Naika Venant
Naika Venant
Personal Life
Facebook tribute to Naika Venant
One of Naika Venant's said Naika was academically smart and loved to smile.
She also wrote in a journal daily and dreamt of writing a book about her life.
Early Years
Facebook message
Naika Venant was born in Haiti. Her mother, Gina Caze, moved back to Florida (where she used to live), leaving Naika in Haiti in the care of her grandmother. Naika wouldn't join her mother until she was 18 months old.
When she was 4 years old, Florida's Department of Children & Families was called to her mother's home. Naika had been left with a male babysitter, who, in turn, left her unattended with no food or running water. As a result, Gina enrolled Naika in daycare, and moved to “a new residence with no visible hazards.”
When Naika was 5, another report was received in August 2008 when the mother initially refused to let Naika be admitted to the hospital for treatment of an undisclosed chronic health condition.
While in the emergency room, the mother reportedly called Naika a "liar" and a "faker" and threatened to send her back to Haiti so that her own life could be better.
In January 2009, when Naika was 6 years old, Naika received more than 30 marks on her arms, legs, and back after her mother repeatedly beat her with a belt.
The incident happened after the mother discovered Naika engaged in a sexual act with Naika's male babysitter; Naika was reportedly the initiator.
Due to the severity of Naika's physical abuse from her mother, Naika was taken away from her mother and placed in licensed foster care.
Foster Care
Between January 2009 and January 2017, Naika spent a total of 28 months in foster care.
Somewhere in that time period, she was passed around 14 different foster homes in 16 months.
There were three removal episodes during her time in foster care:
January 2009 through June 2010
April 2014 through June 2014
April 2016 through January 2017
During her first stint in 2009, she had been the victim of excessive corporal punishment. She got a urinary tract infection at the age of 7 after being sexually abused. A police investigation revealed that she was raped by a 14-year-old boy living in the same home.
Naika eventually reunified with her mother.
However, their relationship became unstable.
Naika's mother noticed that Naika was displaying inappropriate sexual behaviors through texts and on Facebook.
According to Naika's mother's attorney Howard Talenfeld, Naika's molestation scarred her deeply and left her unable to distinguish between appropriate and inappropriate behavior.
Death
Using a Snapchat filter
On January 22, 2017, Naika Venant hanged herself.
She broadcast it on Facebook Live from a bathroom of her Miami Gardens foster home.
Venant used a scarf to create a homemade noose and attached it to a shower-glass door frame.
She was pronounced dead at around 3:03 a.m.
The live broadcast lasted 3 hours.
In the day's leading up to Naika’s suicide, the teen expressed sadness that her mother told her that she didn’t want her back and that Naika was going to “age out” of the foster care system.
Ms. Caze relinquished custody of Naika on April 20, 2016, citing that she no longer wanted the child in her home.
Gina Alexis Controversy (Naika's Mother)
Nakia Venant's mother Gina Caze talks to the press after the tragedy
Several people who watched the video live commented on Naika's video pleading to reconsider her decision to hang herself.
Others called her vile names and/or claimed the situation was "fake" or "all an act."
According to multiple sources, one of the cynics of the incident was Naika's mother.
On February 9, 2017, an abuse complaint was reported to the Florida Department of Children & Families (DCF) claiming that Gina Caze (who goes by the username 'Gina Alexis' on Facebook) watched and commented on the online video broadcast.
The following statement was written under her account:
"#ADHD games played u sad little DCF custody jit * (SIC) that's why u where u at for this* dumb s --- n more u keep crying wolf (SIC) u dead u will get buried life goes on after a jit that doesn't listen to their parents trying to be grown seeking boys and girls attention instead of her books (SIC)."