I have difficulty reading about child abuse in general. I’m sure that shocks some of you, considering how often I talk about it. I think it’s the inability to comprehend that level of cruelty that draws me to it. Almost like when passing a terrible accident on the side of the road- you don’t want to look, but somehow have trouble turning your head. But abuse of children with disabilities is a whole other level of cruelty. I’ve never been able to conjure up even a morsel of understanding or compassion for someone who can hurt a human that is already so profoundly vulnerable.
According to investigators, that’s the nightmare this poor girl, from Gadsden, Alabama, endured. She was only 12 years old and had cerebral palsy. Not yet a teenager, yet she died weighing just 32 pounds- a weight more typical of a pre school aged child. She was entirely dependent on the adults around her for just about everything, including nutrition obtained through a feeding tube.
On June 17, Gadsden police received a report of the natural death of a 12 year old child. Due to her age and the circumstances surrounding her death, the Gadsden Police Department’s Juvenile Unit and the Alabama Department of Human Resources. Over three months later, 35-year-old Leslie Denise Wilson was arrested and charged with felony murder. Wilson is the child’s mother. The person most children look to first and foremost for care and support.
According to a criminal complaint obtained by WBRC, prosecutors allege that between May 1 and June 17, Wilson subjected her child to ongoing and extreme medical and/or physical neglect causing serious physical injury. Prosecutors allege that neglect is what ultimately led to the child’s death.
The public learned just how bad conditions were inside that poor child’s house, at Wilson’s bond hearing.
Gadsden Police Detective Alec Burgess testified what he saw in that house. He encountered a 12 year old girl with cerebral palsy in her bedroom with marks on her body. She had pneumonia and was dehydrated and malnourished. Not only did she weigh only 32 pounds, but there were live maggots in her diaper.
WVTM reported that there were maggots in and around the girl’s private areas and that her teeth were in deplorable condition.
Detective Burgess also testified that the victim’s younger siblings had been caring for her and that there was very limited food in the house.
I know people who don’t yet leave their 12 year old children home alone.
Making it hard to incredibly difficult to imagine how an adult could place a child even younger in the position of being responsible to care for an older disabled child, who necessitates a diaper and feeding tube.
According to testimony, the young girl’s death was the result of sepsis and was ruled a homicide.
What I’d now like to know, who knew this child? Who knew how she was being treated? It’s hard to imagine a family with children 12 and under are not known at all to those around them. I was unable to find in the reporting whether or not she attended school and whether or not child services had been involved at a previous point. I’m hoping she had received some medical care over the years. Were they ever reported for abuse or neglect? Hopefully time will tell and people will be held responsible if they deserve to be.
All I do know for sure, is that every child deserves love, protection, food, medical care, clean clothes (especially diapers) and some dignity.
I hope people who were in a position to be able to assist this child did not drop the ball and that somehow, nobody knew this was going on. Children are everyone’s responsibility. If you know a child is being neglected or abused, do something. You don’t have to be a mandated reporter or have any special training to step up and be a decent human being.
Luckily, the media has been protecting the children involved in this case and there is no publicized way to assist them directly during this time. However, I did find a local resource that we could support.
The James M. Barrie Center for Children is Etowah County’s Children’s Advocacy Center.Its mission is to help child-abuse victims through coordinated, trauma-informed services. The center provides children and their families with services including forensic interviews, therapy and victim advocacy—and those services are provided free of charge.
It also works with law enforcement, the Department of Human Resources, prosecutors and medical professionals when children are suspected victims of abuse.