It doesn't matter if husband and wife are bickering and fundamentally divided.

It doesn't matter if the court system is a terrible arbiter for family disputes.

It doesn't matter if one side is right and one side is wrong or both sides are right and both sides are wrong.

It doesn't matter if you feel cheated and betrayed.

There is no justification for taking the life of a child – for taking any life.

It seems ridiculous to type such words, but it can't be stated often enough. It can be easily forgotten as the turbulent details emerge in the case of 2-year-old Madeline Layla Samaan-Fay, who was found dead along with her father in a wooded area of El Dorado County on Saturday.

Authorities believe Mourad "Moni" Samaan killed his daughter and himself after losing all custody rights of his only child to his ex-wife, Marcia Fay.

Autopsy results and an official cause of death are pending.

As we strive to learn how and why this could happen, there is much we don't know about this case.

What we do know defies easy perceptions about the type of people normally associated with the death of a child.

The parents of this poor baby were well educated and, by all accounts, the products of loving families.

Fay works as a lawyer in the California attorney general's office. Samaan's father is a psychologist who counsels couples in troubled marriages.

In an interview with The Bee, Makram Samaan shouted at the heavens in anguish over his inability to help his son. He also fielded calls from friends and neighbors offering condolences and support.

These are not isolated people. They are clearly a part of their community.

Fay and those who know her have declined interviews, so all we've heard is Samaan's father blame the family court system for stripping his son of shared custody and driving him over the edge.

In court documents, the people who brought Madeline into the world fought over nearly every detail of her care and upbringing. The child was called one name by her father's family and another by her mother's.

The temptation is to make this case a debate about parental rights gone bad or a father's rights spurned. The temptation is to assign blanket blame in absence of complicating facts.

There is one thing I know for sure: This was an adorable, bright-eyed innocent who didn't deserve what happened to her.

She is a victim.

Her loss is a hurt that never goes away.

Whatever discord led to her death could have been mitigated, but instead ended in a senseless act that can never be justified or explained under any circumstances.

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Call The Bee's Marcos Breton, (916) 321-1096.

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