Hat-tip to Donna for bringing our attention to this disturbing story.
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"Three years ago the Plant city police found a girl lying in her roach-infested room, naked except for an overflowing diaper. The child, pale and skeletal, communicated only through grunts. She was almost 7 years old.
The authorities had discovered the rarest of creatures: a feral child, deprived of her humanity by a lack of nurturing."
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Click the image above or click here to go to the slide show. On that page, there are a variety of related, important links.
It's a horrifying story, but not one without hope.
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The girl in the window by Lane DeGregory, Times Staff Writer
Posted: Jul 31, 2008 04:35 PM...[...snip...]...
Just before noon on July 13, 2005, a Plant City police car pulled up outside that shattered window. Two officers went into the house — and one stumbled back out.
Clutching his stomach, the rookie retched in the weeds.
Plant City Detective Mark Holste had been on the force for 18 years when he and his young partner were sent to the house on Old Sydney Road to stand by during a child abuse investigation. Someone had finally called the police.
They found a car parked outside. The driver's door was open and a woman was slumped over in her seat, sobbing. She was an investigator for the Florida Department of Children and Families.
"Unbelievable," she told Holste. "The worst I've ever seen."
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The story has a happy ending -- not so much an "ending" as much as it is a new beginning. The young girl, now called "Dani," has a new family now, including an older brother named William, and has been making progress. Slow progress, but more than anyone had initially dared to hope.
Hope grows.
This is an Open Thread.
For a recent story in a similarly disturbing vein -- but one which had an unhappy ending for the child -- see here.
