Disturbing details released after Cook County grandparents charged in girl's death: 'she is out of it'

PARK FOREST, Ill. - New disturbing details were released Monday after a five-year-old girl died of injuries sustained from child abuse last week in suburban Park Forest.

Klent Elwoods, 62, and Lisa Jones, 57, are charged with first-degree murder. 

According to prosecutors, in March of this year, Elwoods was visiting his daughter and granddaughter, five-year-old Jada Moore, in Georgia.

Elwoods' daughter said she had fallen on hard times and needed to find a place for Moore to live while she worked on getting a job.

That's when Elwoods offered to take Moore back to Illinois with him while his daughter looked for a job.

According to prosecutors, Moore had no marks, scars or bruises on her body when she left her mother in March.

In March, Elwoods returned from vacation to his home with his granddaughter and she began residing with both him and his wife, Jones, who live in Park Forest.

At 10:50 p.m. on July 15, Elwoods called 911 and asked for an ambulance. He allegedly told the 911 operator, "I was beating my little granddaughter and now she is out of it." 

Police arrived on the scene and located the victim lying on the couch completely nude. Both Elwoods and Jones were present at the time.

Officers began CPR and she was transported to an area hospital and then Comer's Children's Hospital, where she was pronounced dead on July 15.

Officers executed a search warrant on Elwoods and Jones' house and located a belt, a pair of children's shorts with underwear inside (both were soiled) and a notarized letter from the girl's mother giving them custody for school and medical decisions.

The letter was dated April 5, 2023.

Officers also recovered a calendar from the refrigerator that still had June 2023 displayed. It detailed four separate dates in which the victim allegedly soiled herself.

Jones allegedly provided a detailed statement to police saying that both of them had been beating Moore as early as one month after she came to live with them.

She said that both she and Elwoods would use a belt, shoe and their hands to strike Moore.

According to preliminary information from an autopsy conducted on Sunday, the medical examiner notated bruises, abrasions and scars all over the victim’s body including her head, face, neck, arms, legs, chest, back and buttocks. 

The bruises, abrasions and scars were consistent with a pattern of ongoing behavior as the wounds were in various stages of healing, prosecutors said.

The medical examiner also noted that there were more wounds to the back of the body than the front.

The belt recovered from Elwoods and Jones' home was compared to wounds on the victim’s body and is consistent with some of the patterned injuries, prosecutors said. 

The medical examiner notated that internal avulsion pockets or contusion pockets (collections of blood in subcutaneous tissue or muscle) were in Moore's back, buttocks, and legs.

Avulsion pockets are commonly seen in car accident injuries due to the force required to cause such an injury. 

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The medical examiner said the avulsion pockets are indicative of Moore losing blood into the soft tissue and are more dangerous in children due to their overall lower volume of blood.

Prosecutors say the girl also suffered subdural hematoma (bleeding in the area between the brain and skull) and there were signs of the victim’s brain herniating. 

The injury suffered to Moore's brain would have rendered her unresponsive quickly from the time the injury occurred. The injury would have required substantial force to be exerted upon her, prosecutors said.

Moore's death was ruled a homicide by multiple injuries due to child abuse.

Elwoods has previous charges for solicitation of a sex act in 2004, vehicular hijacking and robbery in 2005, driving on a suspended license in 2013, aggravated assault in 1987, theft in 1996 and 1997, criminal trespass in 1999 and driving under the influence in 2013.