A US mother is accused of forcing her 13-year-old daughter to help bury her dead sister in their backyard last year.
The Charlotte Observer reports that a month ago police found the remains of four-year-old Miegellic Young's body in the backyard of her mother Malikah Bennett's home.
Bennett's boyfriend and seven other children lived in the home at the time of Miegellic's death, around August 2020.
Miegellic's 13-year-old sister told police that Bennett forced the four-year-old to stand in a laundry room for three days as a punishment for "soiling her pants".
The Charlotte Observer understands she eventually became too weak to stand, fell and hit her head.
The sister told police that Bennett performed CPR on the child, but she died.
According to the search warrant, Bennett then washed her dead daughter before stuffing her in two black plastic bags and leaving her in the back of her car where she remained for five days until the smell got "bad".
Bennett drove the car to buy a shovel, returned home and dug a hole. She then made her 13-year-old daughter pick up the dead child, bury her and cover her with dirt, the warrant reads.
The Charlotte Observer reports the police searched the home in May after a welfare check was reported by a local child protective worker. They seized a shovel, swabs, a car and a cellphone.
A 29-year-old man told police Bennett knew her daughter was dead and didn't report it because she knew her daughter had injuries and was afraid of getting in trouble for them.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg police have charged Bennett, 31, with first-degree murder, felony child abuse, inflicting physical injury and felony concealing a death.
