Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Florida Mom Ordered 10-Year-Old To Murder Baby Over Roblox: Sheriff

Episode Date: October 25, 2024

Tara Sykes, 36, is in jail in Escambia County, Florida accused of attempted murder. Sheriff Chip Simmons said Sykes messaged a 10-year-old over Roblox to murder a 2-month-old baby by dropping the baby on its head on a hard floor or by drowning the child. It’s not Sykes’ first brush with the law concerning the welfare of a child. Law&Crime’s Angenette Levy breaks down the disturbing case in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: You can binge Criminal Attorney early and ad-free right now on Wondery Plus by clicking our link https://Wondery.fm/LCCrimeFixHost:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5Guest: Sheriff Chip Simmons https://www.facebook.com/OfficialECSOCRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this law and crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. A mom from Florida is behind bars accused of using a video game to try to get a 10-year-old to murder a baby. I have the disturbing allegations in the case of Tara Sykes and why she was already on the sheriff's radar. Welcome to Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. I just have to tell you right off the bat,

this case is incredibly disturbing and truly it's unbelievable. Tara Sykes is in jail in Pensacola, Florida, facing charges of attempted murder and aggravated child abuse. The sheriff in Escambia County says Sykes used Roblox, a video game, to send messages to a 10-year-old child, basically giving that child instructions on how to kill a two-and-a-half month old baby, basically a newborn. Sheriff Chip Simmons will be here soon to talk about the case. The attempted murder case, sadly, wasn't the first time that law enforcement had dealt with Sykes. I'll have more on that here in just a little bit. But first, more on the disturbing allegations about how the sheriff says Sykes tried to get a child to murder a baby and also other family members.

The investigation started on October 18th. An affidavit says deputies got a tip about the incident from a worker at a home for children who've been abused. The affidavit states, according to the tip, the child picked up the baby after he became fussy and was walking into the kitchen with him to find an adult when she accidentally dropped him. The baby, whose name is redacted, was picked up off the floor by a person whose name is redacted in the affidavit and taken to Sacred Heart Hospital for treatment. Howell said during DCF Investigator Rogers' investigation that the child had been communicating with Tara Sykes through the online application Roblox. In the communication thread, Sykes instructed the child on various methods to kill the baby.

Sykes instructed the child to drown the baby in the baby. Sykes instructed the child to drown the baby in the bathtub, burn him with scalding water, and drop the child on the floor to kill him. Tara Sykes is 36 years old, and she's also a mother. So this allegation that she was telling a 10-year-old child to kill an infant and giving a number of instructions on how to carry out the murder is absolutely stunning. Investigators say Sykes didn't want to just kill the baby. She wanted this child to kill other people in the house where she was living. Additionally, the child said Sykes instructed her to kill her temporary guardians and her adult daughter by cutting their throats with a knife

while they were asleep. The child said Sykes instructed her on how to burn the home down by dousing bedsheets with aerosol spray, placing the sheets around the house and setting them on fire. The child said she doused the sheets as instructed, but was unable to carry out instructions. The child confessed she had communicated with Sykes through a Roblox account. The affidavit quotes the child as saying she was terrified and feared Sykes would kill her if she didn't follow the instructions. Investigators say they spoke with other adults who confirmed they saw the Roblox messages. Sykes is being held without bail, but this isn't her first brush with the law.

Last May, deputies went to the Sykes' home and discovered her 14-year-old daughter was pregnant and underweight, suffering from malnutrition. An affidavit for that case says, I also asked several questions and after several lies by suspect T. Sykes, which ultimately led suspect T. Sykes into admitting that she and her husband, suspect J. Sykes, knew that their daughter was pregnant in November 2023 by a 20-year-old acquaintance of theirs. Sykes and her husband were arrested and charged with cruelty toward children. And get this, Sykes and her husband, according to records, were extorting the grandmother of the father of their daughter's unborn child, threatening to shoot him if they weren't given money. The documents say the Sykeses had already gotten the grandmother to give them

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representing others in court to representing himself. Follow Criminal Attorney on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to Criminal Attorney early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus. I want to bring in Sheriff Chip Simmons of the Escambia County Sheriff's Office. Sheriff, thank you so much for coming on. This case, I said it earlier, is absolutely unbelievable.

