Sylvia Likens
In July 1965, Lester and Betty Likens suggested that she take their two daughters - Sylvia Marie Likens, 16, and Sylvia's younger sister, Jenny, 15 - as boarders in return $20 a week in compensation. Sylvia and Jenny attended high school and social functions with the Baniszewski children, as well as church with Gertrude on Sunday.
However, when Lester's first $20 payment failed to arrive on time, Baniszewski beat the girls. Shortly thereafter the girls were beaten for having candy that Gertrude accused them of stealing (they had, in fact, bought it). Thus began a regular pattern of child abuse.
[edit] The torture begins
In August 1965, Baniszewski began to verbally and physically abuse Sylvia, allowing her older children to beat Sylvia, and push her down stairs. Baniszewski also accused Sylvia of being a prostitute, and delivered "sermons" to her children and Sylvia about the filthiness of prostitutes and women in general. After Sylvia and Jenny accused Baniszewski's daughters Paula and Stephanie of being prostitutes, Stephanie's boyfriend Coy Hubbard, and several other classmates and local boys were brought in to assist Baniszewski in beating Sylvia.
[edit] Escalation
In August 1965, Phyllis and Raymond Vermillion moved in next door to the Baniszewski family, and immediately noticed a pattern of abuse and violence towards Sylvia. However, they did not approach the authorities with any concerns. Around this time, Sylvia stole a gym suit from school, but Baniszewski found it and beat a confession out of Sylvia, before burning her with a lit cigarette - a practice which became routine. It was after this that Baniszewski pulled Sylvia out of school. Soon after, Baniszewski again accused Sylvia of prostitution, and forced her to strip and masturbate with a Coca Cola bottle for a group of neighborhood boys.
[edit] The basement
Following the Coke bottle incident, Sylvia became incontinent; as a result, Baniszewski locked her in the basement. Gertrude then began a bathing regime to "cleanse" Sylvia, involving dousing her with scalding water and rubbing salt into the burns. She was often kept naked and rarely fed. At times, Baniszewski and her twelve-year-old son John Jr. would make Sylvia eat her own feces.
Sometime around this period, Jenny managed to send contact to her and Sylvia's older sister, Diana, outlining the horrors that she and Sylvia were experiencing, and asking Diana to contact the police. Diana ignored the letter, believing that Jenny was simply displeased with being punished and that she was making up stories so that she could come live with her.
Shortly after this, Diana came by to visit her sisters, but Baniszewski refused to allow her into the home. Diana then hid nearby the house until she spotted Jenny outside, and then approached her. Jenny told her older sister that she was not allowed to talk to her and then ran away. Concerned, Diana contacted social services, who were informed that Sylvia had been kicked out of the house for being physically unclean and a prostitute, and that Sylvia had since run away. Baniszewski threatened Jenny not to tell the social worker the truth, and Jenny then told the social worker that Sylvia had indeed run away. The social worker returned to her office, where she filed a report stating that no more calls needed to be made to the Baniszewski home.
[edit] Murder
On October 21, Baniszewski instructed John Jr., Coy, and Stephanie to bring Sylvia up from the basement and tie her to a bed. The next morning, Baniszewski made her masturbate with a coke bottle, before carving phrases into her skin with a hot needle. The next day, Baniszewski woke Sylvia, and then dictated a letter to her, intended to look like a runaway letter to her parents.
After Sylvia finished the letter, Baniszewski began formulating a plan to have John Jr. and Jenny take Sylvia to a nearby garbage dump and leave her there to die. When Sylvia overheard this, she tried to escape, but was stopped.
On October 24, Baniszewski came into the basement and attempted to bludgeon Sylvia with a chair and paddle, but missed her. Coy Hubbard stepped in and beat Sylvia unconscious with a broomstick. On October 26, Baniszewski told the children she would give Sylvia a bath. Stephanie and Ricky brought Sylvia upstairs and laid her in the tub fully clothed; they took her out shortly thereafter when they realized she was not breathing. Stephanie gave Sylvia CPR, but by this time, Sylvia was already dead.
Baniszewski told Hobbs to call the police. When they arrived, Baniszewski gave them the letter she'd made Sylvia dictate; in the midst of the commotion, Jenny Likens whispered to one of the police, "Get me out of here and I'll tell you everything." This statement, combined with the police's discovery of Sylvia's body in the basement, prompted the officers to arrest Baniszewski, Paula, Stephanie, John, Hobbs, and Hubbard for murder. Other neighborhood children present at the time - Mike Monroe, Randy Lepper, Duke, and Siscoe - were arrested for "injury to a person."