Heaven Woods

Name: Heaven Woods.
Died: May 20, 2014.
Age at death: 5.
Cause of death: Internal bleeding, blunt trauma.
Location: Forsyth, Georgia, USA.

Details:
Heaven Woods’s abusive mother had a history of explaining away the injuries the little girl always seemed to have. She had fallen on a coffee table; she was clumsy. When little Heaven had hand-shaped bruises on her throat, her mother claimed that Heaven was autistic, and would try to choke herself.

Heaven did have ADHD, but whether she was autistic can’t be told from the news stories. She may have been; or perhaps her mother used autism as yet another lie to ward off suspicion about her own actions and that of her live-in boyfriend.

Whatever Heaven’s mother said, it seems to have worked, because child protective services withdrew their abuse investigation. Three weeks later, Heaven was dead. She had died of blunt-force trauma to her abdomen, and her body showed all the signs of battered child syndrome.

References:
Man pleads guilty in Heaven Woods’ death, mother still facing death penalty
Mom guilty in ‘savage’ beating death of 5-year-old Heaven Woods
Rome girl, 5, died of blunt force trauma; pregnant mother arrested
Grandmother of slain girl wants death penalty for daughter
Mother and boyfriend ‘beat her five-year-old daughter named Heaven to death three weeks after child services dropped abuse investigation’
Father of 5-year-old Heaven still in shock over her death
Candlelight vigil to remember Heaven Woods