NATHALYZ RIVERA - 3 yo - / Accused: Parents, Carlos and Carmen Ramirez - Philadelphia, PA

Tragedy as blind disabled girl, 3, is found dead weighing just 11lbs in house 'filled with fleas, rodents and trash after she was starved by her parents'

A disabled three-year-old girl has been found dead at her parents' filthy home weighing just 11 pounds after they allegedly starved her to death.

Little Nathalyz Rivera was not breathing when her father, Carlos Rivera, 30, returned to their home in Philadelphia around midnight on Monday.

Instead of calling authorities, he rushed the little girl - who has four other siblings, including a twin - to his mother, 27-year-old Carmen Ramirez, who was at a male friend's house.

She took her daughter to Albert Einstein Medical Center where she was pronounced dead at approximately 1.50am. The medical examiner ruled her death a homicide through starvation.


Tragic: Three-year-old Nathalyz Rivera, pictured left and right, has died after allegedly being starved by her parents until she weighed just 11 pounds. Her mother said she was blind and suffered Down syndrome

Ramirez told police her daughter was blind and had Down syndrome, and the girl's tiny body showed bites apparently from fleas that were found inside the filthy home on Sommers Road.

Investigators found the house filled with so much trash that they were unable to climb the stairs and had to take photographs of the scene through windows.

They also found rodents and insects inside the home. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that medical staff saw a roach crawl across Nathalyz's body when she was taken to hospital.

Homicide Capt. James Clark said Nathalyz, who weighed the same as an average three-month-old baby, showed 'obvious signs of neglect' and 'had not seen a doctor in over a year, even with all the severe disabilities'. He did not detail her specific health problems.

'This is one of the worst cases of abuse that I've seen in my five years at the homicide unit,' Clark told the Associated Press. 'I saw the photos, and even for me, they were difficult to look at.'


Arrests: Her father Carlos Rivera, left, and mother Carmen Ramirez, right, have been charged with homicide


Parents: Rivera, left, was allegedly left with the children as Ramirez, right, would come and go from the house

Her condition suggested she had 'starved like people in concentration camps starved', Cindy Christian, medical director for the Department of Human Services, told the Inquirer.

Ramirez, who is married to Rivera but apparently comes and goes from the house, was arrested at the hospital. Rivera left the other children with a relative and fled but was later captured.

The family had one previous contact with DHS, police said without providing further details. Sources told the Inquirer a complaint was made against the family in 2008, before Nathalyz was born.

Her twin, a boy, and three other siblings - aged seven, eight and nine - are now in protective custody. They were checked at a hospital before being placed with DHS.

Neighbors called the siblings 'beautiful' but said they rarely saw Nathalyz. One speculated that the couple had become overwhelmed caring for their many children.


Squalid: A police car sits outside the family's home, which officers said was crawling with insects and rodents

Hidden horrors: A Disney characters curtain is seen at the window of the home where the girl was found

Siblings: Nathalyz, right, had a twin brother, pictured, and three other siblings now in protective custody

Rivera has previously been arrested on drug and assault complaints in Philadelphia and Delaware, and has served jail terms for drug charges on two occasions.

The harrowing case echoes the starvation death of another disabled Philadelphia girl, Danieal Kelly, who died weighing 42 pounds at age 14 in 2006.

The death became the subject of a grand jury report, which found that city workers and contractors lied about visits to the family home. They are now serving lengthy prison terms.

The girl's mother is serving 20 to 40 years for her third-degree murder plea, and the father received up to five years for abandoning Danieal at her unfit mother's home.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2416649/Nathalyz-Rivera-blind-disabled-girl-3-dead-weighing-just-11lbs-Philadelphia.html

I would have loved her with all my heart and soul.  I would have starved to death before I would have let her.  Despite her disabilities.  Poor little angel.  We need a NATIONAL death penalty where the deliberate death of a child is concerned.  William