Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Tot-girl, 4, BURIED IN BACKYARD

Episode Date: June 30, 2021

A North Carolina mother accused of killing her then 4-year-old daughter, forced the toddler’s teen sister to help her bury the girl after she died, according to police reports. Charlotte-Mecklenburg County police found the body of Majelic Young in May, but the little girl died months earlier. Majelic’s mother, 31-year-0ld Malikah Dianne Bennett, has been charged with first-degree murder, child abuse, inflicting physical injury, and concealing a death. According to a warrant filed in the case, Majelic’s 13-year-old sister told investigators that the toddler was forced to stand in the laundry room as punishment in August 2020. The girl was not allowed to sit or leave the room for three days — until she was so weak she fell out the back door and her head slammed onto the ground. The sister said Majelic’s breathing was erratic after that, and she died on that day.Joining Nancy Grace Today: Lucille Puckett - Civil Rights Activist, NAACP Charlotte Member, Spoke with Victim's Father, Wendy Patrick - California prosecutor, Author: “Red Flags” www.wendypatrickphd.com 'Today with Dr. Wendy' on KCBQ in San Diego Dr. Jorey Krawczyn - Police Psychologist, Adjunct Faculty with Saint Leo University; Research Consultant with Blue Wall Institute, Author: Operation S.O.S. - Practical Recommendations to Help “Stop Officer Suicide” (July 2021) bw-institute.com Dr. Michelle Dupre - Forensic Pathologist and former Medical Examiner, Author: “Homicide Investigation Field Guide” & "Investigating Child Abuse Field Guide", Former Police Detective Lexington County Sheriff’s Department Karen L. Smith - Forensic Expert, Lecturer at the University of Florida, Host of Shattered Souls Podcast, @KarensForensic, barebonesforensic.com Trish Williford - Anchor/Reporter, WCCB Charlotte, TrishWilliford.com, Twitter: @TrishWCCB, Facebook: Trish Williford Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Do you have a particular picture of your child or your niece or your nephew, your grandchild, a little sister, brother that is especially dear to you? Because I do. And as I'm talking, I can think about pictures of the twins, specific pictures I've taken over the years. They're 13, that are etched in my memory. Well, I've got another picture etched in my memory. It's a four-year-old little girl out of North Carolina. Her name is Majella Young, four years old, nicknamed Jelly. I'm never going to forget her face. I, like many people that love her,

will never get to see her grow up. I guess unless I do an age progression photo. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. We cover crime and justice, unsolved homicides, missing people, every single day, in the hope that we can bring about change. And let's start with Jelly. Take a listen to our friends at the Charlotte Metro PD. This investigation began early Friday morning, about 4 o'clock in the morning.

Officers were called out to a residence in the 2700 block of Braden Drive. Someone reported that they believed that a 4-year-old girl had been missing for some time. We got the dignity investigation. This four-year-old victim, a magellic young, we can identify for you now. People who knew and loved her knew her as Jelly, had not been seen since going to visit her mother last September. Specifically, that's Lieutenant Brian Crum speaking there from the Charlotte Metro PD. Take a listen to more of what Lieutenant Crum has to say.

So when officers get to the house, they speak with a resident there. They start having some concerns about the information that they're getting. They contact the missing persons unit who initiates a missing persons investigation to find out where Majelic is. Very quickly, they became concerned that there may be foul play involved. So they contacted the homicide unit and we also brought in the crimes against children unit. So this is really a full court press to find out where Majelic was. We knew we needed to determine where she was at. Certainly that's concerning when no one can account for a child for that period of time. How does a child just seemingly disappear and nobody knows for weeks and weeks that she hasn't been seen? Thinking about four-year-old Majelik Young. How does time pass and nobody notices she's gone? Where's mommy? Where's

daddy? Where's grandma or auntie, brother, sister? Where are they? Where's the neighbors? Where are the people at church or at school or at camp? Nobody notices she's not at the supper table at night? She doesn't run into the kitchen in the morning? Does that strike you odd? It strikes me as a lot more than odd. Again, I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us at Fox Nation and Sirius XM 111. Let me introduce to you an all-star panel of experts

to break it down and put it back together again. Wendy Patrick, California prosecutor, author of Red Flags. You can find her at Wendy Patrick PhD and on Today with Dr. Wendy. And that's at KCBQ San Diego. Dr. Jory Croson, police psychologist, faculty, St. Leo University research consultant and author of Operation SOS, Practical Recommendations to Help Stop Officer Suicide. Dr. Michelle Dupree, well-known forensic pathologist, former medical examiner, author of Homicide Investigation Field Guide, and to top it all off, former police detective Karen Smith, forensic expert, lecturer, University of Florida, founder and star of Shattered Souls podcast. And you can find her at Karen's Forensics. Trish Williford, anchor reporter, WCCB Charlotte.

