Elisa Izquierdo was born on February 11, 1989, in
Woodhull Hospital Brooklyn, New York. Her father, Gustavo Izquierdo, was a
Cuban immigrant who had emigrated to the United States with aspirations to become a dance teacher; her mother, Awilda Lopez, was of
Puerto Rican descent. The couple met at a
Fort Greene homeless shelter two years prior to Elisa's birth, where Gustavo worked part-time as a cleaner and caterer. due to the couple's failure to pay in part due to her extensive
drug abuse. The two began a temporary relationship, although reportedly, this ended when Gustavo discovered at the time pregnant with was a regular user of
crack cocaine. Concern by her own family as to her extensive usage of drugs resulted in Awilda losing custody of her two eldest children, Rubencino and Kasey, to her own family in January 1989. seeking advice from relatives as to how to care for his daughter, organizing celebrations for her first birthdays, and renting a banquet hall to celebrate her
baptism at age four. As one family friend would later relate, "[Elisa] was his life. He would always say she was his princess."
Preschool In 1990, Gustavo enrolled his daughter in the Montessori preschool, although shortly thereafter, his incipient ailing health complicated his ability to pay for Elisa's schooling. As Elisa was such an outstanding and promising student and Gustavo such a dedicated father, both teachers and the school principal introduced her to one of the school's patrons,
Prince Michael of Greece, in 1993. He in turn offered to pay for Elisa's private tuition at the independent
Brooklyn Friends School until 12th grade; she in turn responded to this gesture with a handwritten note expressing her gratitude.
Partial custodial rights of mother The same year Elisa was enrolled in preschool, a social worker signed an
affidavit stating that Awilda had successfully beaten her addiction, had secured permanent accommodation within the
Rutgers Houses project on the
Lower East Side of
Manhattan, and had married a maintenance worker named Carlos Lopez, with whom she was now expecting her fourth child. In December 1990, having given birth to a daughter named Taisha, she regained custody of her two oldest children. In November 1991, Awilda Lopez secured the right to obtain unsupervised visitation rights to Elisa: this ruling awarded her custody of the child every second weekend. Reportedly, Awilda's two oldest children informed relatives that throughout these unsupervised visits, Elisa would be beaten and
neglected by her mother and stepfather. These relatives did not inform authorities of these revelations. Both Elisa's father and her teachers noted the child bore bruising and other signs of physical mistreatment when she returned from these unsupervised visits. One of the locations of these injuries was Elisa's genitalia and the child did divulge that her mother had repeatedly hit her and locked her in a closet, adding that she had no desire to see her mother again. Her father also noted that Elisa had begun
bedwetting in addition to losing control of her bowels, and would regularly experience nightmares upon learning she was to be in the custody of her mother for even short periods of time. Another family acquaintance noted that Elisa would always vomit upon her return from these visits to her mother, and refused to enter bathrooms. ==Death of father==