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Mallory Lauryn-Rose Wade
Four years. A lifetime of love. A death that did not have to happen.
Death cannot separate us from the girl who stole our hearts.
Mallory is forever woven into the DNA of our souls.
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Four years. A lifetime of love. A death that did not have to happen.
Death cannot separate us from the girl who stole our hearts.
Mallory is forever woven into the DNA of our souls.
Mallory Lauryn-Rose Wade came into the world on June 18, 2020, during the height of a pandemic that had shut everything else down. Her birth was difficult. She sustained birth injuries that would shape every day of her short life — and she faced them with a quiet strength that those who knew her will never forget.
Mallory was diagnosed with Quadriplegic Cerebral Palsy. She spent her earliest months in the hospital. She eventually came home to join her two older siblings — and despite everything, she was a typically healthy girl. Her condition did not make her fragile. What made her vulnerable was the home she was brought back to.
She was four years old when she died. She never made it to her fifth birthday. She deserved so much more than four years.
Mallory Lauryn-Rose Wade
2020 – 2025
Mallory's death did not happen in an instant. It was the end of a long, documented road of neglect that too many people saw — and too few acted on.
At one year of age, Mallory weighed only 7 pounds — a sign that her most basic needs were not being met. She was failing to thrive in a home where her parents were already overwhelmed caring for two other children, let alone a disabled infant who required specialized, round-the-clock attention.
Anyone who stepped inside the home would have known immediately. The smell of multiple cats, the hoarded mess, the conditions — they were impossible to miss. Mallory was regularly left on the floor in front of a television screen for hours at a time. Her mother had expressed, more than once, that she wanted to give her up.
A feeding tube was eventually placed, and Mallory slowly began to gain weight over the following two years. She was enrolled in preschool at age three — a moment of hope. But those who saw her at school saw something was wrong. Her teachers and staff made multiple reports to Child Protective Services about the conditions Mallory was living in and the state she arrived in.
Despite repeated reports from the school, Child Protective Services failed to intervene in time. The system that existed to protect children like Mallory — children who could not protect themselves — did not act when it mattered most.
On the night of May 26 into the early morning of May 27, 2025, Mallory's mother was not home. She was at work. A man — described as her mother's boyfriend — was left in charge of Mallory's care. Mallory died that night. She was found cold, naked, and alone — on a bare mattress with no sheet.
It has been more than a year since Mallory died. The investigation is ongoing — which means her family still waits. What we do know is this: Mallory Lauryn-Rose Wade was neglected to death. And those responsible have not been held accountable.
Mallory was not invisible. Her preschool saw her. Her teachers filed reports. CPS had her name in their system. The people required by law to protect children like her had every opportunity to act.
She was reported. She was seen. She was not saved. That is not an accident — that is a failure of accountability at every level.
Why has no one been charged? Who decided that Mallory's life was not worth an urgent response?
We are calling on law enforcement, prosecutors, CPS leadership, and elected officials to act — now, and with the full weight of the law.
Those responsible for Mallory's care on the night she died must be investigated and charged.
A full review of how CPS handled Mallory's case, why repeated reports were not acted on, and who is responsible for that failure.
Legislative reform to strengthen protections for disabled children in neglect investigations — so no child waits this long for someone to act.
Your name is a message to prosecutors, CPS, and lawmakers: the public is watching. We know what happened to Mallory. We will not allow it to be quietly forgotten.
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