You can find her at TrishWilliford.com. And very special guest joining us, Lucille Puckett, activist who has spoken in depth with this child's father. I want to go first to you, Trish Williford, joining us, WCCB Charlotte. What leads police to go to the home where we believe Jelly had been living? There have been phone calls. A member of DSS called 911 and said, please go find little Majellic Young.

Had nobody reported her missing, Trish Williford? Because that's where I look to mommy and daddy, grandma, auntie, uncle. They didn't report her missing? And now we're hearing reports where the child's father pleaded with CMPD. We're hearing reports from family members that the child's father reached out to the media, possibly even DSS, but it wasn't until nine months later that a DSS worker asked police to go and check on the welfare of this child at this Northwest Charlotte home. Trish Willifer, WCCB. You said CMPD. I assume you're referring to Charlotte Metro Police Department. Charlotte Mecklenburg Police.

Mecklenburg. Charlotte Mecklenburg Police. Okay. And did I also get it correct? Nine months passed after daddy raises the alarm, raises the flag, before anyone went to investigate? Apparently, that was the situation because, you know, according to the search warrants, Majelic began living with her mother, Malika Bennett, in August of 2020. When was she last seen?

Do we know that? The last date she was seen by anybody outside of that home? It was in August of 2020. Guys, just who is this beautiful little girl that's stuck in my head now forever? Take a listen to our friends at Crime Online. A smart, happy diva who loved lip gloss and unicorns. That's how family members describe Majellic Young. The four-year-old's aunts say the little girl also loved pancakes and she and her cousins who were as close as siblings would get syrup everywhere whenever they had them. Majelik's

parents shared custody and last fall it was time for a swap. I don't like where it's going at all. I'm just thinking about this little girl, smart, happy, a quote diva, and I assume that's meant in the best light possible, who loves lip gloss and unicorns. That reminds me so much of my little girl. And my son loves pancakes. And no matter where he eats, you will find syrup and crumbs not far away. I'm just thinking about this all-American little girl, nicknamed Jelly. And I'm looking at her picture right now. She has got the most beautiful braids

in her hair, all matching, of course, big brown eyes and a perfect little smile. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. We're talking about a four-year-old little girl nicknamed Jelly. And I can tell by looking at her bottom teeth, she hasn't even gotten all of her grown-up teeth yet. Guys, I want you to take a listen to our friends at Fox 46. But first, I find that highly, highly unusual. To Wendy Patrick, California prosecutor, author of Red Flags,

I just don't understand how a child can, quote, slip through the cracks of the system when the alarm has been sounded. It takes nine months to go check. The reality is, let's get real, Wendy. A child doesn't fall through the cracks. Somebody screws up. Somebody screwed up when the dad started looking for her and did not do their job. That's not whoops, fell through the cracks. Somebody effed up. That's right, Nancy. Children do not fall through the cracks, even when they're four. Now, initially people say, oh, a four-year-old, they're not showing up to work every day or necessarily even school at that age.

Nonetheless, there are friends, family, siblings, there are so many other ways to keep track of children, even if they themselves aren't regularly appearing in some outside location. And that would especially be true with lots of children in the house. And then add to that, Nancy, the reality that the father's already sounded the alarm. So you have lots of facts and circumstances here that should have led to action much sooner than it did. Trish Willifer, WCCB Charlotte. This was in August, but when do students go back to school in North Carolina? They go back to school in August.

So at age five, wouldn't she have been going to pre-K? Isn't there mandatory pre-K? She should have been. Or K? She should have been in school. Pre-K. And nobody from the school said, hey, Jelly's not here. Where's Majellica Young? Our understanding is no one from the school system sounded the alarm saying that little Jelly was not in school. What is going on in North Carolina? Don't they have a school roster for Pete's sake? I mean, am I missing something?

