For nearly seven months Andrea Berry had been trying to get police to take seriously her fears that her ex-husband was sexually abusing their 3-year-old daughter, Sophia, and using her in child pornography, but she was running out of options.
A police commander in the town of Elizabeth, where the father lived, had bluntly told Berry the case was closed and to stop pestering the police, according to recorded conversations at the time. She feared she risked losing custody for making what police deemed unsubstantiated allegations, the recording shows.
Then, a small breadcrumb of hope came three days before Christmas. An Elbert County child protective worker had left a message on Berry’s cellphone stating that she was filing a dependency-and-neglect motion against the father that would get the matter before a judge.
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