A recent arrest by Bristol police raised questions about how ongoing abuse of a child can go unnoticed or noticed but unreported. Last month, Ashley and Rocky Hernandez-DeJesus were charged with manslaughter in the death of their 4-year-old daughter, who medical professionals say sustained long-term child abuse.
“One day I couldn’t breathe but I had to go to the bathroom,” Gladis Castro recounts. “Like an infant I crawled so I wouldn’t fall. I returned to my bedroom crawling, saying to myself, ‘This is it. Am I going to die?’”