Before a Slum Child’s Brutal Death Was a Brutal Life : Connecticut: Hungry 10-year-old girl had to look after younger siblings in an abandoned apartment building rather than attend school. Authorities are blamed for letting her slip through the cracks.

Ten-year-old Erica Corbett lived in a one-room apartment in an abandoned building, too busy looking after her three little brothers and a sister to go to school.

Sometimes she’d sneak out at night with her 7-year-old brother to play in a park infested with hookers and drug dealers.

In the end, it was death that provided an escape from this brutal world: A neighbor found her frail little body on a scrap of blue carpet outside her building late on the night of May 14, stab wounds in the neck and under her left eye.

The wounds on her hands showed she fought for her life--a life plagued by too little to eat, too much responsibility.

With the killer still at large, the 200 mourners who attended her funeral grappled with the fact that the assault on Erica began long before somebody snuffed out her life.

“I’m trying to find out how this child fell through the cracks--somebody is going to pay for this,” said state Sen. Alvin Penn of Bridgeport.

“The whole system totally fell on this child,” Penn said. “The quality of life here is disgraceful.”

Erica’s mother, Stacey Ann Corbett, wearing a black-and-white bandanna and huddled under a hooded military-style jacket, refused to talk to reporters outside the funeral home.

Larstein Wilson, a cousin, read a statement denouncing suggestions that Erica’s mother was a drug abuser and prostitute. Wilson also said Erica didn’t attend school only because her mother wanted to educate her at home.

“Erica was born in Bridgeport and was living the life of a normal 10-year-old child,” the funeral program said. “She was a very bright, yet shy, little girl with the dreams and aspirations of any 10-year-old.”

After Erica’s death, the state placed her brothers and sister in foster homes. Authorities had intervened in the children’s care three years ago but hadn’t been involved for nearly a year.

Police said all the children were dirty and underfed. Erica had a severe case of genital warts. The autopsy showed no sign of sexual intercourse.

“Their situation was abysmal,” said Capt. John Donovan, commander of police detectives.

Erica’s mother gets $844 a month in welfare, according to Penn. Wilson denied her cousin receives public assistance.

A squatter, Corbett moved her family from one abandoned building to another in this city of 135,000 on Long Island Sound, the state’s murder capital, school officials say.

The stench of cat litter fills the crumbling building of the Corbetts’ latest home. Kittens mill around the darkened hallway, slipping into holes in the walls. An old tattered chair sits on the front porch, and the yard is filled with trash, including children’s clothes, a crack vial and the blue carpeting.

The night Erica died, Carl Nicholson, the mother’s boyfriend, was watching the children. He told police he left a friend in charge while he went to the store. When he got back, Erica and the friend were missing. Corbett told police she’d been at her mother’s house.

Nicholson was arrested on narcotics charges last year, police said.

Erica’s mother was rarely home, said Gina Cesca, a neighbor.

“The little girl was always home taking care of her little brothers and sister,” said Roberto Rodriguez, principal of Waltersville School, where Erica enrolled as a third-grader in the fall but hadn’t been back since.

“Her mother was always on the street,” Rodriguez said.

Mildred Butter, secretary at the school Erica attended last year, remembered Erica as a good student despite frequent absences.

Rodriguez said he tried to find out what happened to Erica. It wasn’t until March that he discovered the girl had moved out of his school district. Rodriguez said he contacted the state Department of Children and Families, which investigates educational neglect.

Rodriguez said the agency wouldn’t reopen the case without Erica’s having a permanent address. Butter said she also tried repeatedly to get help for the girl but was rebuffed.

The agency’s regional office has no record of receiving any reports that Erica was not attending school, said David Dearborn, an agency spokesman. The agency is investigating, he said.

“You try to do as much as possible for these children, but no matter how hard you try, the home--the builder of people’s character--doesn’t do its job,” Rodriguez said.