Mom Watches Daughter Eaten By Maggots & Flies In Horrifying Torture Room

Mom Watches Daughter Eaten By Maggots & Flies In Horrifying Torture Room

The doctor who performed the autopsy on Danielle Kelly measured the 14-year-old at 3 ft and 6 in; she weighed 42 lbs. So what happened to Danielle? The story is terrible. The girl was found with flies and maggots all over her body; she wasn’t fed, she hadn’t drunk water, and was left in a dark room that looked like a pigsty. But before I continue, please keep in mind Danielle is the victim. Her name is spelled similar to the name Daniel, but it is pronounced Danielle. You also have Daniel Kelly, who’s her father. Andrea Kelly is her mother. She also had a brother named Daniel. I’ll try my best not to confuse you. Let’s start with Danielle’s birth.

Daniel Kelly was born on January 3rd, 1992, in Ohio, to Daniel and Andrea Kelly. From the beginning, Danielle’s fragility and dependence on others was apparent. She was delivered prematurely and, according to her father, was so small that she could fit in the palm of his hand. Danielle’s parents separated shortly after her birth. Her mother, Andrea Kelly, moved to Philadelphia with Danielle and her brother. Danielle herself did not develop normally as an infant and young child; she displayed cognitive limitations, problems with speech, and a lack of coordination and motor skills. Danielle did not receive proper care, medical or otherwise.

Danielle’s father, Daniel Kelly, testified that when he came to Philadelphia to visit his children after Andrea had moved there, he said he didn’t like what he saw. Andrea was sharing an apartment in West Philadelphia with her mother, two sisters, and at least six or seven children. There were rodents in the house, floorboards were ripped up, and the toilet was not working. The father stated that Danielle’s hair was matted and that both of his children’s teeth were rotten. The father said that he gave Andrea an ultimatum that she needed to get things together. He took no action to alleviate Danielle’s neglect, however, until Andrea Kelly’s mother, Naomi Washington, called and asked him to come get the children because Andrea was not taking care of them.

Daniel Kelly testified that in response to this plea, he came to Philadelphia and took Daniel Jr. and Danielle with him to Pittsburgh, where he was living with his girlfriend, Kathleen John. I am now going to tell you what kind of father he was. You see, by the time Danielle entered school in Pittsburgh as a 4-year-old, her development was already profoundly delayed. At her school in Pittsburgh, Danielle finally began to receive physical therapy to help her with her motor skills, learning to sit and learning to stand with assistance. Her teachers noted that Danielle was pleasant and cooperative, but that she needed to be in school more often.

Now, in 1997, her father moved to Arizona with his children and Kathleen. Ultimately, he and Andrea had three girls of their own, and at some points during Daniel’s six years in Arizona, all five children lived in the same home. Police records and repeated reports of neglect to a child abuse hotline suggest that Daniel’s home life was still not good. At school, however, she made progress that provides a glimpse of her potential and a hint of what her life might have been with even moderately sustained therapy and schooling. Danielle’s father moved several times whilst he was in Arizona.

Danielle herself attended at least five different schools between 1997 and 2001 and then spent two years with no schooling or therapy at all. While Danielle remained profoundly delayed, she did make progress in her special education classes whenever she attended school. However, it was revealed that her father was arrested for assaulting his son Daniel after allegedly striking him in the hand with a hairdryer cord as punishment for lying. On two occasions, Mr. Kelly was also arrested for assaulting his girlfriend Kathleen while the family lived in Arizona. A child abuse hotline received five reports about the children. One alleged that Daniel Kelly and Kathleen had left the children alone at home with a caregiver who was not capable of taking care of them. The family was referred to counseling as a result of this report, and according to the school records from Arizona, it appeared that Danielle never attended school again after the end of the 2001 school year when she was 9 years old.

Danielle eventually returned to Philadelphia with her father and sibling, and neglect reports began immediately. The first such report came to child services in 2003. The children stated their father allegedly abused them with extension cords. The child services reporter said that she had not seen any marks or injuries to the children, though she said that she rarely sees the female, Danielle. The reporter said that the father often leaves the children home alone and the brother cares for the sister. This report remained pending for two years with no action.

It was further reported that Danielle would scream two or three times a day and there was nothing you could do to calm her down. When her father could offer no explanation for these outbursts, he said he’d take his daughter to the doctor, but he never did. In September 2003, Mr. Kelly and his two children moved to a new place in Philadelphia. He asked Naomi, his estranged wife’s mother, to live with them so that she could wash the children while he worked. Naomi Washington agreed and moved into the house with Danielle, Danielle Jr., and the father, Daniel Kelly.

Now, even though Danielle was 11 years old, her father did not enroll her in school nor did he sign up for any in-home services available to children through several social service agencies. Instead, he had Danielle’s ailing grandmother take care of his daughter while he went to work at a fitness center. Mrs. Washington bathed Danielle every day, dried her, powdered her, and then had her brother Daniel carry her downstairs to the living area. She said that Danielle would spend the day downstairs in the living room or out on the porch if the weather was nice. Mrs. Washington said that Danielle ate well and estimated that she weighed around 100 lbs.

