The Murder of Child Star Judith Barsi

The death of a child is a heartbreaking event, a blip of nature that shouldn’t happen in the normal occurrence. When it’s done deliberately at the hands of a parent, there should be no mercy.

Judith Barsi was discovered in the manner rhapsodized by classic Hollywood journalists, only set to a 1980s background. Five-and-a-half-year-old Judith was noticed at a San Fernando Valley ice rink and, due to her petite size, was mistaken for a three-year-old. Ultimately the mistake didn’t hurt her as she was cast in a Donald Duck orange juice commercial and her career began. She would eventually grace more than 70 commercials, including Campbell’s soup, Toys R Us and Jif peanut butter. It was a natural progression for Judy, as she was known, to act in television movies and theatrical films. Her mother Maria was a stage mother but not along the lines of Judy Garland’s mother or the mother of silent film star Mary Miles Minter. Maria tried to keep Judy’s life as normal as possible — she kept her in school, unless she absolutely had to be pulled out for filming, brought her lunch daily and encouraged her normal child pursuits, like riding her bike, playing Operation and learning to knit. Whenever one of her commercials or television programs was due to air, her mother would pop popcorn and the two would sit in front of the tv to watch. Unless her father was home, in which case they would huddle together to watch in…