GUILTY IL - Gizzell Ford, 8, brutally murdered, Chicago, 12 July 2013

Tonya421

New Member
Joined
May 19, 2013
Messages
316
Reaction score
13
What a tragedy! This poor girl was handed over to this evil witch after being taken away from her mom. Her father lived in the same house, but article says he was bed-ridden.
The injuries this child had turned my stomach

CBS) -- A Chicago grandmother has been charged with strangling her 8-year-old granddaughter to death in the family's apartment CBS Chicago reports. The body of the girl, Gizzell Kiara Ford, reportedly showed evidence of child abuse, including cuts, burns, and blunt force trauma to the head.

Helen Ford, 51, was ordered held without bond Sunday, according to the report. She is facing first-degree murder charges. The girl was found dead Friday morning.

Maggots in the lacerations on the girl's head had hatched while she was still alive and spread to the front of her scalp, authorities said.
:sick:

The girl reportedly had cuts to her face, ears, and lips, bruising and puncture wounds, ligature marks on her ankles and wrists, and circular burn marks similar to cigarette burns. Authorities recovered a pole, twine and cables from the home, some of which had blood on them, prosecutors said.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_...rged-with-strangling-8-year-old-grandaughter/

And she has the nerve to cry in that mugshot?? Seriously? I wonder how many times she told poor Gizzell not to cry when she was beating her?
 
The excuses started as far back as Easter. Relatives said there always seemed a reason why they couldn't visit 8-year-old Gizzell Kiara Ford, who was living with her grandmother.

"Gizzell can't talk, she's in the shower or on punishment. It was an excuse every time we called," said Gizzell's uncle, Osvaldo J. Mercado.

When they examined the home for evidence, police took a pole, twine and cables, some of them smeared with blood. In the bedroom where the girl was found, investigators found blood splattered near her body, Pillsbury said.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/...mother-murder-girl-8-20130715,0,4895614.story
 
This "Grandmother" needs to die. And the "bedridden' father, what's up with that? Didn't he ask/demand to see his daughter? Obviously he is also culpable!

Poor little girl. God bless her.
 
Words fail me. They just do. I have tears in my eyes, and a heavy heart just reading this..
 
There were TWO OTHER children in this home. And --no prior-- contact with CPS. Did NOBODY AT ALL see what was going on?

Holy moly. I despair for humanity, some days.
 
I'm in tears for this poor girl. I can't wrap my brain around how anyone could cause pain to a child. RIP Gizzel.
 
May sweet Gizzell have the peace and love she's always deserved and may the monster who did this to her never have another moments happiness. I don't understand people anymore.
 
I am more angry right now than sad. Why or why not here... Can't concerned relatives go to the front door and barge in if they are concerned?

I feel angry that afterwards people say to reporters that they were concerned.

Any news on the bed ridden father?
 
OMG...this is sooo horrific and so sad.

That article just stunned me.

She was 8 and had siblings and relatives.....HOW?????
 
PLEASE let this "woman" NEVER see the light of day again.

What she did was evil. Just plain. pure .evil.
 
Posting a news report that I haven't seen. It describes wounds to the buttocks. I think this Grandmother is covering for someone. She is not innocent at all but feels justified as she wasn't the only one hurting this precious child.

Quote

Her neck showed signs of hemorrhaging and fractures and broken cartilage, Pillsbury said. The girl also suffered deep lacerations to her buttocks and had ligature marks on her ankles and wrists, as well as circular burns on her body that may have been cigarette burns, Pillsbury said.

End quote.

http://my.chicagotribune.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-76673136/

I want to see more reports about the father that was residing at the home.
 
I normally work with 10-12 yr old kids but this year I had a chance to work with the 7 and 8 yr. olds. This story would've bothered me anyway but, it's even worse after spending 6 hrs. a day with roomfuls of kids this age. Even the jaded ones are more trusting and just want to be seen as good kids. Knowing this makes this case disturb me more than most.
 
OMG WTH This is one time I wouldn't say police brutality if she showed up bruised up from the LE station. What I wonder about is if the father is bed ridden and was abused by her also? Is that why he is bed ridden? She is a monster who deserves to suffer for what she inflicted on this angel. I am raging about this!!!
 
Some lawyer will come alone and defend her on "insanity" and she'll live the rest her life in a prison, while this girls young life was taken so brutal! What a horrible way to spend such a short life. The pain and misery this baby went through, even still alive she had maggots living in her open wounds. Thank God she is in a better place!
 
http://my.chicagotribune.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-81125248/

A Chicago man awaiting trial in the violent death of his 8-year-old daughter died this morning of an apparent heart attack, sheriff’s officials said. Andre Ford, 29, was pronounced dead shortly before 9 a.m. in the medical unit of Cook County Jail.

Ford and his mother, Helen Ford, 52, have been held without bail since the death of Gizzell, whose battered body was found in her grandmother’s Austin apartment in July 2013. The child had been beaten and strangled, authorities said.