Now, because Danielle wore a diaper, Mrs. Washington changed the diaper several times a day. According to the grandmother, Danielle’s father provided little or no help even though he was home from his job by midafternoon. She said that he did not stay to care for Danielle; instead, he came into the house only briefly to change his clothes and then went out on the street. He did nothing about getting Danielle’s services for her disability or having her enrolled in school. But then, after the initial few months, the living situation at the new house deteriorated significantly.

You see, Mr. Kelly started bringing women around to sleep at the house and began smoking drugs in their home. Eventually, he invited his wife, Andrea, to live in the house. Mrs. Washington explained that he thought if he moved Andrea in, that left him off the hook so he could go live with who he was living with or messing with—in other words, other women—and that’s what he ultimately did. So that’s the father. Now I want to give you some background on Andrea Kelly, the mother of Danielle. And by the way, if you do like what you’re watching, follow me on Instagram; the link is in the description.

Andrea drove away anyone who tried to care for her daughter. She lied to relatives and others, assuring them that Danielle was fine or that she was getting medical attention when she was not. She hid the child from outside scrutiny. While Danielle was suffering and dying, Andrea fed her other children, entertained friends, and was even attending classes. In the end, she prevented Daniel’s brother from calling an ambulance to rescue his sister. She had a long history of failing to care for her children.

Reports of her neglect first came to child services in 1997 when a staff member at Wills Eye Hospital in Philadelphia reported that Danielle’s younger brother Tony, who was at the hospital for eye surgery, emitted a really bad smell, that his clothes were dirty and covered with insects, and that his teeth were decayed. An investigation revealed that Andrea Kelly, who was pregnant, was living with four of her children in a two-bedroom apartment that was infested with roaches and mice and was unsuitable and unsafe for the children.

Now, in September 1999, an anonymous reporter told child services that the children were residing in a house unfit for habitation. According to the reporter, the house was filthy and unkempt, scattered with trash, and infested with maggots. The children were Andrea Kelly’s, and they were living with her in the same home that had been found unsuitable and unsafe for children. Two months later, another anonymous reporter informed child services that Andrea was still living with her children in the apartment filled with maggots and roaches, but lacking hot water and possibly heat.

In November 2000, staff from the school attended by Andrea Kelly’s oldest boy reported that he, his five siblings, and their mother lived in a house infested by bugs with no heat, no water, and broken windows. The reporters described the helpless child sitting unattended, unkempt, and unwashed in a small stroller, sitting in her own urine and feces. The mother, according to the reports, ignored her daughter’s screams and left her alone in a dark room away from the other family members.

That Andrea Kelly’s treatment of her daughter was dictated by her own needs, not Danielle’s, was illustrated by the conditions that were found in the room and bed where the child died and by the testimony of family members. The shriveled child was lying on a dirty mattress where she had been left for weeks. She had no clothing or diaper on her bottom half, and dried feces were all around the bed. The medical examiner technician, Helen Gazinski, said that it looked like someone just kept brushing the feces off the bed as Danielle defecated.

This suggested that Andrea did not like touching her child. Even Andrea Kelly’s own mother, Naomi Washington, told the grand jury that Andrea did not like to change her daughter’s diaper and so would restrict her intake of water. The mother was worse than neglectful in causing her daughter to die, and Andrea Kelly was not merely neglectful. This was revealed to the grand jury in many ways. There were numerous people who cared about Danielle and tried to help her, but through belligerence, deceit, and concealment, the mother, Andrea, either drove these people away or kept them from rescuing Danielle.

Concerned individuals were the first to be banished. One friend who would confront Andrea and ask why Danielle was alone upstairs screaming, and who sought to involve child services to help the children, encountered hostility and eventually became unwelcome in the family’s home. After living with her mother and sister, Andrea moved by herself with her children to Memorial Avenue, thus getting out from under Naomi’s watchful eye.

As for Danielle’s tragic death, during the summer of 2006, while Danielle wasted away in malnutrition, neglect, and sorrow, several women friends regularly visited Andrea Kelly. These women testified before the grand jury. They said that because there was no table in the apartment, chip bags, sodas, and things like that would be strewn around the living room area. There were roaches in the house. Danielle was usually in a dark room with the television on. The room was adjacent to the living room and was described by some witnesses as a dining room.

The witnesses said that the week before Danielle died, there was a heatwave and the room was hot. There was a single fan in the room put there by Danielle’s brother because he thought his sister was too hot, but the window was closed, and Danielle always had covers on, it was said. These women who visited her home never saw Danielle eat a meal or her mom give her a big glass of water or juice. They described Danielle as thin and pale, and stated that Andrea was embarrassed of her child.

