WAUKESHA, WISCONSIN: A Wisconsin woman was arrested for starving her daughter suffering from “severe autism” to death.
The woman claimed that she did not want to upset her now-deceased child with issues regarding her weight, authorities said.
According to court records, the defendant, Amy S Laszkiewicz, was initially apprehended and charged on June 21.
She quickly posted $10,000 bail and was released on Monday, August 14, when Court Commissioner Kevin Costello found probable cause to sustain the charge and ordered her to remain detained in jail pending trial.
Who is Amy S Laszkiewicz?
Laszkiewicz, 52, stands accused of one count of recklessly subjecting an individual at risk to abuse and causing the death of Cora Laszkiewicz, 23, on January 4, a criminal complaint filed by the Waukesha County District Attorney’s Office reported.
She made the emergency call on the morning she found her daughter dead in bed, the criminal complaint states.
Authorities responded to the residence and found the victim without pulse and unable to breathe and beyond medical help.
What was the physical state of Cora Laszkiewicz?
According to medical findings of Dr Amy Shiel, the “extremely thin and emaciated” victim stood at 5’5″ and weighed 70 pounds at the time of her death.
Her hip and rib bones were visible through her skin, her eyes were sunken in, and had almost no fatty tissue on her body, the report said.
The medical report also added that the deceased woman’s skin was in a state of “turgor,” which means the skin does not sufficiently recover after being pinched and suggests extreme dehydration.
Cora Laszkiewicz’s manner of death was termed homicide
As per Law and Crime, the criminal complaint notes that Cora Laszkiewicz’s manner of death was “homicide with the caregiver failing to provide [her daughter] adequate hydration and nutrition.” The mother informed the authorities that her daughter did not leave the house since the Covid-19 pandemic began and that she “did not want to go to school, have visitors or go anywhere."
The defendant also claimed that her daughter last saw a doctor in person in 2019, according to the complaint. Investigators reported that the deceased woman last saw her primary care physician in 2017 but she was 17 years old and weighed 135 pounds at that time.
Amy Laszkiewicz allegedly told investigators that her daughter “was never a big eater,” the complaint says, but would eat “breakfast burritos” while “sticking to a gluten and dairy free diet.”
The defendant thought her daughter would make a full recovery
The accused mother said she was aware that her daughter was growing thinner but believed she would “bounce back.”
When a detective asked Laszkiewicz if she ever considered contacting the emergency service providers to have her daughter taken to a hospital over her extreme weight loss, she said she “didn’t want to upset” the young woman.
Amy Laszkiewicz allegedly said that all of her daughter’s feeding and cleaning went through her.
“The defendant acknowledged that [her daughter] was very thin and said, ‘Maybe my decisions weren’t right, and I can acknowledge that. I probably should have taken her in, I didn’t want to upset her more. That was always a goal of mine, to keep her calm,'” the criminal complaint reads.
