Warning: Details in this story are disturbing and may be difficult to read for some viewers.
Horrifying new details reveal what prosecutors say led up to the moment two grandparents allegedly beat their 5-year-old granddaughter to death in Park Forest.
The circumstances were revealed during a court appearance for the two adults, 62-year-old Klent Elwoods and 57-year-old Lisa Jones, now charged with first-degree murder in the death of Jada Moore.
According to a bond proffer, Elwoods and Jones visited with Elwoods' daughter in March in Georgia when they learned she had "fallen on hard times" and needed to find somewhere for her daughter Jada to stay while she searched for a job.
The couple ultimately took Jada back to Illinois with them and she began living at their Park Forest home.
A 911 call from Elwoods kicked off a dark chain of revelations.
Prosecutors said Elwoods told a 911 operator “I was beating my little granddaughter and now she is out of it.”
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Officers arrived and found Jada "lying on the couch completely nude," the proffer states. Paramedics performed CPR and the child was taken to Comer Children's Hospital, where she was pronounced dead just before 9 a.m. Saturday.
Officers returned to the family's home and recovered a "belt, a pair of children's shorts with underwear inside (both of which were soiled), and a notarized letter from [Jada's mother] giving the [grandparents] custody for school and medical decisions," the proffer stated. Prosecutors also alleged a calendar was found on the refrigerator with the month of June still displayed, detailing four dates in which the child had allegedly soiled herself.
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Elwoods and his wife, Lisa Jones, ages 62 and 57 respectively, were both taken into custody on Friday evening.
Officials said that in interviews with detectives, Elwoods and Jones both admitted to physically abusing Jada, with Jada showing indicators of physical abuse in the autopsy performed.
According to prosecutors, Jones "admitted that both defendants had been beating [Jada] as early as one month after [she] came to reside with them." She allegedly reported the couple used a belt, shoe and their hands to strike the child.
An autopsy found the child had "bruises, abrasions and scars" all over her body, prosecutors said. The wounds were each in "various stages of healing," though there were more wounds on the back of her body than her front.
According to prosecutors, the autopsy showed Jada suffered internal avulsion pockets, or contusion pockets, in her back, buttocks and legs.
"Avulsion pockets are commonly seen in car accident injuries due to the force required to cause such an injury," the proffer stated. "The avulsion pockets are indicative of the victim losing blood into the soft tissue and are more dangerous in children due to their overall lower volume of blood."
She also suffered from bleeding in the area between her brain and skull, with signs her brain was herniating.
"The injury suffered to the victim’s brain would have rendered her unresponsive quickly from the time the injury occurred. The brain injury would have required substantial force to be exerted upon the victim," the proffer stated.
Jada's death was ruled a homicide by multiple injuries due to child abuse.
It was not immediately clear if Elwoods or Jones had attorneys representing them in court Monday.
