The murder of Elisa Izquierdo occurred in November 1995 in Manhattan, New York City. Izquierdo was a six-year-old Puerto Rican–Cuban-American girl who died of a brain hemorrhage inflicted by her mother, Awilda Lopez, at the peak of a prolonged and escalating campaign of physical, mental, emotional, and sexual abuse conducted between 1994 and 1995.
Described by authorities as the "worst case of child abuse they had ever seen," Elisa's story made national headlines when it was discovered that New York City's child welfare system (now the Administration for Children's Services) had missed numerous opportunities to intervene in her case and ultimately save her life. These failures to protect Elisa subsequently became the inspiration for Elisa's Law, a major restructuring of the city's child welfare system; increasing accountability of all parties involved in child welfare and reducing areas of confidentiality relating to public disclosure in cases of this nature. Elisa's Law was implemented in February 1996.
Elisa has been referred to as a modern-day Cinderella because she had at first been under the protection of a loving father and had befriended Prince Michael of Greecewho had offered to pay for her private tuition until 12th before being placed into the permanent custody of her mother.
Early life Elisa Izquierdo was born on February 11, 1989, in Woodhull Hospital Brooklyn, New York. Her father, Gustavo Izquierdo, was a Cuban immigrant who had emigrated to the United States with aspirations to become a dance teacher; her mother, Awilda Lopez, was of Puerto Rican descent. The couple met at a Fort Greene homeless shelter two years prior to Elisa's birth, where Gustavo worked part-time as a cleaner and caterer. Awilda herself was a temporary resident at the shelter, having been evicted from the apartment she shared with a previous partner, Ruben Rivera (with whom she had born two children), due to the couple's failure to pay in part due to her extensive drug abuse. The two began a temporary relationship, although reportedly, this ended when Gustavo discovered at the time pregnant with was a regular user of crack cocaine. Concern by her own family as to her extensive usage of drugs resulted in Awilda losing custody of her two eldest children, Rubencino and Kasey, to her own family in January 1989.
When Elisa was born, social workers stated to the city's child welfare administration services that the child was born addicted to crack cocaine. As a result of her mother's evident addiction, full custody of Elisa was awarded to her father, Gustavo, who despite having no prior parenting experience was, by all accounts, a doting, caring father to attending parenting classes, seeking advice from relatives as to how to care for his daughter, organizing celebrations for her first birthdays, and renting a banquet hall to celebrate her baptism at age four. As one family friend would later relate, "[Elisa] was his life. He would always say she was his princess."
Preschool In 1990, Gustavo enrolled his daughter in the Montessori preschool, although shortly thereafter, his incipient ailing health complicated his ability to pay for Elisa's schooling. As Elisa was such an outstanding and promising student and Gustavo such a dedicated father, both teachers and the school principal introduced her to one of the school's patrons, Prince Michael of Greece, in 1993. Reportedly, upon his arrival at the school, Elisa leaped into Prince Michael's arms, and stayed by his side for the rest of the day. He in turn offered to pay for Elisa's private tuition at the independent Brooklyn Friends School until 12th grade; she in turn responded to this gesture with a handwritten note expressing her gratitude. Occasionally thereafter, Prince Michael of Greece would send Elisa small gifts, to which she would express her thanks by responding with drawings or notes.
Partial custodial rights of mother The same year Elisa was enrolled in preschool, a social worker signed an affidavit stating that Awilda had successfully beaten her addiction, had secured permanent accommodation within the Rutgers Houses project on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, and had married a maintenance worker named Carlos Lopez, with whom she was now expecting her fourth child. In December 1990, having given birth to a daughter named Taisha, she regained custody of her two oldest children.
In November 1991, Awilda Lopez secured the right to obtain unsupervised visitation rights to Elisa: this ruling awarded her custody of the child every second weekend. Reportedly, Awilda's two oldest children informed relatives that throughout these unsupervised visits, Elisa would be beaten and neglected by her mother and stepfather. These relatives did not inform authorities of these revelations.
Both Elisa's father and her teachers noted the child bore bruising and other signs of physical mistreatment when she returned from these unsupervised visits. One of the locations of these injuries was Elisa's genitalia and the child did divulge that her mother had repeatedly hit her and locked her in a closet, adding that she had no desire to see her mother again. Her father also noted that Elisa had begun bedwetting in addition to losing control of her bowels, and would regularly experience nightmares upon learning she was to be in the custody of her mother for even short periods of time. Another family acquaintance noted that Elisa would always vomit upon her return from these visits to her mother, and refused to enter bathrooms.
Death of father Both Gustavo Izquierdo and Elisa's teachers did inform authorities of the abuse Elisa was enduring at the hands of her mother and stepfather. These revelations were also disclosed by Elisa herself to a social worker and her father did apply in 1992 to have Awilda Lopez's visitation rights ceased; however, the courts ruled that the visitation rights could continue, albeit with the conditions Awilda must not strike or otherwise harm her daughter.
