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Human Wreckage True Crime
Disturbing True Crime Stories, These include, murderers, kidnappings, serial killers. Solved and unsolved.
Human Wreckage True Crime
The Shameful Death of Elisa Izquierdo
The tragic case of Elisa Izquierdo is an all-too-familiar tale of bureaucratic ineptitude. She was known by New York's Child Welfare Administration, but their inaction led to her being murdered by her abusive mother. Welcome to another episode of Human Wreckage. On this episode, we talk about the case of Elisa Izquierdo and how the system failed. Elisa, let's get into it. The tragic case of Alyssa 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. Alyssa was born on the 11th of February 1989 in Woodhull Hospital, brooklyn, new York. Her father, gustavo Escuerto, was an upstanding citizen. He was a Cuban immigrant working as a chef in a homeless shelter where he met Alyssa's mother, awilda Lopez. Awilda, on the other hand, was a struggling drug addict and all throughout the pregnancy she continued to abuse drugs. As a result, when Alyssa was born, she was addicted to crack cocaine. Following her birth, awulda continued to abuse drugs and lived an unpredictable and dangerous lifestyle. Gustavo worried about the safety of Alyssa and filed for full custody, which was promptly granted. And Gustavo did an outstanding job as a father and he doted on his daughter. She was his life. He would always say she was his princess. A family friend went on to recall. Initially he was clueless on how to raise a child, but with help from his co-workers and relatives, gustavo mastered diapering and feeding. When the time came, gustavo enrolled Alyssa in the prestigious Montessori Day School in Brooklyn. You couldn't resist that smile. Elissa always clung to people she had so much love recollected one of her teachers, barbara Simmons. However, as things were finally on the upswing in Elissa's life, an affidavit was signed which stated that Awulda had overcome her addiction and now had a permanent accommodation at the Farragut Houses in Brooklyn with her new husband. On paper it appeared as though Awulda finally had her life together and now she wanted her daughter.
Speaker 1:Back by 1991, awulda was granted unsupervised visitation with Elissa. Awulda's two eldest children soon informed relatives that during these visits Awulda would brutally beat Elissa and claim that she was possessed by the devil. You would think that upon hearing this information these relatives would take that information straight to authorities. They did not. Alyssa began to seem scared and withdrawn and not her usual giddy self. Gustavo and a number of Alyssa's teachers noticed that she often arrived back home from these visits bearing bruises. On one occasion Alyssa had bruising around her genitalia. It was observed by Gustavo that Alyssa had started to wet the bed and would often be sick.
Speaker 1:Once returning home from Awilda, gustavo went straight to New York's Child Welfare Administration to report these findings, as did one of Alyssa's teachers. Alyssa herself even confessed to the abuse to a social worker. Gustavo applied to have the visitation rights ceased. Tragically, the courts denied his application and the visitations were allowed to continue. By 1993, gustavo had purchased plane tickets and had planned to move back to Cuba taking Alyssa with him. However, gustavo and Alyssa never made the flight. Gustavo was rushed to hospital with respiratory complications and died from lung cancer on the very day they were scheduled to leave for Cuba, the 26th of May 1994.
Speaker 1:The death of Gustavo was the nail in the coffin of Elisa escaping her abusive mother and, ultimately, her untimely death. Upon Gustavo's death, oleda filed for full custody of Elisa and was supported by social workers and Elisa's court-appointed lawyer, who claimed that Elisa wanted to be with her mother. Awilda was subsequently granted temporary custody and upon hearing this alarming news, elsa Canizares, gustavo's cousin, also filed for custody. The head teacher of Elissa's school and even Prince Michael of Greece, who had met Elissa when he visited her school, wrote letters to the judge informing him of the torment Elissa had experienced at the hands of her own mother. Prince Michael even offered Elissa a scholarship to attend private school through to grade 12. They all argued that Elissa wouldn't stand a chance if placed in custody of her mother. Regardless of the mounting evidence as to why Aouulda was not a suitable mother, in 1994, she was granted full and permanent custody of Alyssa by Judge Phoebe Greenbaum, who, in 1979, denied a father custody of his 10-year-old son, stating that the boy's grandparents were his psychological parents. It was a decision that would prove to be fatal.
Speaker 1:As soon as Alyssa moved in with her mother, the abuse continued. Alyssa was taken out of her prestigious school and sent to a public one. Here she was reported as being withdrawn and uncommunicative. She was also reported to be riddled with bruises each week and appeared to have difficulty walking. Again, this clear evidence of abuse was reported, but these reports were discarded due to apparently being not reportable. Upon finding out that the school had reported suspicions of child abuse, awuldo withdrew Alyssa from the school.
