The Keane Law Firm is asking for your help - please assist Sgt. Joe Matthews and Detective Gary Schiaffo, lead investigator of the Miami Beach Police Department with finding who abused and killed Baby Lollipops.

This a tragic story whereupon an unidentified little boy was found dead in a garden near North Bay Road in Miami Beach. The child was found a month ago, dead, underweight and beaten, tossed into someone’s garden. He was beaten to the extent he was missing his front teeth. He is estimated to be approximately three years old. He was underweight, weighing 18 pounds. No one has reported him missing yet. Perhaps not many people knew him because he may have been isolated from family and friends. If you know of someone who has a small male child that didn’t take him out much and seemed to be struggling socially, please check to see if you can locate that child and confirm he is alive and well, especially if you live in Florida. Please call Child Protective Services and report your concerns about the welfare of a little boy you haven’t seen in a while if you can’t confirm his well-being (or call the Miami Beach Police Department).

This child lived an isolated life at the hands of a very troubled individual or small group of people that know about this horrendous act. Please help the community find who did this to this child. Investigators have named him Baby Lollipops until his real identity is known. He is at the morgue and can’t be buried until he is identified.   

The nature of a non-intentional injury and death are influenced by multiple factors, such as the developmental stage of the child, the child’s behavior, gender, race, socioeconomic status, parental (or other) supervision, and the environment. In general, male children are more likely to be injured than female children. Children of lower socio-economic status are more likely to be injured than children from upper socio-economic status. To prevent abuse, monitor strangers around your child. Look for signs that the caregiver or parent delayed in seeking help for an injury or potential injury. Have a high-index of suspicion for an individual providing an inconsistent history about the mechanism of injury. Suspect intentional injury when the injury is inconsistent with the child’s developmental capabilities. Well adjusted parenting styles are learned behaviors. Good parenting is not instinctual. Abusive adults are generally grown abused children with poor coping skills. The likelihood of being an abuser increases significantly if an individual was abused as a child. While women are more likely and more frequently to be the abusers, men abuse more severely and are more likely to be sexual abusers. Children under the age of three years old are the most likely victims of abuse, because the toddler stage is a very trying time for parents. Parents with unrealistic expectations and poor coping skills are most at risk for engaging in abusive behavior.