Charged with murder in her death, Ford and his mother were due in court again Sept. 10. Both have pleaded not guilty.
 
A 2013 Tribune investigation into Gizzell’s death found that an investigator with the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services failed to spot signs of trouble after visiting the apartment one month before the child’s death.

The newspaper also disclosed that a respected child abuse doctor who examined Gizzell weeks before her death had questioned the grandmother about a suspicious injury on the child’s buttocks. But he did not call the DCFS hotline, according to agency reports.


http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/...-heart-attack-authorities-20140819-story.html
 
https://www.yahoo.com/news/slain-8-old-alleged-horrific-192618986.html

Like many girls her age, 8-year-old Gizzell Ford kept a diary. The cover was striped with rainbows, and she used a pink marker to record her thoughts.

For the first few entries, Gizzell — known to friends as “Gizzy” — wrote about typical third-grade things: jumping rope, school teachers, clothes and friends.

But her life in Chicago seemed to derail in the summer of 2013, as she began detailing abuse she allegedly suffered at the hands of her grandmother.

“I know if I be good and do everything I’m told I won’t have to do punishments,” Gizzell wrote. She described how she had been forced to squat for hours and told to stand in one place for “an hour or two.”

She wrote that she looked forward to the start of school again in August, when she would be out of the house.

“I am going to be a beautiful smart and good young lady,” she wrote one day. “I can do anything I put my smart mind to. People say I’m smart and courageous and beautiful.”

“I hope that I don’t mess up today because I really want to be able to just sit down, watch T.V., talk and play with everybody,” she wrote in that same entry. “I am going to be great all day.”

Later, she added a postscript. “Not true,” she wrote. “I failed.”

On July 11, 2013, she wrote her last entry: “I hate this life because now I’m in super big trouble.”

Gizzell was dead the following day, and her body was found soon after. Authorities say she was discovered in her grandmother’s trash-filled apartment, where she’d lived with her father for several months.

She had been strangled and badly beaten.
Horrifying Accusations of Abuse

After Gizzell died, police arrested Gizzell’s father and grandmother. In court documents obtained by PEOPLE, investigators allege that her father directed the attacks, while her grandmother carried them out.

The grandmother, 55-year-old Helen Ford, is now on trial for murder. The father, Andre Ford, died in 2014 of a rare skin disease that caused him to have a heart attack.

In court on Wednesday, the prosecution introduced Gizzell’s diaries as well as other disturbing evidence against Helen. Prosecutors played cellphone video that allegedly showed her berating the terrified girl for breaking house rules. Gizzell stood silently, a sock stuffed in her mouth.

Prosecutors said that in the course of her abuse, Gizzell had been tied to a bed for several days. They also alleged that she was denied food and water and punished when she tried to sneak a sip of water from a toilet.

“They’re the most haunting images any of us will see until the end of our days,” Cook County Assistant State’s Attorney Ashley Romito said of the evidence, in her opening at the trial.

“ had a terrific smile, beautiful, full hair and wonderful penmanship,” Romito said. “What Helen Ford did to her reduced that child to something completely unrecognizable.”

Wrenching Testimony

The testimony took its toll on witnesses: A veteran Chicago police forensic investigator broke down on the stand when she was shown photos of Gizzell’s body, describing the injuries as some of the worst she has seen in her 30 years on the force.

“I’m sorry,” said Officer Nancy DeCook as she wiped away tears. “This never happens.”

Gizzell’s 10-year-old half brother also took the stand, testifying about abuse that he, too, had allegedly received at the hands of his grandmother. Speaking softly, the boy told the judge that Helen would beat him with a belt. He said that she forced him to do squats as a punishment.

The boy testified that he had seen his grandmother use a spatula to hit Gizzell in the mouth. He also said that she would force the girl to eat hot peppers or stand in contorting positions for hours on end.

If Gizzell cried out in pain, the boy said, Ford would stick a sock in her granddaughter’s mouth.

As he described his little sister, the boy burst into tears. “She was very nice,” he said on the stand. “She liked to make friends. She liked to play.”

Helen, weeping, decided on Wednesday not to testify.

Defense: Self-Inflicted Wounds?

Helen’s public defender, Judie Smith, acknowledged the tragedy of the case in her opening statements. But she characterized the defendant as “overworked, overwhelmed and overcome” with the daily responsibilities of taking care of a bedridden son and three grandchildren.

Smith also alleged that many of Gizzell’s injuries were self-inflicted.

“She was a tragically troubled young lady,” Smith said. “She coped by inuring herself.”

The case is a non-jury trial which began Monday. A judge could render a verdict as early as Thursday afternoon.
 

Members online

Online statistics

Members online
163
Guests online
2,513
Total visitors
2,676

Forum statistics

Threads
590,038
Messages
17,929,240
Members
228,044
Latest member
Bosie
Back
Top