American victim of child abuse and murder. A crack baby, she and her half-brother and half-sister were taken away from their drug addicted mom. She went from the hospital to the custody of a caring father, Gustavo Izquierdo. Her parents were from Cuba and Puerto Rico and Elisa was a beautiful child. She caught the attention of Prince Michael of Greece, a sponsor of the Day School she attended and he offered to sponsor her through her 12th grades of schooling.
Elisa’s mom, Awilda Lopez, stopped drugs in order to be allowed visitation. When her dad became terminally ill in May 1994, her mom took custody, taking her out of her Day School. Her dad did not recover, and her mom’s rehab from drugs was temporary.
The first reports of child abuse came in to the police 5/19/1994. In the following year there were at least seven formal reports of abuse or neglect from various sources. The child became withdrawn and at times, smeared her feces. She was seen limping, bruised, balding from patches of hair missing. The caseworker was overburdened and did not follow up the reports. Case records were missing and the little girl fell through the cracks of inept paperwork and incompetence.
On 11/22/1995, Elisa’s body was found discarded in a field, so battered and sexually tormented that strangers wept. Her mom had tortured her to death because she thought the six-year-old was possessed by the devil.