In October 1965, police in Indianapolis, Indiana, discovered Sylvia Likens, 16, dead on a mattress in her caretaker’s home.
The Indianapolis Star reported that old and new bruises, burns, and sores covered the emaciated and weak teenager’s body from malnutrition. A hot metal brand left an imprint on one area of her skin, cruelly etching the words “I am a prostitute” into her abdomen.
According to the Indianapolis Star, Sylvia’s caregiver, Gertrude Baniszewski, told police that a group of boys had attacked Sylvia. She even showed them a note, purportedly written by Sylvia, that appeared to support her version of events.
However, it soon became clear that Baniszewski had tortured and imprisoned Sylvia in his home for several months prior to her death. Baniszewski organized the abuse, which involved her children as well as others from the neighborhood.
According to the Indy Star, Baniszewski agreed to look after Sylvia and her sister Jenny for $20 per week that summer while their parents were away on a long work trip. Divorced Baniszewski was already taking care of her six children, including her 17-year-old daughter Paula and her 18-month-old son.
According to the website of Sylvia’s Child Advocacy Center in Indiana, the girls “continued to live as teenagers do, singing, skating, earning modest incomes during the summer break, and doing housework.” However, the payments to Baniszewski gradually decreased.
Angry, Baniszewski began beating the sisters more than a dozen times a week, frequently for “benign issues like eating too much food,” according to the website.
The Indy Star claims that children in the neighborhood also took part in the abuse, forcing Sylvia to endure excruciatingly hot baths as a form of punishment to “cleanse her of her sins.”
“By the end of the summer, Sylvia was being raped, verbally tormented, assaulted with objects physically and sexually, starved, beaten, burned, and forced to commit humiliating or heinous acts,” according to the advocacy center. Eventually, they forced Sylvia to stay at home and forbade her from attending school.
Sylvia died on October 26, 1965, as a result of her extensive injuries and malnutrition, according to the Indianapolis Star. Despite pleading not guilty during her trial the following year, Baniszewski ultimately faced a conviction for first-degree murder.
Paula, her daughter, received a second-degree murder conviction. The source stated that both received life sentences in prison.
According to Indianapolis Monthly, Baniszewski’s son and two neighborhood children stood trial but served little time in prison.
In December 1985, Baniszewski was granted parole. She lived in Iowa under a new name until her cancer-related death in 1990, according to the Indianapolis Star.
Sylvia’s case influenced Indiana law, which requires anyone who knows of child abuse to report it to the Department of Child Services.
“This law was enacted as a direct result of Syvlia’s case; legislators were horrified to learn that the neighbors heard Sylvia screaming but did not call the police,” says Kassie Frazier, Executive Director of Sylvia’s Child Advocacy Center.
“In 1965, it was common practice not to get involved in others’ business; however, we, as a state, said we would stand with our children,” Frazier said in a statement shared with PEOPLE on Nov. 27.
The organization, one of eleven nationally accredited child advocacy centers in the state, claims on its website to be “dedicated to [Sylvia’s] memory and the cause of protecting children from abuse in every corner of our community.”
According to Frazier, child advocacy centers provide therapy, medical exams, courtroom preparation, victim advocacy, case management, and other services.