Abused Girl, 7, Found Dead in Bronx
Medic weeps at find, mom & boyfriend held
By Scott Shifrel and Alice Mcquillan, Daily News Staff Writers
Originally published in the New York Daily News, November 22, 2001
Burned, bruised and emaciated, a 7-year-old girl who apparently had been abused in secret for a long time was found dead inside a roach-infested Bronx apartment yesterday, police said.
A paramedic burst into tears at the sight of Inez Bennett, who had composition books wrapped as splints around her two broken arms, police and witnesses said.
"It was heart-wrenching, senseless," a police source said. "I have not seen bruises like this in my entire career."
Inez's jaw was smashed. Hot water burns, cuts and welts covered her thin body, police sources said.
An autopsy determined that "the cause of death is child abuse syndrome with multiple blunt impact injuries to the head, torso and extremities and third-degree burns to the left arm," said Ellen Borakove, a spokeswoman for the city medical examiner. "She had different fractures in various states of healing."
Inez's mother, crying hysterically, dialed 911 shortly after 10:30a.m. from a neighbor's apartment in their building on Britton St. in Pelham.
"My baby's not breathing," Natasha Anderson, 25, screamed into the phone, the neighbor said.
Paramedics frantically pumped Inez's chest and gave her oxygen. But it was too late.
"I saw them working on that child," said Carol Brown, 44, who was visiting relatives in the building. "One of them said 'No pulse.' She [a paramedic] was crying. You know how bad it was when you see an ambulance worker crying."
Anderson's boyfriend, Jason Lewis, 26, jumped out a third-floor window when police arrived and suffered a leg injury. Both he and Anderson were taken into custody.
At a news conference last night, Chief of Detectives William Allee said the couple were being questioned but charges had not been filed.
The couple's bruised 3-year-old son was found in their apartment. The little boy witnessed the beatings given to Inez and told police, sources said.
The boy was first taken to Jacobi Medical Center and then placed in foster care by the city's Administration for Children's Services.
Police aren't sure whether Inez ever went to school. Neighbors rarely saw her. When they did, she seemed sad, they said.
"She was very pretty but she always had her head down, always very quiet," said neighbor Charlene Acosta, 19.
ACS had handled one neglect complaint against the family in August 1999, agency spokeswoman Jennifer Falk said.
An anonymous caller said Anderson and Lewis left the kids alone in the apartment for hours. ACS investigated and deemed the complaint unfounded, Falk said.
Neighbors said Anderson and Lewis, both Jamaican immigrants, were always fighting and screaming. Neighbor Clara Perez, 24, said she once saw Lewis hitting Anderson with a stick in the hallway. Another neighbor, Carmen Lopez, 47, said she called 911 five years ago when Lewis was hitting Anderson.
This is the city's third fatal case of child abuse in the last two weeks. The parents of a 3-year-old girl were charged with torturing her to death on Staten Island. A mother was accused of drowning her 4-year-old daughter in Washington Heights.
