Abuse suspect found fatally shot

(Correction: Because of an editing error, a story in Friday's City & Region section about Holli Strickland, a Westfield woman found fatally shot, incorrectly described another woman also found shot dead at the house. The woman, Constance Young, was Strickland's grandmother.)

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.

Strickland was arrested Tuesday along with her husband, Jason D. Strickland, 31, after their daughter, Hallie, was admitted to Noble Hospital in Westfield on Sept. 11 with substantial injuries, including severe burns and critical brain stem damage, according to court documents. She was later admitted to Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, where she is in critical condition.

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.

''This whole situation is completely, utterly tragic," said Dawn Schafer, the Stricklands' next-door neighbor. ''We didn't see anything excessively wrong with them that would let us know that there were monsters living next door."

The Stricklands told officials they were unaware of the child's multiple injuries, court documents stated.

Holli Strickland initially said she had brought Hallie into the hospital because she was suffering from a stomach flu, and she later told officials Hallie had injured herself, according to the documents.

The charges this week were the first complaints of abuse brought against the Stricklands, said Denise Monteiro, spokeswoman for the Department of Social Services, which initially placed Hallie in Holli Strickland's custody and later approved the adoption.

''When a child dies under our watch, we take full responsibility," Monteiro said. ''We try very hard, and we sort of check ourselves daily and weekly to make sure that a child does not fall through our system. It's rare that this happens."

Hallie entered foster care in 1998 and was adopted by Holli Strickland about three years later, Monteiro said.

Hallie lived with the Stricklands, their 2-year-old son, and Holli's 9-year-old daughter from a previous relationship without apparent problems until 2004, when DSS officials received a call that Hallie was being neglected, Monteiro said.

Monteiro refused to describe the alleged neglect, but said officials decided to leave Hallie in the home and work with the family to resolve the problem.

Counseling was offered, and a social services agent visited the family at the beginning of each month, with the last visit taking place in early September, said Monteiro. Abuse was never suspected, she said.

Yet an unnamed witness is quoted in court documents as telling detectives that Holli Strickland often beat Hallie. The documents do not provide a time frame, but detail a pattern of frequent abuse.

In August, the witness saw Holli Strickland strike Hallie numerous times with a baseball bat on top of the child's past bruises, the documents state.

Strickland also hit her daughter on various other occasions and once forced her to stand in hot water, according to the witness.

Jason Strickland observed some of the attacks and also hit Hallie occasionally, the witness told authorities.

After Hallie was admitted to the hospital last week, tests determined that she had a subdural hematoma and a sheared brain stem, was in a ''permanent vegetative state," and was ''virtually brain dead," documents state. The ''injury could not be self-inflicted or caused by a sibling," hospital officials told police.

Hallie's two younger siblings were taken into state custody this week. There have been no reports of abuse against them, Monteiro said.

The Stricklands pleaded not guilty in Westfield District Court on Wednesday and were held on $25,000 cash bail. Holli posted bail later that evening and was released.

Yesterday, officials found her body with Young's at about 6:30 a.m. Both had been shot, according to Bennett.

Young was pronounced dead at the apartment. Strickland died in the ambulance as she was being taken to the hospital, Bennett said.

Jason Strickland had not posted bail by last night and was still being held.

Neighbors and relatives said they were shocked by the series of events surrounding the family tragedy.

''I haven't slept in days; I am completely shocked," said William Young, Holli's grandfather, in a telephone interview. Young quickly denied the abuse allegations before hanging up.

''People have made things up," he said.

''There were just no obvious cries for help," said Michael Schafer, Dawn's husband and the Strickland's neighbor. ''They seemed like a loving family."

John Ellement of the Globe staff and Globe correspondent Michael Busack contributed to this report.