Speaker 1:Now Alyssa had nowhere to escape her mother, her tormentor. She would be locked in her bedroom 24 hours, 7 days a week. Elissa wouldn't even be allowed out to use the bathroom and would defecate the bed. Awulda started to tell relatives that Elissa was possessed by the devil and that she had been put under a spell by her father. Awulda's brother, rafael Nahons, and her sister Montserrat Torres said they believed the tall tales of Elsa's demons and therefore never questioned their sister's torment of Alyssa. Neighbors would say they frequently heard Alyssa screaming for help and begging her mother to stop hurting her. We thought it was their way of disciplining the kids, said neighbor Tony NG.
Speaker 1:The apartment was a home of horrors, to say the very least. Alyssa would be forced to eat her own excrement, her head would be used as a mop, she would be beaten with various objects and burnt, and she would be sexually assaulted with a hairbrush and toothbrush. Alyssa was deprived of food while she watched her half-siblings chow down on dinner every night. Carlos Lopez, awilda's husband, would even encourage his own children to hit Alyssa. On the 15th of November 1994, awilda called her sister and told her that Alyssa was like retarded on the bed and that she had some sort of fluid leaking from her nose and mouth. The fluid was brain fluid. Alyssa was left on the bed until the following day when Awilda invited a neighbor inside to view the body. Upon viewing Alyssa's body, the neighbor immediately called an ambulance, but it was far too late. Alyssa was dead at just six years old. Awilda would eventually confess that she had thrown Alyssa's head first into a concrete wall two days before the ambulance was called, she revealed that Alyssa hadn't spoken or moved since the incident.
Speaker 1:Medical examiners were horrified at the sight of little Alyssa and couldn't even begin to imagine the torture she had endured by somebody who was supposed to be her caregiver. Her lifeless body reflected years of abuse. She had numerous injuries, which included broken fingers one finger bone was even protruding through the skin burns and cuts over her head, face and body, and internal injuries. An autopsy also revealed that her genitalia and rectum bore signs of trauma, including tearing. It was shown that all of the injuries had been sustained over a period of time. It was evident that Alyssa had been tortured from the moment she entered the apartment.
Speaker 1:The abuse surrounding this case is extremely abhorrent, but even more abhorrent is the fact that it was easily preventable, had child services responded accordingly. Alyssa was buried in a white coffin so small that there was only room for four pallbearers. At the front was Elsa Canizares, gustavo's cousin, who had fought for custody of Alyssa Snow blanketed the ground on Cypress Hills Cemetery where Alyssa was to be buried, following the somber funeral at Ponce Funeral Home in Bushwick, brooklyn. As the dainty coffin was lowered into the ground, mourners threw in pink carnations. Alyssa was buried in a white-laced dress that draped over her thin and frail body. On her head she wore a garland made of white flowers that couldn't quite conceal the bruise near her temple, a grim reminder of the abuse she sustained before her death. During her funeral, the Reverend Gianni Agostinelli blamed the silence of many and neglect of child welfare institutions for the death of Elissa. The Daily News wrote in their front page editorial Elisa Izquierdo is finally at peace. May her mother never find a moment of it again.
Speaker 1:In June of 1996, awulda Lopez pleaded guilty to murder. After maintaining her innocence for months, she cried during the court proceeding in Manhattan Supreme Court before finally admitting that she had thrown Elissa at the wall. Elissa languished unconscious in the apartment until the next day, with brain fluid leaking from an ear, said Assistant Manhattan District Attorney Donna Hankin. According to Awulda's lawyer, she was horrified by her own actions. Prosecutors had agreed to Awulda's plea to spare her two surviving children the trauma of reliving Alyssa's death. At a trial, awulda was sentenced to 15 years to life imprisonment, where she has received all of the protections of the legal system the same very system that failed to save Alyssa. The tragic life and death of Alyssa is Queerdo 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. The story became a national disgrace and lawyers would cite the case as an example of chronic and systemic problems. By 1996, mayor Giuliani declared that he would abolish the city's child welfare administration and rebuild it from top to bottom. He also signed Alyssa's law into legislation, which was designed to balance the need for increased accountability through public awareness and government oversight.
Speaker 1:I have done a lot of cases over the year. I have been doing podcasts. This one really bothered me. I do my episodes with little emotion to just get the facts of a case out there. This case was brutal. If you like what I do, like and subscribe Till next time. Take care of yourselves, thank you.