Starved, abused, found dead in freezer: Nobody intervened as L.A. County boy suffered
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Set us as preferred Pictures of Isaiah Harrison from 2024 show a bubbly, heavyset boy with a toothy smile and full cheeks.Isaiah’s aunt, Charlene, said in court this week that her 8-year-old nephew was mischievous, often sneaking food in the middle of the night.
He loved Domino’s pizza, video games and cats.Sometimes he would hide snacks in his family’s couch cushions.Charlene remembered her nephew as a source of happiness in her home, a cheerful presence who once used his allowance to buy his mother a stuffed unicorn.
But relatives had some concerns about his weight, estimating the boy to be about 200 pounds.By the time Isaiah’s remains were found inside a small freezer in his parents’ bedroom last October, he weighed just 65 pounds, according to L.A.County Deputy Medical Examiner Robin Parks.
In 12 months, she estimated, he’d lost two-thirds of his body weight.Prosecutors allege Isaiah’s rapid weight loss and mounting injuries happened over the course of a year inside a Lynwood apartment, when the boy was rarely seen in public and often kept chained to a piece of furniture, according to testimony delivered this week at a preliminary hearing on murder and torture charges against his parents and grandmother.How he was able to waste away without anyone — including school officials or the county’s child welfare agency — raising alarms remains an unanswered question.Autopsy photos showed his body was covered in red welts and lacerations, and Parks said there were signs the boy suffered from “muscle wasting” because he was malnourished and often restrained from moving.
Relatives testified that they rarely saw the boy after he moved back into his father’s Lynwood home and that they were blind to Isaiah’s suffering.Abuse allegations lodged with L.A.
County’s Department of Children and Family Service...