violence that the defendant did in this case."
Garnett-Paul Spears
died on January 23rd, 2014
5yo Garnett, known online as "G", was killed by his mom for attention. Since the time he was born she kept blogging about his various illnesses, posting photos and prayer requests on social media, receiving sympathy as a single mother of a disabled child. Finally she filled his feeding bag with a lethal amount of salt, and kept blogging about her hardship as the boy was dying. "Throughout his five years, Garnett Spears was forced to suffer through repeated hospitalizations, unneeded surgical procedures and ultimately poisoning with salt, all at the hands of the one person who should have been his ultimate protector: his mother," said the District Attorney after the mother was convicted of second degree murder. "Using the child's 'illnesses' to self aggrandize herself, her actions directly lead to her son's tortured death," the prosecutor said.
Ahmad King
died on January 24th, 2006
3yo Ahmad from Georgia was killed by his foster mom. Apparently, he fought with his sister, foster mom sent him to his room, and he called her a name. For that she beat him with a belt (with a buckle) and a 2ft pipe. Ahmad died of multiple blunt force trauma. The woman said she didn't mean for that to happen, panicked, dumped his body in the woods, went to a local Walmart, and told the police that someone kidnapped Ahmad from her car while she was getting a shopping cart. She was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Ahmad, and 20 years for beating his foster sister too.
Darcey Freeman
died on January 29th, 2009
Darcey died in hospital on 29 January, hours after her father stopped the car carrying her and her siblings, picked the four-year-old up and threw her from the bridge. Darcey was on route to her first day at school. Minutes earlier, Freemen had told his former wife to “say goodbye to her children” and that she would never see them again. Several motorists witnessed the peak-hour incident He stopped once briefly when Darcey’s brother repeatedly asked his father to go back to get Darcey because she could not swim. Freeman was found guilty of his daughter’s murder by a jury in 2011 after they rejected his defence of mental impairment.
Kayleigh Slusher
died on January 30th, 2014
Kayleigh Slusher, was a happy pigtailed girl who liked to dress up like Barbie and Minnie Mouse but became a downcast figure who rarely ventured out. When she did, neighbors said, she looked like a zombie, with dark circles around her eyes. Sara Krueger was a doting mother to her 3-year-old daughter until her boyfriend moved in a year ago and the couple began using methamphetamine, police and neighbors said. Neightbours are struggling to understand what allegedly led her mother Sara Krueger, 23, and her boyfriend, 26-year-old Ryan Scott Warner, to abuse and kill Kayleigh.
Nur Aina Nabihah
died on January 31st, 2018
Aina Nabihah, was only nine years old when she was pronounced dead while receiving treatment at a Malasian Hospital (Hospital Tunku Jaafar, Seremban), on the 1st of February. Aina suffered from damaged kidneys, torn intestines, and broken ribs, due to trauma afflicted by a blunt weapon. Not long after her death, it was revealed that her stepmother, and her own father frequently beat her and inflict physical abuse on her as punishment.
Logan Marr
died on January 31st, 2001
5-year-old Logan Marr was found dead at her her foster mother's home. Police determined that Logan had died from asphyxiation after being bound with duct tape and strapped into a high chair in the basement. The foster mother was later tried and convicted of manslaughter.
O'ryan (Rhino) Murphy
died on February 3rd, 2016
When Elk County Coroner Michelle Muccio arrived on the scene scene, she pronounced O'ryan dead, estimating he had expired several hours before the call was made and emergency crews arrived. The apartment was described in court documents as “deplorable.” The two children living there, the late O’Ryan Murphy and his then three-year-old brother, had easy access to morphine, pain killers, over the counter medications, and alcoholic beverages. Several weapons, including a knife and blackjack, were also within reach. The residence was described as having animal feces on the floor, decomposing garbage throughout, being covered in filth, and with little to no internal heat, despite it being winter. The borough’s health inspector determined the apartment to be unfit for human occupancy and it was condemned after being processed by law enforcement. An autopsy performed by the Erie County Coroner’s Office concluded the boy’s cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head, which police say was inflicted by the boy’s caretakers, his aunt Kristy Mae Murphy, 35, and uncle Scott Jeffrey Murphy, 25, both of Ridgway. Police investigation determined that the boy’s parents both of Meadville, had full knowledge their sons were living in squalor and with their aunt and uncle who were known drug offenders with violent tendencies.
Amy Dye
died on February 5th, 2011
Amy was a 9yo girl from Kentucky who stayed with a foster family and was beaten to death. At first her 17yo adoptive brother was charged with murder and plead guilty, but his conviction was overturned by the Supreme Court because investigating police officers coerced him to confess. It's unclear who killed Amy, but here were CPS reports alleging she was abused starting from 2007. On one occasion she was beat up by her oldest brother, but foster mom threatened to spank Amy if she told anyone. Ryan Craig, owner of local newspaper who was covering the case and filed the open records request for the abuse reports, said "Amy Dye should not have been in that home. You can place blame anywhere you want to, but the bottom line is that when we got those records, it showed that she should not have been in that home.".