In 1993, Gustavo Izquierdo formed plans to relocate with Elisa to his native Cuba. He is known to have purchased airline tickets for himself and his daughter, with the travel date being May 26, 1994. However, in May, Gustavo was admitted to hospital with acute respiratory complications (subsequently diagnosed as lung cancer). Gustavo Izquierdo died on May 26; the same date he had planned to travel to Cuba with Elisa. Shortly thereafter, when Elisa asked her mother where her father was, Awilda simply screamed the words, "Your father's dead!"
Upon hearing news of Gustavo's death, the director of Elisa's school, Phyllis Bryce, contacted a family court judge to express the grave concerns of both herself and numerous members of the school's staff as to the child's safety should her mother gain custody of her.
Full custodial awarding to mother Upon hearing news of Gustavo's death, Awilda applied for full, permanent custody of Elisa. She was initially granted temporary custody of the child. Upon hearing the initial awarding of Elisa's temporary custody to Awilda Lopez, Elsa the cousin of Gustavo and challenged the ruling and herself applied for custody of Elisa; citing the documented abuse Elisa had previously endured during the unsupervised weekend visits with her mother, and the manner in which Awilda is known to have spoken to the child. Both the head teacher of the school Elisa still attended and Prince Michael of Greece also wrote personal letters to Judge Phoebe Greenbaum, opposing the initial temporary custody of Elisa awarded to Awilda Lopez upon the death of her father and endorsing Elsa Canizares's application to obtain permanent custody of Elisa. Furthermore, in his letter to Judge Greenbaum, Prince Michael of Greece emphasized his intentions to pay for Elisa's education at Brooklyn Friends School should Elsa Canizares be awarded custody of the child.
Lacking sufficient funding to pay legal fees, Elsa Canizares attended court hearings without any legal representation, whereas backing Awilda Lopez's application for custody were a lawyer from the Legal Aid Society and a federally funded parenting program. According to Elsa Canizares, at this hearing, the legal representatives for Awilda testified as to her "valiant efforts" to refrain from relapsing into drug use, falsely claiming that caseworkers had visited the Lopez residence and that Elisa had expressed a strong desire to live with her biological mother. Furthermore, Canizares was criticized by Awilda's legal representation at this hearing for having "the nerve" to try and take Elisa from her biological mother. To this accusation, Elsa Canizares replied her nerve was borne out of fear of Elisa being placed with her mother.
Awilda Lopez's application to obtain permanent custody of Elisa was approved by Judge Greenbaum in September 1994.
Escalation of abuse Upon being awarded full custody of her daughter, Awilda withdrew Elisa from the private school she had been attending, and enrolled her in Manhattan's Public School 126, where Elisa was quickly observed to be withdrawn, emotionally disturbed, uncommunicative, and to urinate frequently. The principal of this school also noted that Elisa bore numerous bruises, walked with apparent difficulty, and had evidently begun tearing out sections of her hair.
On March 14, 1995, an anonymous letter was posted to the Manhattan Child Welfare Authorities. The author of this letter stated that Awilda Lopez had cut off much of Elisa's hair and had begun locking her in a dark room for extensive periods of time. Six days later, Elisa was admitted to hospital with a fractured shoulderthe injury having been untreated for three days.
The increasing concerns of staff at Public School 126 regarding evident abuse were also reported to the Manhattan Child Welfare Authorities. Reportedly, the Manhattan Child Welfare Authorities soon replied to the school that their concerns were "not reportable" due to a lack of direct evidence of child abuse or neglect. As such, this report was rejected. A further factor in this decision was the fact Elisa had been under court-ordered caseworker supervision. In response to the school having reporting the suspected abuse of her daughter to the Manhattan Child Welfare Authorities and a subsequent home visit by staff at the school, by this time known to have reverted to regular crack cocaine withdrew Elisa from Public School 126 in December 1994. She made no effort to enroll Elisa in any other school.
Reportedly, despite having borne six children by this time (three of whom had been born after Elisa), Awilda targeted Elisa for almost all of the abuse she inflicted upon her children. After withdrawing her from her school, Elisa was locked in her bedroom, was denied any opportunity to socialize with her siblings or to leave the apartment and was denied access to the being forced to use a chamber pot. Neighbors also reported hearing sounds of Elisa being beaten and otherwise abused, later reporting hearing Elisa's repeatedly pleading with her mother to stop hitting her, crying out pleas such as: "Mommy, Mommy, please stop! No more! I'm sorry." Some neighbors did report their suspicions of child abuse to child welfare authorities; however, no effective action was taken. Other neighbors reportedly knew of the abuse Elisa to a much lesser her siblings endured, but failed to notify authorities. Some neighbors noted that Awilda would refer to Elisa as a "Mongoloid" and a "filthy little whore" who had been placed under a spell by her father.