Wow. Just wow.

[MountainHawk]

http://www.boston.com/news/local/art..._fatally_shot/

A Westfield woman, who officials say beat her 11-year-old adopted daughter so severely that the girl is ''virtually brain dead," was found shot to death along with the girl's grandmother yesterday in a West Springfield home less than a day after the mother had been released on bail, authorities said.

Police found the bodies of Holli A. Strickland, 33, and Constance Young in Young's home yesterday morning, only hours after Strickland was released on bail Wednesday night on charges of assault and battery on a child with substantial injuries, according to Hampden District Attorney William M. Bennett. Officials believe the deaths were a double suicide or a homicide-suicide, Bennett said in a statement.


...

Prosecutors said Hallie was subjected to abuse by her mother and occasionally her stepfather for an unknown period, during which she was beaten with a baseball bat, pushed down stairs, forced to stand in scalding water, and kicked repeatedly.

Personally, I think she took the easy way out.