Netflix has released a new series and it is really heartwrenching. The new series is about an eight-year-old boy brutally murdered by his caretakers and how a simple helping hand from the administration could have helped him.
The searing tale running into six episodes covers the story of Gabriel Fernandez who was subjected to a series of abuse by his guardians.
The tourtured child
In May 2013 the boy was found to be not breathing and his mother claimed that he had sustained an injury to his head. Amid suspicions, the investigation proved that the boy had undergone severe harassment for the past few months.
For at least eight months Fernandez was burned, beaten, forced to eat cat litter and his own vomit, shot with BB pellets and subjected to other forms of abuse while in the care of his mother, Pearl Fernandez, and her boyfriend, Isauro Aguirre. Both the adults were found to be guilty of the murder of the young boy.
The focus
The focus of the story is on how preventable the whole situation was. Before Gabriel was under his mother's care, he was taken care of by his great-uncle Michael Lemos Carranza and his partner David Martinez. They seemed to genuinely care and love for him.
According to reports, the boy's mother was often abusive and had been seen hitting or scratching Aguirre several times.
Just three days after she had given birth to him, she gave up Gabriel to Martinez. In the docu-series, Martinez said Pearl didn't want the child at any point in time. But after seven years, Pearl and her boyfriend reclaimed the child from the couple.
The court believed that the reclaiming happened because they wanted welfare benefits, but according to statements made by Aguirre, there might be a more homophobic reason. Fernandez and her boyfriend were homophobic, and they believed that the boy was gay. The hate transferred to the boy in the form of harsh abuse.
The situation was insanely horrific that the prosecutors had to charge several people who were associated with the murder, including some of the social workers.
The series focuses largely on the instances that could have given the child the chance to escape. The series revisits the instances where the social workers knew the chances of the child being in the way of harm.
Martinez no longer lives in the US. He was deported and his partner passed away just a year after their Gabriel died.
