The discovery of 8-year-old Gizzell Ford’s tortured body in a trash-strewn Chicago apartment set off a firestorm of shock, disgust and demands for change.
Months after a judge ruled against the child’s mother and placed Gizzell in her grandmother’s home with her bedridden father, the straight-A student suffered horrific abuse while tied to a bedpost for days at a time, was denied food and water, and punished for trying to take a sip from the toilet.
Gizzell, though, did not simply fall through the cracks — a Chicago Tribune investigation following her slaying in 2013 found that multiple layers of trained professionals duty-bound to protect children had contact with the emaciated girl in the final months of her life but failed to act on warning signs. [Read Full Article]