SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — We are learning new details about the case involving a missing 3-year-old girl whose body was found at a San Jose recycling facility.
ABC7 News reporter Luz Pena looked into the case and found that the girl’s mom feared for her daughter’s safety when she went to the father’s house for court visits.
Court documents going back to 2021 give us a glimpse of the legal battle between the parents of Ellie Lorenzo.
We learned that just last week, the mom had received authorization from the courts to move out of the state – but days later the 3-year-old was found dead.
VIDEO: San Jose police investigating death of 3-year-old Ellie Lorenzo as a homicide
San Jose police believe the body of a girl found at a recycling facility belongs to Ellie Lorenzo.
The devastating case of 3-year-old Ellie Lorenzo is raising questions over what happened. Last Friday, Ellie’s mom cried out for anyone to help find Ellie. This comes after the girl’s father was found dead by suicide in San Francisco following a missed custody exchange and Ellie was missing.
“Ellie, I love you so much. Please know that we are looking for you and we are going to find you. People hold on and everything will be okay. Mommy will find you, okay?” said Chrystal Obi, Ellie Lorenzo’s mom while speaking to television station on Friday.
Over the weekend, the body of 3-year-old Ellie was found at a recycling facility in San Jose. In a statement, the heartbroken mother said the girl’s dad hid Ellie’s body in a bag, placed her in a box and put her in a dumpster.
Obi said she desperately wanted constant supervision and safety when Ellie had court ordered visits with her father. She said “the system continued to grant him partial custody and access.”
RELATED: Deceased father named as suspect in death of 3-year-old Bay Area girl; mom feared for her safety
“Obviously they lifted the supervision, they gave him access and that is what he used to murder the child. We see this often. There are more than 100 documented cases of children being murdered by a parent. Not always a father, sometimes a mother but the majority are fathers after a court refuse to protect a child from that parent,” said Joan Meier, Clinical Law professor at the George Washington University Law School.
We dug into the court documents accessible online and found that since 2021, Ellie’s mom has been requesting court action to protect Ellie.
In October of 2021, the mother filed for the father to have supervised visits, and to go through drug and mental health testing.
In January of 2022, an emergency hair follicle drug test was requested
In June of 2023, the court presented a private child custody evaluator.
So, what went wrong? We spoke to George Washington University Professor Joan Meier — she is the leading specialist in the effort to reform family courts’ responses to cases involving abuse.
“The mother was doing what she could to keep her child safe from this father and the court was insisting that the father had unsupervised access which led ultimately to the murder. So, the system did not protect this child even thought they had what looks like multiple requests to do so,” said Meier.
Professor Meier’s research shows that cases like this are not uncommon and even proof of imminent danger doesn’t change much.
“The problem is that the paradigm in everybody’s heads about what a custody battle is – is that it’s petty and it’s vindictive and nobody seems to understand that some of these custody battles are actually about protective a child from danger. They just don’t accept that and particularly when it’s a mother seeking protection,” said Meier.
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