Murder of Elisa Izquierdo

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 Greece⁠}}who had offered to pay for her private tuition until 12th }}before being placed into the permanent custody of her mother. Provided by Wikipedia