Ursula Sunshine Assaid

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In Ursula Assaid case, 89 people knew something was wrong but not one did anything about it. All of the neighbors could see the child standing under the tree in the back yard for hours and hours, day after day. The one day she attended school in her last week, she clung to her teacher's legs, too exhausted to play. A note from her mother instructed school personnel to keep Ursula from drinking anything. There was no explanation and there were no questions.

 

Donald McDougall bragged to friends about his method of disciplining Ursula. Ursula was forced to march naked for hours reciting the alphabet while the couple ate dinner or watched television. If she missed a letter, she would be whipped or punched.

At night she was made to stand in a suitcase, with McDougall setting the alarm so he could check on her. After a particularly intense beating, Ursula was submerged in a sink full of ice because she complained about being thirsty. As the ice melted, it stung her bruised and bloodied skin. For a week, the only thing Ursula had to eat was soap repeatedly forced down her throat. Once, McDougall fixed a soap sandwich for her. She had only a sip of water at school, taken when no one was looking. Her Mother Susan Assaid didn't stop her boyfriend during the two months of abuse until Ursula was unconscious and near death in that last week of her life.

 

At the end, her body was stuffed in a duffel bag and tied with weights. It was found in December 1982 in a retention pond near Assaid's home in Altamonte Springs.  After Susan Assaid told authorities in California of the death  McDougall threatened to leave her. McDougall was sentenced to 34 years for second degree murder.Assaid was given 15 years after pleading guilty to manslaughter.