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Sylvia Marie Likens (January 3, 1949 – October 26, 1965) was an American teenager who was tortured and murdered by her caregiver, Gertrude Baniszewski, many of Baniszewski's children, and several of their neighborhood friends.
Oct 24, 2013 · It has been the most enduring nightmare in Indianapolis True Crime history — the Oct. 26, 1965, torture-murder of 16-year-old Sylvia Likens.
Oct 21, 2015 · On October 26, 1965, police found Sylvia Likens’s emaciated corpse—covered with more than 150 wounds ranging from burns to cuts—sprawled on a filthy mattress in the Indianapolis home of 37-year-old Gertrude Baniszewski, mother of seven and the architect of the girl’s gruesome death.
May 20, 2023 · After being left in the care of family friend Gertrude Baniszewski, 16-year-old Sylvia Likens was brutally tortured and ultimately murdered in Indianapolis on October 26, 1965.
May 24, 2021 · Sylvia Likens had been brutally abused by the woman who promised her parents she’d look after her, and she wasn’t the only one who took part in the torture — there was an entire community of people behind the cruelty.
In December 1965, a grand jury indicted Gertrude Baniszewski, her daughters Paula, 17, and Stephanie, 15, and her son John Jr., 12, and two neighbors, Coy Hubbard and Richard Hobbs, both 15, on charges of first-degree murder. The highly publicized April 1966 murder trial drew national attention.
Oct 23, 2015 · On Oct. 26, 1965, police found the body of Sylvia Likens, and Gertrude Baniszewski became Indy's face of evil
In October 1965, 16-year-old Sylvia Likens died after being held captive for nearly three months. Her death sparked action across police departments, prosecution, and the halls of the Indiana General Assembly, plus movies and books.
May 19, 2023 · Gertrude Baniszewski (left), in custody of a police matron, weeps after a jury delivered a guilty verdict against her and four teenagers in the torture slaying of 16-year-old Sylvia Liken on May 19, 1966.
Jan 25, 2023 · The 1965 murder of Sylvia Likens was horrifying for the length of time the teen suffered before she died and the fact that children helped torture her.
