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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.
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.
Oct 24, 2012 · Five days before she died, according to a 1965 story by the Indianapolis Star, Gertrude Baniszewski ordered one of the neighbor boys to etch, with a three-inch, red hot needle, “I am a prostitute...
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.
- James Briggs
Oct 24, 2013 · Sylvia Likens died Oct. 26, 1965. Cause of death was determined to be brain swelling, internal hemorrhaging of the brain and shock induced by Sylvia's extensive skin damage.
- 5 min
- Dawn Mitchell@Indystar.com
May 20, 2023 · Sylvia was dead by Oct. 26, 1965, from a brain hemorrhage, shock, and malnutrition. After three months of torture and starvation, she could no longer form intelligible words and could barely move her limbs. When the police came, Gertrude stuck with her cover story.
She died in Iowa, from lung cancer, on June 16, 1990, aged 60. The corner home of Gertrude Baniszewski where Sylvia Likens was tortured and murdered. Two houses to the right is the home of Richard Hobbs. Credit: David Brady, IndyStar View Source. Paula Baniszewski was found guilty of second-degree murder and was sentenced to life imprisonment.