And I know that you said you've been in law enforcement a long time and have never seen anything like this. Yeah, thank you for having me on. I've been in law enforcement for almost 40 years, and I've never seen details quite like this. I've never seen evil quite like this. When you read about the text messages or the messaging that she, and I'm speaking of Tara Sykes, what she instructed a 10-year-old to do to a grandmother would message a child over an app to to murder a baby and then not only murder a baby but then instruct her in detail about how to carry out the murders of other people in a house i mean this was very detailed and is there any any um idea as to why tara sykes wanted to murder this baby yeah we're still looking at the the motive i don't think you can you can come up with a proper motive to as you just mentioned, to instruct a 10-year-old to do this particular act, which

is drop the two-month-old on its head on a hard floor and or drown and or scald the baby with hot water. There was just too many details for you to wrap your head around. But we're still looking at why we're trying to connect a previous arrest to this particular case. And then, as you mentioned, she went further and saying, oh, by the way, also do this. Kill the people that you're temporarily staying with by doing this. To me, it's pure evil. And to use a 10-year-old as a conduit for this evil is just unimaginable. Yeah, let's talk about the previous case. I know it's in a neighboring county. It's not your case per se.

But Tara Sykes and her husband, James, are facing charges related to their 14 year old daughter being pregnant. And they were accused of extorting the father of this child who was unborn at the time and saying they were extorting the father's grandmother and saying, we're going to shoot him if you don't give us money. And the grandmother had allegedly given them $10,000 so the grandson wouldn't be killed, which is insane. So you're trying to connect these two cases. Do you believe, obviously, that the child in your case is the baby in the other case?

I can tell you that the investigation is continuing. We are trying to unravel all of this. At this point, we do believe that the arrest in that neighboring county that you refer to, it is connected to to this particular case. And in a state of four, we cannot identify the victims of child abuse. And so it's difficult for us to explain exactly how we're connecting the dots. But I think that you can understand that not only is there, you know, this evil I spoke of in the case that we're working on, that we arrested Sykes for, but also that connection that happened in that neighboring county that happened previous to this. We certainly think that they are connected and we're looking at them as a whole. How is the baby doing, the two and a half month old baby? Because being dropped on its head, I mean, that could be fatal.

And thank goodness it wasn't. So how is the baby doing? Yeah, if you recall, and part of that disturbing facts here is that she was instructed to drop a two-month-old on a hard floor. And unfortunately, that 10-year-old carried out those instructions, seriously injuring the two-month-old that you just referred to. I'm happy to report it looks like the two-month-old will survive. And that is why we have charged Sykes with attempted murder instead of murder. Well, thank goodness the baby is going to survive. And how is the 10-year-old doing? Because the 10-year-old is following orders from an adult. I'm assuming the 10-year-old is not

facing charges in juvenile court. How's the 10-year-old doing? Well, and that's what we looked at throughout the investigation. Again, I mentioned that Sykes was using this 10-year-old as a conduit through a social media platform. And initially, we look at there's potential to be considered a suspect of the 10-year-old. But when we looked at it, the 10 the 10 year old felt as if if they did not carry it out that they would be in danger they would they would be placed in harm and so at this point we we consider the 10 year old to be a victim as well so there's uh the 10 year old is a victim the two month old clearly a victim um and then sykes is charged she's the one um that's the one that's the criminal here. She's the one that has pushed this.

And so I would, again, I would imagine that the 10-year-old is going to need some counseling, is going to need some conversation to get over this. There's a long road for the 10-year-old, obviously still a long road for the two-month-old as well. But I'm happy to report the two-month-old looks like they're um they're going to survive just the there was a lot of detail in this case as well i mean instructing this child to douse things around the house with aerosol in order to to light the house on fire all of these things. Did Tara Sykes say anything to your detectives? Did she offer any comments or statements at all? I mean, I know you said you have the text messages or the messages from Roblox, but did she say anything when you all approached her about this?

No, she did not. She did not make any comments to us. We have a number of witnesses. We were working with our Gulf Coast Kids House, which is a child advocate arm here for the state attorney's office. So we initially got the call from them based upon the injuries to the two-month-old that seemed suspicious. Then ultimately we had those conversations with the 10-year-old as well. But Sykes did not say anything to us. There was no confessions that we got from Sykes. But obviously, we felt like we had enough.

You know, as disturbing as it is, we felt like we had enough. And we went ahead and charged her with that attempted murder. Just absolutely awful. We're so glad that the 10-year-old is somewhere safe, hopefully with people who are taking good care of her and that the baby will survive, hopefully won't have any lasting effects from this. Any final thoughts, Sheriff Simmons?

Well, again, that's important what you just said, that the 10-year-old is someplace safe. The two-month-old is someplace safe. The adults that the 10-year-old was staying with and the two-month-old was staying with, they are safe. My final thoughts are, you know, being in law enforcement a long time, but when you read about the instructions, you know, I can't imagine someone having these thoughts, let alone pushing someone, let alone a 10-year-old to carry them out and with, you know, do this and do this and do this. And then, oh, there's other victims as well. I just think that goes to show the mindset of Sykes and just how dangerous she is.

It's a disturbing case. Sheriff Chip Simmons, thank you so much. Thank you. Y'all take care. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time.