Sarah Angelina Chavez
December 5, 2002 - October 11, 2005
Sarah Angelina Chavez was born on December 5, 2005 to Sophia Chavez. As a newborn, Vicodin was detected in her system, and at only two days old, a case worker had opened a file for her, though her case wasn't ever followed up. Life with Sarah's mother was hectic. About a month after Sarah turned two years old, her mother took narcotics while pregnant with another child. She called 911 and informed them that she had had a miscarriage in her home. Paramedics discovered a stillborn baby in the toilet when they arrived at her home.
Sarah was nowhere to be found. Social workers feared that something happened to her, and they finally located her in the care of her great-aunt, Frances Abundis. Unfortunately, when they arrived at Frances' home, they found Sarah with a cut on her nose and two bruised eyes. Sophia was determined to be an unfit parent, so social workers placed Sarah in protective custody.
Sarah was placed with two women named Dianne Hardy-Garcia and Corri Planck. The women had been checked and went through many procedures to be sure that they could properly care for Sarah. Dianne and Corri loved Sarah from the moment they saw her. Dianne recalled that Sarah had chocolate on her face and a candy cane in her mouth. She remembered that she brought Sarah a little teddy bear, and Sarah had jumped into her arms when they met.
Dianne and Corri provided Sarah with her own room, own toys, and own books. She even had a schnauzer dog who would sleep outside her door at night. Corri and Dianne would hang up the artwork that Sarah made at her day care. They were proud and happy parents, but they could tell that Sarah had been exposed to violence.
Corri and Dianne were alarmed when they discovered that Sarah had horrible nightmares and the fact that she knew how to choke with both of her hands. At two years old, Sarah also cursed. They also noticed signs that Sarah had also been sexually abused. They continuously addressed this issue to the social workers and asked that a medical examination be performed to see if Sarah had been sexually abused, but this was never followed through by the social workers. Dianne and Corri worried that the social workers were not taking the concerns seriously.
Sarah was required to have weekly visitations with her mother and her great-aunt, who was also her godmother. While her mother was often late, and at times, didn't show up at all, her great-aunt was always present. What Corri and Dianne weren't aware of was the fact that Sophia was angry about the fact that Sarah was being raised by a same-gender couple, and that she was fighting to get Sarah back. While Sophia was deemed unfit to parent, her great-aunt, Frances, was not. Frances continued fighting for the custody of Sarah.
In April of 2005, Corri and Dianne were given one hour to pack Sarah's things and say goodbye to her before she was returned to Frances. The judge sent Sarah back to her great-aunt with no proper check to be sure that it was a safe and stable environment. When Corri and Dianne were packing Sarah's things, she continuously took the items back out of her bag and into her drawers and told them "No!". Corri was convinced that they would read in the newspaper someday that Sarah had been abused to death. Dianne refused to accept this awful thought in her mind.
In the home of Frances, Sarah was reunited with her five year old cousin who went by "AJ". Sophia continued to rarely visit her daughter. The social worker who noticed Sarah doing well in the home of Corri and Dianne now noticed Sarah doing poorly. AJ witnessed Frances' husband, Armando Abundis, take Sarah into a room and close the door. He claimed that he could hear her screaming when they were inside.
On October 10, 2005, Sarah was taken to the hospital because her arm was severely fractured above her elbow. A piece of jagged bone kept Sarah's arm disconnected and hanging at her side. This can be seen on the hospital's surveillance video. Frances waited four hours before she left without Sarah ever seeing a doctor or getting her injuries treated. It was later known that her arm wasn't only fractured, but that she had multiple internal injuries too.
Just seven hours after her hospital visit, Sarah was dead. She died of blunt force trauma to the abdomen. Armando was found guilty of assaulting a child under eight years of age. He was found not guilty on his murder count, and guilty for child abuse. Frances was released from jail after pleading no contest to acting as an accessory after the fact and to felony marijuana possession.
The two were playing baseball when her neighbor, Josh Phillips, accidentally hit her in the head with the ball. Josh carried Maddie into his house and put her on the floor. She started to make noise and cry. Josh was afraid of what his father would do if he saw that he had let Maddie into the house, and he was afraid of getting in trouble for hurting her.
Maddie kept screaming and crying. In a panic, he beat her with a baseball bat and stabbed her several times. He then hid her body under his bed. Josh had no previous record of any violence whatsoever. Madelyn was reported missing, but no one ever suspected that her fourteen year old neighbor and friend had anything to do with it, until his mother came into his room about a week after her death and saw something oozing from under her son's bed. He was at school at the time. His mother lifted the bed and discovered Maddie's body. She immediately called the police. Josh was interviewed later saying that he lived in a fantasy world afterwards and just ignored Maddie's body under his bed, even taking flashlights outside to go and look for her. He admitted that he wanted to take his actions back, but it was too late. He was sentenced to life without parole for murdering Maddie.
