Listen Live
Walker Funeral Home Black Business Spotlight
100.3 Featured Video
CLOSE
CA: LAPD Gang Unit

Source: Robert Nickelsberg / Getty

Helen Ford, a 55-year old woman, is currently on trial for killing her granddaughter, 8-year-old Gizzell “Gizzy” Ford, back in 2013. A tragic end was preceded by child abuse by her grandmother and father, Andre Ford, who died under jail custody from a heart attack in 2014.

Prosecutors played cellphone videos demonstrating the torture Gizzy endured at the hands of her family. She was tied up to her father’s bed for days with a sock or rag stuffed in her mouth while being denied food and water. Gizzy’s 10-year-old half brother testified that he saw his grandmother hit Gizzy in the mouth with a spatula, forced her to eat hot peppers and made her stand on one foot while holding her arms out. When the girl complained or cried, her grandmother would beat her with a belt. In one instance Gizzy even tried to kill herself by jumping off a second floor window, but was stopped by her grandmother.

The words from Gizzy’s diary commemorates and hauntingly testifies the life she lived. She wrote, “I am going to be a beautiful smart and good young lady. I can do anything I put my … smart mind to. People say I’m smart and courageous and beautiful.” At the same time, she penned, “I hope that I don’t mess up today because I really want to be able to just sit down, watch TV, talk and play with everybody. I am going to be great all day.” Then she later adds, “Not true…I failed.” In the weeks leading up to her death, Gizzy wrote in her journal, “I hate this life because now I’m in super big trouble.” Gizzy was eventually found strangled in her father’s room with a badly beaten body. Investigators said it was obvious Gizzy had been dead for some time.

We will keep you updated as more news surfaces on the accused grandmother’s trial.

 

 

An Eight-Year-Old Girl Writes ‘I Hate This Life’ Before Being Murdered By Her Grandmother  was originally published on globalgrind.com