Sylvia Marie Likens was a teenager from the United States who was murdered or dead and subjected to harsh treatment.
She passed away on October 26, 1965, in Indianapolis, Indiana, from the severe injuries she had sustained due to this maltreatment and the malnutrition she had suffered over the previous three months.
Likens’ tormentors were progressively cruel to her, treating her with growing disregard, belittling her, sexually humiliating her, beating her, starving her, lacerating her, and dehydrating her.
Her postmortem examination revealed 150 wounds over her body, some of which were burns, scald marks, and degraded skin. Jenny, who was many years younger than her, was frequently pressured into assisting her elder sister in mistreating her younger sibling.
Jenny was subjected to her sibling’s bullying. It was found that she had been the victim of a homicide and that she had died due to a combination of subdural hematoma and shock, with the situation further aggravated by severe malnutrition.
Please keep reading this article to gain further insight into Sylvia Likens’s passing circ*mstances.
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Sylvia Likens’s Death And Its Causes
The torturing and killing of 16-year-old Sylvia Likens on October 26, 1965, in Indianapolis, has been considered the city’s most notorious actual crime case ever since it occurred.
Other crimes have been committed involving a more significant number of victims, including children.
However, the perpetrators of those crimes were hardened criminals or insane individuals, and their acts of violence were carried out swiftly within minutes or hours.
After the initial shock and anger subsided, decent people could make at least sense of the sequence of occurrences that had just taken place.
On the surface, the murder of Michael Likens does not appear to be all that dissimilar to any other number of horrible murders.
It was a story about Cinderella, but it didn’t have a happy ending: a teenage girl was left in the care of a strict authoritarian whose idea of discipline was physical abuse that escalated until the abuse victim died.
It was a tragic version of the classic tale. But, if that were all there was, this case, like so many other killings that have been forgotten over the years, would probably have been consigned to the annals of history long ago.
Sylvia Likens Obituary
On October 29, a memorial service for Sylvia Likens was held at the Russell & Hitch Funeral Home in Lebanon. The funeral home is located in Lebanon.
The Reverend Louis Gibson presided over the memorial ceremony, which more than one hundred mourners attended.
During the ceremony, the lid of Likens’ gray casket was left open, and a photograph of her that had been shot before July 1965 was placed on top of her coffin.
The Reverend Gibson said in his eulogy: “We all have our time (of going), but we won’t suffer like our little sister experienced in the days leading up to the end of her life.” Afterward, the Reverend Gibson walked over to Likens’ casket and said, “She has gone to forever.”
After the conclusion of the service, the casket of Mr. Likens was carried by pallbearers to a hearse, and it was then driven to Oak Hill Cemetery to be buried there.
The funeral procession for Likens had a total of 14 vehicles, including this hearse, and they traveled to the cemetery together. The following inscription can be found on her tombstone: “Our Darling Daughter.
Sylvia Likens Documentary Netflix Details
The events surrounding the life and death of Sylvia Likens served as the inspiration for the film An American Crime, which was released in 2007.
Elliot Page played the role of Sylvia Likens, and Catherine Keener played the role of Gertrude Baniszewski in the film directed by Tommy O’Haver, a native of Indiana, and distributed by First Look Studios.
The slaying of Sylvia Likens served as inspiration for parts of the film The Girl Next Door. The Girl Next Door is an adaptation of a horror novel by Jack Ketchum in 1989.
The novel was released in 2007 and starred Blythe Auffarth as Meg Loughlin, based on Likens, and Blanche Baker as Ruth Chandler, based on Baniszewski. The film version of the novel was released in 2007 and starred Blanche Baker.
As part of their true-crime documentary series Deadly Women, the Investigation Discovery channel commissioned a documentary entitled “Sylvia Likens: Abuse and Murder,” which focuses on the abuse and murder of Sylvia Likens.
The documentary titled “Born Bad” debuted on television for the first time on November 30, 2009.
