Hedda Nausbaum and Joel Steinberg

A Dysfunctional Couple Who

Destroyed 2 Young Lives

by Lynn A. Granata

It was almost 29 years ago that an illegally adopted 6 year old girl was beaten to death. On November 2, 1987, police were summoned to a large Gothic style apartment located in New York City's stylish Greenwich Village.

The sight of Hedda Nausbaum (left) left it's mark on humanity, Joel Steinberg (right) made Hedda's appearance
an atrocity which took years in the making.  Photo courtesy of API (November 2, 1987).

 This place was just not any old place, but a place where story book legend Mark Twain lived.

At the exact same apartment, police knocked on the door at 6:30 am. The large oak doors slowly creaked open, behind it within the unveiled darkness an elderly woman answered it. The small hunched over dark- haired woman with hints of grey strands, appeared much older than her normal age.

She had old injuries healing over new injuries on her pain ridden contorted face. She was frail and emaciated. Behind her was the wafting wailing sound of a man's raspy voice hollering maniacally "Hedda, "she's stopped breathing!"

As law enforcement forced their way through the heavy oak doors and into the squalid apartment what they found was the most heart breaking scene ever.

Inside the apartment, was a disheveled couple wielding the limp, battered, bruised, and unconscious body of a small female child. In the next room, an 18 month old male child was found tethered to a playpen lying in dirt. He was rescued unharmed. And taken by police to Child Protective Custody.

The rescue crew quickly sprang into action and started giving the child, whose name is Lisa Steinberg CPR. The little girl was bruised and had overt signs of regular beatings showing on her pale skin. Old bruises healing over new ones donned her back, trunk, arms and legs.

Lisa was rushed to St.Vincent's Hospital. She had a large fist sized bruise over her right forehead. Upon further examination by medical professionals, she also had numerous other bumps and bruises about her head. She was unable to breathe on her own and was placed on a respirator.

It was later determined that she had a subdural hematoma exerting too much pressure on her brain. Lisa was technically declared brain dead and taken off life support and died 3 days later.

The police questioned the two unkempt mentally incoherent adults at the New York Police station. Upon further investigation, the police obtained enough evidence to arrest them both on aggravated felony assault and murder of a minor.

I will discuss this case in more depth in later blogs. The new blog is just to give you an introduction into the case and players involved for now. This is a very long and complex saga. And requires more than one posting. To be continued...