After immigrating from Soviet-occupied Hungary to the United States, Józef Barsi met Maria Virovacz. Shortly after getting married, the two moved to Los Angeles where in 1978 Maia gave birth to their first and only child.
Judith Eva Barsi was born in early summer, June 6th, 1978, and from a young age her mother had dreams of a Hollywood career for the pixie-like child. Despite being told by family that the odds of Judith making it in Hollywood were 1 in 10 thousand, Maria tutored Judith in poise, posture, and vocal control. Not long after she turned five, she was spotted skating gracefully by a camera crew who were there to film a commercial and was hired on the spot.
Judith Barsi. Picture Credit: Forever Remembered Judith Eva Barsi
Described as a happy and bubbly little girl, Judith’s career started to take off. She was hired to do a total of 72 commercials over her career and then branched out into TV guest appearances. Her first role was in Fatal Vision where she played Kimberly McDonald, and from there she would go on to act in shows like Punky Brewster, the Love Boat, and Growing Pains.
By the time she was entering the 4th grade, Judith was earning an estimated $100,000 a year. This income would help her parents buy a modest three-bedroom house in the West Hills area of Los Angeles. As her workload increased, her attendance in school decreased as her work often interrupted her going to school. Her classmates would later say that missing school made Judith sad because she enjoyed playing with the other kids.
To the outside world life for Judith seemed terrific but it was anything but behind closed doors. As Judith’s career started to take off, her father, Józef, started to become angry and abusive. He would always seem to be mad at Maria, always yelling and threatening her. His threats would alternate between threatening to kill her and threatening to kill himself and Judith, leaving Maria alone and suffering.
The more work Judith got, the more Józef tried to control her. One reported story tells of a day when Maria bought Judith a kite and Judith was beyond happy. However, before she was able to fly it, Józef took the kite from her hands. Upset that her new toy had been taken from her without any warning or reason, Judith understandably became upset and then progressed to hysterical, telling her father “You’re going to break it.”
As his daughter cried, Józef looked at Maria and said: “Look at her. She’s just a spoilt brat and doesn’t share her new toy”. Then, as Judith and Maria watched on, Józef broke the toy into pieces.
On top of the threats that Józef made towards Judith and Maria, he also started to drink heavily, so much so that on three separate occasions he was arrested for driving under the influence. His abuse also started to progress to becoming physical. In December 1986, after an attack where Józef hit and tried to choke her, Maria reported Józef’s physical abuse and threats to the police. An investigation found no evidence of abuse in the house and Maria eventually dropped the charges.
The police report that Maria filed was enough for prompt Józef to stop drinking but it did not prevent the other forms of abuse that he used. Józef had hoped that if he stopped drinking that Maria would forgive him for the things he had done but she refused to do so and so the threats and physical abuse continued.
Judith and Maria Barsi. Picture Credit: Forever Remembered Judith Eva Barsi
Józef would complain about Maria’s housekeeping and her wanting to have people over to show off their house to anyone who would listen. As a result, Maria turned for comfort to another woman, whom she bought gifts for, which would then add to Józef’s reasons for threatening her and Judith.
Slowly the impacts of what was happening in the Barsi home started to become apparent to those outside the home. Judith began to pull out her eyelashes and tried to pull out the whiskers that belonged to her cat. She started to gain weight, and during a visit to a family friend’s house, she told them: “I’m afraid to go home. My daddy is miserable. My daddy is drunk every day, and I know he wants to kill my mother.”
While the police were unable to do anything, the same could not be said of those who were aware of what was happening inside the Barsi house. Instead of believing that it was a family matter or that it was being blown out of proportion, friends and neighbours tried their best to help Maria and Judith, one neighbour even going as far as offering their house as a refuge for the two of them. Maria however refused.
It is not known if he was aware that others on the outside knew what he was doing but Józef’s need for control started to grow as did his physical abuse. It was during one of his rages that Józef began to throw pots and pans at Judith, one of which connected with Judith’s face and caused her nose to bleed. He reportedly hid a message from a family member of Maria’s that told of a relative’s death to stop Maria and Judith from leaving the United States, and the threats of murder continued.
