This story contains graphic material and references. Reader discretion is advised. In October , year-old Sylvia Likens died after being held captive for nearly three months.
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The murder of Sylvia Likens was a child murder that occurred in Indianapolis , Indiana in October Likens, aged 16, was held captive and subjected to increasing levels of child abuse and torture —committed over a period of almost three months—by her caregiver, Gertrude Baniszewski, many of Baniszewski's children, and several other neighborhood children, before ultimately succumbing to her injuries on October Baniszewski; her oldest daughter, Paula; her son, John; and two neighborhood youths, Coy Hubbard and Richard Hobbs, were all tried and convicted in May of neglecting, torturing, and murdering Likens.
Gertrude Baniszewski Having many aliases, Gertrude was part of one of the most disconcerting Indiana murderers, of which she, along with the. Sylvia Likens - Murder victim from Indiana. She was tortured to death by Gertrude Baniszewski, Gertrude's children, and other young people from their neighborhood. Her parents had left her, and her sister, in the care of the Baniszewski family three months before her death so they could work the carnival. There was a book and movie made about "the most terrible crime ever committed in the state of Indiana". The beautiful Sylvia Marie Likens. Sylvia Likens was a girl of 16 who was tortured and killed by Gertrude Baniszewski. Her sons and two boys from the neighborhood helped her with the torture. Sylvia Marie Likens Sylvia always smiled with her mouth closed, because she had a missing front tooth. Sylvia and her mother, Betty Sylvia was a normal, healthy sixteen-year-old girl prior to her final nightmarish sojourn in the Baniszewski house.
