Kristie Bruen

 

 

 

 

 

 

Four year old Kristie Bruen was beaten to death. Kristie's body was covered with 200 bruises and she had lost more than 40 percent of her blood when she was brought to Peekskill Community Hospital on October 30th. She was pronounce dead on arrival of a massive brain clot. Her mother Jana and Westly Fisher insisted Kristie had fallen down a flight of stairs.

 

The autopsy reviled a more detailed history. The medical examiner establish a pattern of brutality that had been years in the making. Each cigarette burn on her buttocks was logged and age identified. There was no fall down the stairs the night of Kristie’s death. She had broken bones revealing her torture existed. Jana and Westly admitted Kristie may have been struck too hard during a punishment when confronted with overwhelming evidence. Jana denied burning Kristie with cigarettes, saying Kristie had a habit of backing up into her cigarette. The night Kristie died she was being punished and sent to bed without dinner. She got hungry and snuck into the kitchen and took an open can of peas from the refrigerator. She was sitting on the kitchen floor eating the peas when her mother found her.   Neighbors testified that Bruen and Fisher had beaten, kicked, whipped, starved and imprisoned Kristie in the apartment they shared in Peekskill. Bruen was sentenced to 81/2 to 25 years in prison and Fisher to 12 1/2 to 25 years.