The full extent of what was happening did not fully become apparent to Judith’s manager until an audition for “All Dogs go to Heaven.” When Judith was supposed to be singing a song, she broke down in tears and was unable to talk. Having never seen the ordinarily happy child in such a state, the manager suggested to Judith’s mother that she go and see a psychologist that she knew.
After the visit, the manager would say during an interview that the psychologist would never give her the full details of what Judith was going through, but she was told: “It’s extreme verbal, mental and emotional problems with this child and I have to report it to Children’s Services.”
Children’s Services started to look into what was happening with the family and reportedly dropped the investigation when Maria explained to them that she had a plan of action which included divorce. The manager, however, reports a different encounter with Maria, who told her that Children’s services were doing nothing to help her and Judith and that if something was going to happen, she was going to have to initiate it herself.
Judith Barsi. Picture Credit: Forever Remembered Judith Eva Barsi
Maria’s plan started with renting an apartment which became a place that Judith and herself could escape to during the day, but they would have to return to their house at night. When she heard this, Judith’s manager urged Maria to divorce her husband and make a clean break from him, but Maria confided that she was worried that if she did that she and Judith would lose everything that Judith’s career had provided them. They loved their house, and everything that was in it and Maria did not want to give it up.
At 8:30 am on the 27th of July 1988, a neighbour was watering her garden when there was a loud bang coming from the house next door. Concerned, she looked over at her neighbour’s home and was shocked when she spotted smoke rising from it. Dropping her hose, she ran into her house all the while thinking to herself “He’s finally done it.”
As the first neighbour disappeared, a second neighbour picked up her discarded hose and ran over to the house to start fighting the fire. Opening the back door, he was unable to see anything inside due to the smoke and flames. It would not be until the fire had been completely put out and firefighters were able to enter the house that the bodies of Judith, Maria and Józef were found.
Investigators believe that Judith and her mother were killed on the 25th of July as at some point during the day, Judith was seen riding her bike in the street and it would be the last time anyone would notice the ten-year-old.
Judith Barsi’s 8th Birthday. Picture Credit: Forever Remembered Judith Eva Barsi
That night, while Judith slept, Józef would creep into her room and shoot her while she was asleep. Once she was dead, he would then turn his attention to Maria, killing her as well. Józef would then spend the next two days alone with their bodies.
At some point during the time he was alone with Maria and Judith’s bodies, he would talk to Judith’s manager, who would call to see why Judith and Maria had missed an appointment with Hanna Barbera Productions Inc. Józef would explain that Judith and Maria were in San Diego and that he had planned to move out for good, but he just needed a little more time to say goodbye to his little girl.
On the 27th, Józef then proceeded to pour gasoline over Judith and Maria’s bodies before setting them alight. Once he was sure the bodies were incinerated, he then went into the garage and shot himself in the head.
On the 9th of August, both Maria and Judith were buried at the Forrest Lawn Memorial Park. Later that month, Judge Kathryn Doi Todd of Juvenile Dependency Court would declare that she found good cause for a watchdog company to review how Children’s Services handled Judith Barsi’s case.
After Judith’s death, two movies that she worked on were released. The Land Before Time was released the following November, and her character Ducky would be one of the well-known characters. In November 1989, All Dogs go to Heaven was released. It was her final film in which she voiced the character, Ann-Marie. The last song in the movie Love Survives is dedicated in her memory.
Don Bluth, who directed both The Land Before Time and All Dogs go to Heaven described Judith as “Absolutely astonishing. She understood verbal direction, even in the most sophisticated of situations”. He had hoped to use her talents in many more movies that he would direct in the future.
Sources:
Facebook. (n.d). Forever Remembered Judith Eva Barsi
https://www.facebook.com/Foreverrememberedjudithevabarsi/
Fuentes, G. & Johnson, J. (1988) A Script of Fear : Repeated Threats by Father of Child Actress Carried to Tragic End.
http://articles.latimes.com/1988-08-07/local/me-382_1_child-abuse
Los Angeles Times. (1988). Local News in Brief : Child-Abuse Files Ordered Opened
http://articles.latimes.com/1988-08-23/local/me-919_1_child-abuse-files
New York Times. (1988). Child Actress is Slain, Apparently by Father
Wikipedia. (n.d). Judith Barsi
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judith_Barsi
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