Teen girl’s body remains at morgue 2 months after death
Father wants cremation; mother won’t consent
Amina Krouser, a 14-year-old girl who authorities say was horribly abused and neglected, died in early December.
Almost two months later, her body remains at the Milwaukee County morgue.
Her father, Michael Krouser, says he wants his daughter’s body to be cremated and for the remains to be sent to him in San Antonio, Texas.
But Amina’s mother, who is charged with her death and in jail, says the procedure violates her personal and religious beliefs. She refuses to allow the procedure to go forward.
So Amina’s body, which arrived at the medical examiner’s office with nothing but a couple of blankets, a stuffed animal and a drawing, remains in a kind of legal limbo.
At blame, in part, is a Wisconsin law that fails to extend its protections to children such as Amina.
“This case presents a hole in the law,” said Matthew Torbenson, who is prosecuting Amina’s mother, Azlyza Ababneh.
Ababneh is charged with child neglect resulting in death, child abuse, intentionally causing harm and three counts of misdemeanor child neglect.
And while Ababneh faces more than 20 years in prison, she is not, significantly, charged with homicide.
Under Wisconsin law, Torbenson said, “if a person is charged with homicide of the decedent, they lose the right to make a determination on how the remains should be handled.”
“The statute does not include child neglect resulting in death. Thus, this unfortunate gap in the law allows the defendant to continue to object — and will require the father to go to family court,” he said.
The fact that Ababneh maintains parental control of Amina’s body in death is all the more appalling when placed against what Ababheh is accused of doing to the child’s body in life.
According to a criminal complaint, Amina and her two siblings lived with their mother in a house with no heat or running water.
Amina became ill with cold-like symptoms Nov. 26.
Her condition worsened over the next four days. Eventually, she did not know her name and lost control of her
bladder.
Ababneh believed her daughter was being lazy and beat her with a belt and with a plastic pipe.
On Dec. 3, Amina was taken to Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin. The infection had spread to her brain and doctors wanted to perform an emergency surgery. Ababneh refused to give them permission.
Doctors operated anyway. They were unable to save Amina. She died Dec. 10.
Karen Domagalski, the operations manager at the medical examiner’s office, said that if a decision cannot be made about what to do with Amina’s body “we will be forced to file for a county burial.”
“This means the child will most likely be buried in an unmarked grave with no service,” she said.
Such an outcome is unprecedented, Domagalski said.
Kids Matter Inc., a Milwaukee-based child advocacy agency, has been asked to take up Amina’s case.
Susan Conwell, the agency’s executive director, said she expected to see court action initiated almost immediately.
“Amina suffered enough in life,” Conwell said.
“As a community, we need to do our best to preserve her dignity in death.”