WARNING: This story references allegations of child abuse.
Since September, two Burlington, Ont., women have been on trial for the murder of a 12-year-old boy they were trying to adopt.
The high-profile case which the judge described as "lengthy and difficult" has heard from dozens of witnesses but only one member of the child's biological family: his brother, who lived with him in the lead up to his death, testified over several days in November.
Sharing her perspective with CBC Hamilton for the first time, L.L. and J.L.'s mother says she wants people to understand her family is “not just a case or story.”
"We are real people, a family who has lived through heartbreak," she said in an emailed media statement shared with CBC Hamilton through her lawyer in a separate civil lawsuit.
