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Parents Charged in Murder of 7 Year Old Brooklyn Girl

2006_01_nixxmarybrown.jpgA seven year old girl was found dead in her Bedford Stuyvesant apartment, beaten to death. Police discovered horrifying details of Nixzmary Brown's short life: A chair with ropes where she was bound, a cat litter box she was forced to use. A detective said, "When all the facts come out on this, it's going to be as bad as Lisa Steinberg." Her stepfather, Cesar Rodriguez, was charged with second degree murder and sexual abuse, and her mother, Nixzaliz Santiago, was charged with manslaughter; Rodriguez reportedly would beat Nixzmary and isolate her from the other children in the family. She was also found weighing 36 pounds - according to weight charts, 7 year olds at the 50th percentile are around 50-55 pounds.

The Daily News headlines one article, Painfully obvious little girl was abused, as Nixxmary was seen with bruises, a black eye, and welts; plus her school notified authorities that she was absent a lot. The Administration for Children's Services says they were in the middle of investigating her case, but as this is the fourth high profile death of a child whose family was supposedly under investigation, the ACS says they will reopen all their cases.

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  • julie brattan

    Im studying child protection and have read many a shocking story,this one is unbelievable,poor little creature didnt stand a chance.We encourage people to report their suspitions and hopefully children themselves to come forward,however there are many factors which provent this from happening.I say we get together and make a song,in the childrens memory and although unfortunatly,child abuse will never stop,maybe at least one child will hear the words of our song and get help,we with our words can get our heads together and put a stop to this cruelty,helping at least one child...........speaks for itself

  • jOY

    How fucked up can this world be? This makes me want to scream and even cry for this little girl. She hardly had a life if any at all. I hate the way humanity works.

    Rip Nixxmary

  • arc234

    I stand corrected, "In the loving presence of God" or it can be figuratively speaking.

  • arc234

    I can't even express the disgust and disbelief I feel about this. My heart goes out to this poor little girl and I can only hope that the monsters that should have been taking care of her get everything they deserve. May this little angel find herself in the loving arms of God. Peace.

  • kid

    of course, the mother & stepfather should be thrown to some hungry dogs. ACS, however, is very much to blame here for screwing up so royally. In addition, the mayor himself should take personal responsibility since he's the one who put an extremely incompetent individual to lead an agency which is supposed to be on the side of the children. what a shame.

  • Samantha T

    I stand corrected - I didn't realize that her grandmother tried so hard to take her back to Puerto Rico. While I do think the buck stops with ACS, I am concerned that the outrage directed at them won't spread to others who I absolutely consider culpable.

  • Samantha T

    Do people seriously think the ACS is just kickin' back and not giving a shit about children like Nixxmary? It is, yet another, overburdened, underfunded, understaffed agency. There are many, many extremely dedicated staffers at ACS. I'm not denying that somebody along the way was remiss, but ACS is not solely to blame for this. Let's not forget the private citizens who sat back and let this happen to a little girl - many of whom did not have thousands upon thousands of children in this city to keep track of. Her mother, her grandmother (who she begged to take her out of the house), her neighbors - all of whom must have known that something was amiss.

  • rev pays

    I hope that ACS caseworker is sleeping well tonight.

    and yes, Even the Mayor is to blame. ok, blike mike?

    this started with the Guiliani admin and is continuing with the Bloomberg admin, F the Poor.

    Clear your caseloads asap, same with the cooked crime stats.

    I hope everyone sees that class picture of Nixzmary.

  • rev pays

    How does the Post come up with these pictures makes it even sadder. That was probably the last time she was happy.

    I blame ACS, the buck stops with them.

    In the end, who cares right? after all it happened in bed stuy. (that was sarcasm)

    Oh yeah, did you ever notice when you call a city agency, no one answers? It's like a phantom phone number. this includes fed agencies.

  • I personally think that whatever investigation is made, heads NEED to roll. I would usually say that the typical NYC bureaucratic nightmare--and NYC over-population--contributed to this, but I can't even accept those as excuses. If they even are excuses.

    The key shining lining in the middle of this is the fact that school offiicials did all they could--that is report suspicion of abuse to ACS--but they could only do so much.

    But they at leas saw something and said something.

    Not too sure how the ACS and Dept. of Education interact. But I would personally think that somehow schools themselves--via counsellors or others--should have more authority to intervene in cases like this. Heck, most teachers and even crossing guards have more interaction with children on a daily basis than an ACS worker. Take advantage of that to save a kids life.

    This is so f--king sickening.

  • Jen

    The story is awful. I do not know what the ACS is doing. What I'm curious about is how ACS inspectors get qualified. Apparently in December, an ACS inspector felt the girl's bruises were consistent with the parents' story that she fell. Where are the advocates for the children?

  • This is nauseating. And I will be cynical and say that I have not been this nauseated by an incident of child abuse before.

    What part of the Administration of Human Service allows a SEVEN YEAR OLD to be 36 POUNDS?!?!?!? That in-and-of itself is proof enough they f--ked up.

    We're not talking about a healthy kid who was beaten and died. We're talking about a sick level of abuse where the child was starved.

    Good f--king lord does this make me want to personally do something.

  • Samantha T

    This is so incredibly sad. What drives an adult to hurt a child and another (her mother!) to stand by and watch? It scares the shit out of me. My heart breaks for this girl and for her siblings who had to witness this.

  • shadow

    this is absolutely horrible!

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