Dec. 13—A child abuse case in its fourth year inched toward a conclusion recently, when the girl's mother pleaded guilty, avoided any jail time and agreed to testify about what role her husband played in the burn-related injuries to her 3-year-old girl.

The case has attracted attention because of the alleged abusers' backgrounds, the interstate and international aspects of the case, an unrelated murder witnessed by the victim in the case, and a civil lawsuit filed against high-profile Boston hospitals and their physicians, who are likely prosecution witnesses.

The girl's stepfather, Shogo Hanamura, 47, was a commercial airline pilot who flew for Mesa Airlines, a company that operates regional service for American Airlines.

His wife and co-defendant, Sara Hanamura, 38, is a student at Harvard Law School.

Shogo Hanamura has filed civil suits against doctors, Massachusetts General Hospital and the Shriner's Hospital in Boston, claiming they misdiagnosed the girl's rare skin disease as child abuse.

The case grew more intriguing in 2020 when the victim, 5 1/2 years old at the time and living with her biological father in Florida, apparently witnessed the murder of one of her caregivers by another caregiver. The murder victim's body was found in the trunk of a car abandoned in Tennessee, according to the Hanamura lawsuit.

"She was also allegedly abandoned after the murder, and found wandering alone outside without shoes or adequate clothing by (her father)," reads the lawsuit filed against Massachusetts General Hospital and the Shriner's Hospital in Boston, which was filed in Suffolk County Superior Court last year.

The Hanamuras and Sara's four children from a previous marriage were living in an Eagle Nest condominium in Manchester when a Hillsborough County grand jury brought indictments against them in 2019.

He was charged with first- and second-degree assault. The mother was charged with reckless conduct, witness tampering and child endangerment. She allegedly told her other children to not speak to authorities about "discipline in the house."

The couple had claimed that the girl suffered from a rare skin disease called Kabuki syndrome and had lined up experts to testify in what was expected to be a complicated trial that hinged on medical evidence.

But on Friday, Sara Hanamura appeared in Hillsborough County Superior Court in Manchester and pleaded guilty to a single count of misdemeanor child endangerment.

She was given a suspended jail sentence and must testify at an upcoming trial against her husband, currently scheduled for late March.

"This was an important measure of accountability," said the prosecutor in the case, Assistant Hillsborough County attorney Patrick Ives. "It's not just individuals who hurt children, but also those who are in a position to help and don't take necessary action and thus endanger their children."

Sara Hanamura hung up on a reporter who called on Monday. Her lawyer, public defender Michael Thomas Hamman, did not return a telephone message left Monday afternoon.

History of alleged abuse

The girl was a month shy of 4 in September 2018 when Shogo Hanamura caused her hand to be put into extremely hot or boiling water, according to indictments issued in 2019.

Both parents were initially released on high cash bail.

But in June, a judge revoked bail and ordered Shogo Hanamura, a Japanese citizen, jailed after learning he had applied for a passport at the Japanese consul. Hanamura's bail conditions included surrendering his passport and Hanamura had tried three times unsuccessfully to convince a judge to return his passport.

Hanamura said he needed the passport to extend a work visa. He is scheduled to go on trial on the assault charges in late March. But that's uncertain. He already has fired two teams of defense lawyers — Michael Iacopino and Jaye Rancourt; Robin Melone and Donna Brown — and is now represented by a Massachusetts-based defender. He would not comment for this article.

Pre-trial filings show that New Hampshire prosecutors have arranged for medical experts to testify in the case. And they have obtained child-protection records from Hawaii, New York, New Hampshire and Massachusetts.

Ives said that the victim, who is now 8 years old, has been adopted by a family and is thriving. She has no permanent injury from the burns, he said.

The fact that Sara Hanamura has lost her parental rights to the girl and can no longer see her daughter factored into the sentence, the prosecutor said.

The lawsuit that Shogo Hanamura filed against the hospitals details the murder she may have witnessed in February 2020 in Titusville, Florida. New Hampshire family court had granted her biological father, Zongmu Wang, custody of the girl. Wang was subletting rooms in his rental homes to two women, one of whom had a young child.

The two got into a fight over the girl's care. One of the women murdered the other while the girl was present in the rental home and Wang was away.

"(The girl) was allegedly found during the course of the police missing persons investigation to be physically abused, eating dirt, and is believe to have possibly witnessed the murder," the filing reads.

According to news accounts, Florida officials have charged Courtney Gibson of Tennessee with first-degree murder in the death of Titusville resident Anna Primavere.

Sara and Shogo Hanamura had three children of their own. Their firstborn twins were born in February 2019. One died at the age of 3 months on a flight to Japan, according to court records. The court records said the baby died of natural causes.

The other twin is now living in Japan.