A 4-year-old girl weighed only 15 pounds when she was found dead in her filthy Brooklyn, N.Y., apartment on Sept. 2. The mother, Carlotta Brett-Pierce, was charged the next day with second-degree assault, reckless endangerment and endangering the welfare of a child.
Marchella Pierce was little more than a skeleton covered by skin as she was overwhelmingly malnourished and had two limbs tied to the crib when her body was found. The little girl’s body also showed bruises that were consistent with trauma, the police report states. The mother, if she can be described in such terms, called herself “a proud parent” on her MySpace page. But Carlotta Pierce, 30, could not provide any justification for her daughter’s absurd weight.
“The mother tied up the child because she would get up in the night and eat food … and make a mess,” said Brooklyn prosecutor Tracey Downing.
Pierce told investigators she checked on her daughter about 4 a.m. and she was “fine,” says the New York Daily News. The mother claims that she checked on her again at 6 a.m. and found her unresponsive.
The city Administration for Children’s Services has previously investigated at least two complaints involving Marchella. The first case involved allegations Pierce had marijuana in her system when Marchella was born. No details were available for the second investigation, the sources said.
Marchella, whose horrific and short life had a tragic beginning because she had underdeveloped lungs, had at least two limbs tied to the crib with what appeared to have been twine, the police sources told the media.
What could possibly be the mental state of parents to administer such inhumane, almost monstrous instances of abuse? And how is it possible that Children’s Services investigated this woman and allowed her to keep the child?
Yes, the nation needs to do a better job of investigating the circumstances that produces such parents in the first place and do the best it can to rectify the problem.
However, parents found guilty of such animalistic abuse of children should be permanently prohibited from ever reproducing again, and the nation should seriously consider having infertility induced in the guilty mother or father. In fact, the reproductive organs may need to be surgically removed to forestall such abuse from being repeated. –terry shropshire
