On February 26, 2020 Netflix released a six part documentary showing the horrors that eight year old Gabriel Fernandez lived through for eight months. 

This documentary goes through the trials of the death that his mother, Pearl Fernandez, and her boyfriend, Isauro “Tony” Aguirre, and the four social workers that did nothing to help the eight year old boy get out of the abusive situation he was in. Gabriel tried speaking up multiple times and tried to get help get out of that house. His his mother allowed her boyfriend to torture him and she would sometimes beat him too. 

Gabriel Fernandez was born on February 21, 2005 and it was clear his mother did not want to keep him. Three days after he was born she left the hospital without him leaving him, with his great uncle and his partner. After three years of living with them, his family started accusing his great uncle and partner of sexually abusing Gabriel, but both denied that the allegations.

Through the story, viewers will see many disturbing pictures of Gabriel’s injuries caused by Pearl and her boyfriend. You will hear the testimony of many family members and doctors. You will hear how long the autopsy took because of how many injuries he had. You will feel many emotions with this series. 

This documentary really hit hard for me because that is just one child’s story. One child that the court system got justice for. After watching this documentary it really changed my perspective on everything. 

What his mother put him through for the last eight months of his life were horrific and inhumane. No eight year old should have to go through what they put him through and this is one of the reasons why I hope many would watch this documentary to show that anyone can go through this. He tried coming forward, but was still never taken out of his mother’s custody. The social workers could have done something to help him and he would still be alive. Now I am not putting all the blame on the social workers, it was everyone involved with this case and this series will show you that it was more than just the social workers that could’ve done something. 

It broke my heart to see what this child went through for eight months and all of it could’ve been avoided if the proper authorities did their job correctly. No human should ever have to go through the kind of torture he had to suffer through. This documentary is one of the saddest things I’ve watched, but it is very eye opening. It showed me that no one knows what anything that they go through. It makes me sick thinking that someone could’ve done something, but didn’t. He lost his life by other people’s mistakes and ignorance. 

I have so much sympathy for this boy because he lost his life when he had so much more life to live that he didn’t get the chance to do. If Gabriel was still here, he’d be fourteen in high school, but that chance was taken away from him. The justice that was brought to his abusers was such a good thing, but it will never change what happened to him and he is no longer with us.

If you are not into gory things or criminal justice shows I do not recommend this documentary because it shows many explicit images of Gabriel’s injuries. I do think that many should watch this show to open up their eyes as a civilian though.