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Child welfare agency: Florida girl who live streamed suicide suffered abuse

MIAMI (AP) – A report by Florida’s child welfare agency says the 14-year-old foster child who hanged herself in a shower stall on Facebook live had been abused, beaten and rejected by her mother.

In a 20-page report released late Monday, the Department of Children & Families concluded that Naika Venant’s relationship with her mother Gina Alexis played a significant role in her death. The Miami Herald reports that despite the abuse, Venant told her therapist she “missed her mother” and wanted to go home.

The agency detailed the abuse Venant suffered, including sleeping in the same room as her mother’s boyfriends, watching “sex movies,” and being beaten with belts. She was in and out of foster homes.

Alexis’ attorney Howard Talenfeld disputed the findings, adding the girl was whisked between 14 foster homes but was never given a bed in a therapeutic foster home.

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