Four-month-old Eternity Brame's life was snuffed by a violent fist.
Autopsy records indicate the little girl died of a lacerated heart and liver and a depressed skull fracture from several blows to her head, chest and back.
Elijah Harris was just shy of his second birthday when he died last year of a skull fracture and untreated second-degree burns.
In each Lake County case, a parent or guardian was charged with causing the child's death, county records show.
School and government officials put a renewed emphasis this month on stemming child abuse and neglect. April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month.
In Lake County, child services handled 1,175 substantiated cases of abuse and neglect in 2006, state data show. The Porter County department processed about 230 such cases.
There were five child deaths in that period, the state records show.
The number of abuse and neglect cases reported has steadily increased statewide in the last 10 years, a report from the Indiana Department of Child Services says. But the number of substantiated cases has stayed about the same, data show.
Officials say they are focusing on the front end of child abuse and neglect with prevention programs and counseling.
Lake County's Healthy Families program works with three local hospitals: St. Catherine in East Chicago, St. Margaret Mercy Healthcare Centers in Hammond and The Community Hospital in Munster. The workers exchange information with women who have just given birth and link the families to community resources.
State Rep. Shelli VanDenburgh also pointed to several pieces of legislation passed in the last General Assembly session that relate to protecting children. One bill requires the court to hold a hearing before granting a release on bail for people charged with child molestation, child solicitation or sexually violent crimes.
"I focus a lot on children," VanDenburgh said. "It's one of my passions, of course, being a mother. I'm trying to better the lives of all the constituents in my district, and children are a part of that. ... Somebody has to fight for our kids."
