The Story Behind My Topic…

         One day my friend Caitlin Housand came into our AVID class and had a debate to work on. I was talking to her and she was researching child abuse cases and this interested me because the amount of adults that abuse children is tremendously high. Then suddenly she came upon a case that was heart wrenching to me because it was so sad. The article was named “The Short Life and Brutal Death of Brianna Lopez.” Even the title was sad and I wanted to know more about the case so I researched it. The story was many pages long and very descriptive and detailed. Long story short, the girls uncle and dad raped and beat her, along with her own mother. The story states that poor Brianna was bruised head to toe. Her uncle and dad were outrageously drunk while Brianna’s mom was said to have been asleep in the next room while all of the horrible things took place but, was later found out to be a lie and in fact her mom had beaten, pinched, and threw her repeatedly. Brianna was threw against the ceiling repeatedly, raped time and time again, had bite marks all the way down her body, skull fractures, etc. the list goes on and on. All the family knew of the abuse that had been taking place and refused to say anything at all. After committing this crime the uncle and dad were only sentenced a maximum of eighteen years to prison at first and after hearing petition after petition was changed. Brianna was beaten so bad that her casket was not able to opened at her viewing. There was never even a picture taken of poor Brianna which meant the only picture they ever had was the one taken at the morgue. This whole case goes on page after page and brings sadness every time I read it. After reading this case many times it has influenced me in changing the amount of child abuse cases reported. I think if I can reach out to some people and talk to people maybe it would help. There are many more cases that were horrible but this one was said to be the worst reported case known in Mexico. Brianna was only five months old when she was killed, and born on Valentines Day. Many people after reading this are in tears and now in place is a bill in her honor. This story is what influenced me to choose this topic. This story can be seen at the site located at the bottom of this page.

Cameron, David. "Brianna's Bill- New Mexico." Voice For Children (2010): n. pag. Web. 7 Mar 2011. .