sylvia likens (january 3, 1949 - october 26, 1965) was a 16-year-old murder victim from indiana. she was tortured for three months by gertrude baniszewski (née van fossan), gertrude's children, and other young people from their neighborhood, and eventually murdered on october 26, 1965. her parents, carnival workers, had left likens and her sister jenny in the care of the baniszewski family three months before her death in exchange for $20 a week. baniszewski, two of her children, paula and john, and two neighborhood youths, coy hubbard and richard hobbs, were charged and convicted of the crime. her torture and murder were described by the prosecutor in baniszewski's trial as "the most terrible crime ever committed in the state of indiana".