Was she not registered? Did nobody know she should be in at least K or pre-K? At age four years old, she should have been registered for pre-K. And no neighbors, nobody at church, a babysitter, an auntie, and nothing. Nobody said a word. And then when dad did say something, police didn't go. Do I understand that correct, Lucille Puckett? Well, Jellie was just four, and it's during COVID. So it was a different kind of setting this last past year. She was not yet due in school.

She did not mandatorily have to be enrolled in school. Okay. Yeah. All right. I see that. I see that. You're right. During COVID.

Okay, guys. Police. I see that. I see that. You're right. During COVID. Okay, guys, police, finally go to the scene where Jelly was last seen. Take a listen to our friends at CrimeOnline.com. Majelic Young was last seen alive in September of last year. Over the next few months, Young's father voiced concerns to authorities. When Malika Diane Bennett was asked about her daughter, she would say the four-year-old was with another family member. Yet as the months pass, Bennett is very active on social media, acting if she doesn't know where Majelic is. A Child Protective Services caseworker called 911 and police are sent to perform a welfare check in May.

Police say Bennett tells them she dropped Majelik off with another relative in August and has not seen her since. To Trish Williford, anchor reporter WCCB Charlotte, what does that mean? Our friends at Crime Online say mom sends Jelly to some relatives on her side, of her blood relatives, but then she goes on social media where she's very active and acts as if she doesn't know where Jell-O is. What was she putting online? She was posting a lot of pictures of herself posing in, you know, her front yard, it appears.

Just, you know, seemingly going on with her life as if nothing had happened. Now, let me understand. Before I tear up the mom, the mom is saying Jelly's with relatives. So if she's with relatives, why should she be concerned? Or are you saying cops are looking for Jelly, mom can't locate Jelly, and she's not concerned. During the times of these posts, we understand that the child's father had been trying to go to different homes to locate Malika Bennett and had been going to police to ask for help. At the same time, Malika is saying she's with other relatives. Got it.

And so nobody can quite pin down where is the baby. And nobody can pin that down. Yeah. To you, Dr. Jory Crawson, psychologist, faculty, St. Leo University, sounds a lot like another case we all are familiar with, and that would be top mom Casey Anthony. Remember, everybody's looking for little Kelly. And finally, top mom Casey Anthony says, oh, yeah, I've been looking for her, too.

She's with the babysitter, Zenaida Gonzalez. Yeah. Which was entirely not true. Very similar here. And you notice at some point in time, mother does come out with that kind of a response. Like, you know, I gave her to somebody and she's been gone now. I think it was what, several months she gave her and she's still not concerned about where the child is or any physical, you know, eyes on. So, Wendy Patrick, why can't we just haul mommy in and say, what aunt? What home? Where'd you leave her?

Yeah. As soon as you find out that she potentially is a suspect, that's normally what exactly you would expect to happen and start asking questions right away. And so one of the things I'm sure, at least I hope we're going to determine between now and the time we have our next update on this is why that wasn't done. Because you would think that would be one of the first things you would do, not something you do nine months later. Well, I also believe it has a little something to do with the right to remain silent. Unless someone, if someone is under suspicion, and they've been named a target, you can't question them without a lawyer if they want one. But the mom is telling them upon their questioning, she took her to a relative.

It's not all fitting together for me, Karen Smith. No, none of this fits together. You have a missing four-year-old. That sounds alarm bells to law enforcement. If you have the father who apparently was calling law enforcement saying, I haven't seen my daughter in X amount of time, that should set off a red flag for law enforcement to go to the last known location of this four-year-old and say, where's Jelly? Where is she? Can you produce her? Give us a phone number of where you dropped her off. What's the address of where you last saw her? All of these things, these are dropped balls.

You're so right. And it's nothing good, Karen Smith. It reminds me of another case we've been covering, cult mom Lori Vallow, who says, oh, JG and Tylee are with relatives in another state. So police leave her home and they go back to the station. They call the relatives and the relatives say, what? They're not here. They go back to call up mom Lori Vallow's house the next day. Every stick of furniture gone along with her. So Lucille Puckett, activist and founder of Take Back Our Hoods, who has been in close contact with Jelly's dad. Lucille, do you believe that Mommy, she really doesn't even deserve that title, actually tried to trick authorities? She did. She did very well.

