On Thursday afternoon, a Wisconsin mother pled guilty in court for starving her adult daughter with “severe autism” to death.
According to a criminal complaint received by Law&Crime, Amy S. Laszkiewicz, 53, was charged in June 2023 with one count of willfully exposing an individual at risk to abuse under conditions resulting in death for the malnourishment death daughter Cora Laszkiewicz, 23, on January 4, 2023.
According to the Waukesha County District Attorney’s Office, the defendant previously stated that the starvation program was implemented in part to avoid upsetting her now-deceased daughter with usually sensitive problems about her weight.
Related Coverage: The elder Laszkiewicz was arrested and charged on June 21, 2023. She soon posted $10,000 bail and was released until mid-August 2023, when Waukesha County Court Commissioner Kevin Costello determined probable cause to support the accusation and ordered her to remain in jail pending trial. She was later given bail.
The defendant pleaded guilty under the Alford standard on Thursday in front of Waukesha County Circuit Court Judge Michael O. Bohren. An Alford plea permits criminal defendants to maintain their innocence based on the facts of an allegation while accepting the state’s evidence, which is likely to convince a judge or jury of their guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
The defendant is facing a maximum sentence of 40 years in state prison. During the plea hearing, an attorney for the state stated that the prosecution intended to seek 15 years in prison.
Amy Laszkiewicz called 911 herself the morning she discovered her daughter dead in bed, according to the criminal complaint. As of 2017, the elder Laszkiewicz was the younger’s legal guardian and full-time caregiver due to her daughter’s “severe autism.”
Deputies arrived at the home and discovered the young woman without a pulse, unable to breathe, and beyond medical treatment.
According to Dr. Amy Shiel’s medical findings, the victim was 5’5″ and weighed only 70 pounds when she died.
The medical professional captured further facts that highlighted the young woman’s slow-motion death.
The victim’s hip and rib bones were visible through her skin, her eyes were sunken in, and she had little fatty tissue on her body, according to the report. The medical examiner also stated that the deceased woman’s skin was in a state of “turgor,” which refers to a condition in which human skin does not fully heal after being squeezed. This state is also frequently associated with severe dehydration.
Cora Laszkiewicz died as a result of “homicide, with the caregiver failing to provide [her daughter] adequate hydration and nutrition,” according to the criminal complaint.
According to authorities, Amy Laszkiewicz was mostly open about her daughter’s confinement and deprivation of food and anything like normalcy.
The defendant went on to tell law authorities that her daughter had not left their home since the COVID-19 outbreak began and that she “did not want to go to school, have visitors, or go anywhere,” according to the lawsuit.
According to the complaint, the defendant told law enforcement that her daughter had last seen a doctor in person in 2019.
According to investigators, the deceased woman last saw her primary care physician in 2017, at the age of 17. At the time of her last routine check-up, she weighed 135 pounds.
Amy Laszkiewicz allegedly told investigators that her daughter “was never a big eater,” according to the lawsuit, but would eat “breakfast burritos” while “sticking to a gluten and dairy free diet.”
The to-be-condemned mother stated that she was aware that her daughter was becoming increasingly thin, but she expected her to “bounce back.” When asked by a detective if she ever contemplated calling 911 to have her daughter transported to the hospital because of her dramatic weight loss, the defendant stated she “didn’t want to upset” the young woman.
According to the complaint, Amy Laszkiewicz claimed that she handled all of her daughter’s feeding and cleaning.
“The defendant agreed that [her daughter] was very skinny and stated, ‘Maybe my decisions weren’t correct, and I can admit that. I definitely should have taken her in, but I didn’t want to upset her further. “That was always a goal of mine, to keep her calm,” the criminal complaint states.
During the hearing on Thursday, prosecutors requested that Laszkiewicz’s bail be withdrawn, arguing that his conviction had made him a flight risk. Finally, the court refused the request, allowing the defendant to stay free on bail until sentencing.
Sentencing in the case is scheduled for March 21 at 9:30 a.m.