John Jefferson
Inset: Amy S. Laszkiewicz (Waukesha County Jail). Background: The residence where Laszkiewicz allegedly allowed her daughter to starve to death in Pewaukee, Wisc. (Google Maps).
A Wisconsin mother who starved her adult daughter with “severe autism” to death pleaded guilty in court on Thursday afternoon.
In June 2023, Amy S. Laszkiewicz, 53, was charged with one count of recklessly subjecting an individual at risk to abuse under circumstances causing death over the Jan. 4, 2023, malnourishment death of Cora Laszkiewicz, 23, according to a criminal complaint obtained by Law&Crime.
The defendant previously said the starvation regime was enacted, in part, because she did not want to upset her since-deceased daughter with traditionally sensitive issues regarding her weight, according to the Waukesha County District Attorney’s Office.
The elder Laszkiewicz was originally arrested and charged on June 21, 2023. She quickly posted $10,000 bail and was released until mid-August 2023, when Waukesha County Court Commissioner Kevin Costello found probable cause to sustain the charge and ordered her to remain detained in jail pending trial. She was later re-granted bail.
On Thursday, before Waukesha County Circuit Court Judge Michael O. Bohren, the defendant pleaded guilty under the Alford standard. An Alford plea allows criminal defendants to maintain their innocence on the facts of an allegation while simultaneously accepting the state’s evidence would likely convince a judge or jury of their guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
The defendant faces a maximum sentence of 40 years in state prison. During the plea hearing, an attorney for the state said the prosecution would push for 15 years behind bars.
Amy Laszkiewicz made the 911 call herself on the morning she found her daughter dead in bed, the criminal complaint says. The elder Laszkiewicz was the younger’s legal guardian and full-time caregiver as of 2017 due to her daughter’s “severe autism.”
Deputies responded to the residence and found the young woman without a pulse, unable to breathe, and beyond medical help.
The “extremely thin and emaciated” victim, who stood at 5’5″, weighed all of 70 pounds at the time she died, according to medical findings by Dr. Amy Shiel cited in the complaint.
Additional details that showcased the her slow-motion nature of the young woman’s death were recorded by the medical professional.
The victim’s hip and rib bones were visible through her skin, her eyes were sunken in, and she had almost no fatty tissue on her body, the report notes. The medical examiner also said the deceased woman’s skin was in a state of “turgor,” a term referring to a state where human skin does not sufficiently recover after being pinched. This state also typically suggests extreme dehydration.
Cora Laszkiewicz’s manner of death was found to be “homicide, with the caregiver failing to provide [her daughter] adequate hydration and nutrition,” according to the criminal complaint.
Authorities say Amy Laszkiewicz was largely forthcoming about the way her daughter had been shut in and effectively starved – of both food and anything approaching her past normalcy.
The defendant would go on to tell law enforcement that her daughter had not left their residence since the COVID-19 pandemic began and that she “did not want to go to school, have visitors or go anywhere,” according to the complaint.
The defendant allegedly told law enforcement that her daughter last saw a doctor in person in 2019, according to the complaint.
Investigators say the deceased woman last saw her primary care physician in 2017, however, when she was 17 years old. At that time, during her last normaal check-up, she weighed 135 pounds.
Amy Laszkiewicz allegedly told investigators that her daughter “was never a big eater,” the complaint says, but would eat “breakfast burritos” while “sticking to a gluten and dairy free diet.”
The to-be-condemned mother said she knew her daughter had been getting ever thinner but thought she would “bounce back.” When asked by a detective if she ever considered calling 911 to have her daughter taken to a hospital over her extreme weight loss, the defendant said she “didn’t want to upset” the young woman.
Amy Laszkiewicz also allegedly said the entirety of her daughter’s feeding and cleaning went through her, according to the complaint.
“The defendant acknowledged that [her daughter] was very thin and said, ‘maybe my decisions weren’t right, and I can acknowledge that. I probably should have taken her in, I didn’t want to upset her more. That was always a goal of mine, to keep her calm,”” the criminal complaint reads.
During the Thursday hearing, prosecutors asked for bail to be revoked, arguing that Laszkiewicz was now a flight risk having been convicted. In the end, the court denied the request and allowed the defendant to remain free on bail pending sentencing.
Sentencing in the case is currently slated for March 21 at 9:30 a.m.
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