Grandmother Sentenced To Life In Brutal Murder Of 8-Year-Old Girl

By Stephen Gossett in News on Jun 7, 2017 10:31PM

Helen Ford / Cook County Sheriff

A Chicago grandmother was sentenced to life in prison for the grisly torture death of her 8-year-old granddaughter—a crime that sparked widespread outrage when it occurred, in 2013.

Judge Evelyn Clay on Wednesday delivered the sentence against Helen Ford, 55, who had previously been found guilty of murder in the killing.

Gizzell Ford's body was found strangled to death and beaten in 2013 in a filthy home that had been visited by an Illinois Department of Children and Family Services investigator just one month prior to the child's death. Prosecutors said Gizzell was dying from renal failure before she was strangled and killed because Helen and Gizzell's parents did not provide her with food or water, ABC7 reports. Ford, at 275 pounds, had beaten the 70-pound girl for several months prosecutors said, according to reports.

When the girl's body was discovered, she was wearing only a pair of green underwear and maggots had burrowed inside a wound on the back of Ford's head, prosecutors said. She had kept harrowing accounts of her abusive experiences in a diary that was found after her death.

The case brought forth widespread criticism against DCFS. The most recent director of the department, George Sheldon, stepped down one week ago amid controversy following the death of 1-year-old Semaj Crosby, in Joilet Township. He had signed on with the department after Grizzell's death.