Danielle’s older brothers, Daniel and Troy, noticed that she was failing three or four weeks before her death. Daniel the brother said she was getting skinny and she wasn’t moving. She wasn’t moving a lot like she usually does. She wasn’t eating; she wasn’t eating right. Daniel said that when he asked his mother about Danielle’s condition, she just said that Danielle was getting dehydrated from the heat.

Their older brother Troy also became alarmed. He was not living with the rest of his siblings and stayed in a different house, but he visited two or three weeks before Danielle died. According to Daniel, when Troy came over, he entered the house arguing with his mom because he asked her why Danielle was skinny and why she was in pain. Daniel described how Danielle’s face was getting pale and her lips were turning purple, and he noticed she had a mark on her side like somebody had cut her or something. He pointed to where Danielle had a bedsore.

Danielle’s siblings told police investigators that she was always thirsty and asking for water. They told the police that Danielle had begged for water that Wednesday before she died. Danielle was saying just the one word: “Water, water.” She just kept saying it over and over again. Andrea stopped her son from calling an ambulance until she was sure Danielle was dead. She was not pronounced dead until the morning of August 4, 2006, but her brother Daniel told child services investigator John Dotti just days after her death that he believed his sister died before 8:00 p.m. the night before.

Daniel and his 10-year-old brother Andre, another of the children, both told Mr. Dotti that on Thursday afternoon Danielle looked very bad. She was not moving, and flies were settling on her. He said that he thought she was still breathing in the afternoon, but not by later that evening when her eyes had rolled up into her head and there were flies around her mouth.

The clearest evidence of the neglect and mistreatment of Danielle came from her own body, her bed, the room she died in, and the apartment that was her prison. Fire service paramedic Carol DiLorenzo testified about what she found when she got there. She responded to a 911 call of a cold blue cardiac arrest at Memorial Avenue. Ms. DiLorenzo said the condition of the house was terrible—it’s the worst she’d ever seen. Cupboards and open bags of potato chips were scattered about. There were air freshener cans that did not begin to mask the stench. Ms. DiLorenzo described the home as unfit for human habitation.

Danielle was quite obviously dead; she had rigor mortis in her jaw. A cardiac monitor showed no activity. Blood was coming from her mouth and nose, and her eyes were swollen. She had a bedsore on her clavicle that was black and fuzzy. The paramedic said that Danielle was dirty all over and that the clothes she was wearing and the bedsheet were dirty. There was fecal matter on the bed. She said one of the bedsores on Danielle’s back was so deep that it went down to her femur. There were flies all over the house and maggots in Danielle’s bedsores.

Ms. DiLorenzo said Danielle was emaciated and hadn’t eaten in “I don’t know how long.” The paramedics did not transport Danielle because she was already dead, but they did fill out a form which was a report of suspected neglect and abuse, and they notified child services of the suspicious nature of Danielle’s death.

Now, Helen, a forensic technician supervisor at the Philadelphia Medical Examiner’s Office, also went to the scene of Danielle’s body. She said that the house they lived in looked like it should have been condemned. She said she needed a flashlight to see inside even though it was 2:00 in the afternoon. She described finding Danielle in bed with a filthy sheet over her. She pulled back the sheet and saw this little tiny, very, very thin child embedded in the bed. Danielle had on a T-shirt and nothing on the bottom half. She said there was hard stool all around the outside of the bed; it seemed like she was going to the bathroom and somebody was just hitting it off the bed and observing her.

Helen wrapped Danielle up, put her in a body bag, and took her out of the house. She said that Danielle had started to decompose and that there were maggots and flies on her body. Now, Assistant Medical Examiner Dr. Edwin Lieberman performed an autopsy on the body. Before he even began, he recalled that as he opened the body bag, black insects flew out of it. It was difficult to measure Danielle’s arms and legs because they were so contracted—a condition made worse, Dr. Lieberman believed, by the absence of any physical therapy in quite some time.

He ultimately determined her height to be 3 ft 6 in, and she weighed 42 lbs. He noticed signs of decomposition; although the timing of the death is not exact, he believed she had been dead for about 12 to 24 hours. Dr. Lieberman’s internal examination revealed that Danielle’s chest muscles were sticky, meaning that there was a lack of fluid in her body. In addition, Danielle had almost no fat tissue.

According to the report, Danielle suffered from poor nutrition. She had some stool in her bowel but no food in her stomach. In fact, he said many pictures of people in concentration camps resemble how skinny and malnourished Danielle was. He believed that the lack of care for Danielle was a direct and substantial factor in her death, and he ultimately determined that her manner of death was homicide.

Now, as for the punishment and sentencing, Andrea pled guilty to third-degree murder and is serving 40 years in prison. Daniel Kelly, the father, was sentenced to 2 and a half years in prison. Case workers from child services were both sentenced to 2 and a half to 5 years for child endangerment and perjury, because of course child services did nothing. What a disgraceful, disgusting, disastrous story. Comment and tell me what you think.