And I think it was just the fact that Jelly had lived with her dad for four years. So Mom had the perfect story alibi. She would tell her immediate family that jelly had went back home to her dad and when dad was calling to speak even speak to see or get jelly back jelly the mother would say that she's with her family members so she was able to confuse the family or keep them divided by saying that jelly was with one of the other families. The authorities really dropped the ball because Mom had three charges of child abuse. She had been in jail in March of 20. So it really should have raised a red flag if someone's asking about another child of hers that hadn't been seen.

And every case we're talking about, Ms. Puckett, ends in the worst way. Kelly Anthony is found with duct tape around her skull, over her mouth and nose. She's skeletonized. There's no skin left. And JJ and Tylee are found buried in cult mom Lori Vallow's new husband's backyard. One dismembered and burned, the other hermetically sealed and buried. So it's never a good ending when mommy is lying, that we know about, about where the baby is. Guys, take a listen to this. A neighbor's teachers and staff members have made a makeshift memorial by placing balloons and teddy bears near where the four year olds remains were found. The family actually allowed us to see where police discovered her body. And right now

they're asking the community for prayers. Her neighbors tell us they hadn't seen the little girl in several months and became worried about her. Investigators arrived to the scene last night and say they received several tips that indicated file play may have been involved. Now, police have not mentioned how the girl may have died, nor have they mentioned a motive. Right now, police are working to identify the four-year-old's remains and say they will release her name afterwards. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Guys, we are talking about the disappearance of a beautiful four-year-old little girl. And I am not going to let her case go unnoticed. Why this has not been a top story in every national paper and website, I don't know. But while we're all so busy, worried about what's happening up in Washington,

D.C., can we worry a moment about our own children? To Trish Williford, anchor reporter WCCB, where was Majelik's body found? Majelik's body was found on May 20th, 2021, nine months after she disappeared in her mother's backyard. Lucille Puckett in the backyard. How obvious is that a place to look? And listen, I'm just a shrink. I'm not an MD psychiatrist, but Lucille Puckett to put dirt on your child's face, bury her in the backyard, I guess, in the middle of the night? What kind of a monster would do something like that? Not a mother, definitely. And it wasn't even 20 feet from the back door. And for the grandfather to say that, you know, he was mowing that lawn and mowing over his grandchild, not knowing that his granddaughter was there and his daughter not saying a word.

And they had a pit bull to make it so bad that was constantly trying to dig up the body till they got rid of the dog because he would have revealed where that child was laying. Not only for a mother to bury her child, but what the mother did to the child before she even buried her was even more horrific. You know what? You are so right. And let me go to our guest, forensic pathologist, former medical examiner and author of Homicide Investigation Field Guide, Dr. Michelle Dupree. Dr. Dupree, so nine months pass, we think, with this child buried in the backyard. How difficult does it make an autopsy to determine cause of death? I mean, of course, it's going to depend on the condition of the body and being wrapped in trash bags, surprisingly, may actually preserve some of

the evidence and help answer some of the questions that we would want to know. It's going to depend on the decomposition. It's going to depend on how the child was actually killed or murdered. And in this case, it's probably not going to give us a lot of information because there was no indication of trauma per se. But we're still going to look at the body and look at the tissues and take samples of everything. We may even analyze the dirt and the inside of the bags for different clues. Guys, you heard Lucille Puckett allude to what the child went through before she was buried in the backyard. Take a listen to our friends at Crime Online. Court records say Majelik's 13-year-old sister told police that the 4-year-old was being punished.

Bennett forced the girl to stand in the laundry room. She was not allowed to sit down or leave for three days. During that time, the girl defecated in her pants. Young collapsed from exhaustion and fell out the back door of the laundry room, hitting her head. The teen says Majelik had trouble breathing. Then Bennett tried to do CPR. Majelik Young died the same day. Her mother cleaned the body, grabbed two black trash bags, and placed the girl's body inside.

The bags were then stuffed into an SUV for about five days until the odor was unbearable. That's when Bennett bought a shovel and had her 13-year-old daughter help her dig a hole to bury the rotting corpse. Well, it'll be a cold day in H-E-L-L, Dr. Jory Croson, police psychologist, faculty St. Leo and author, that this woman is going to be able to claim insanity because whatever state she portrays herself to be in in court, if that day ever comes, doesn't matter. Insanity under our law is whether you knew right or wrong at the time of the incident. incident, if she knew enough to go buy a shovel, put these remains in trash bags, move them when the odor became overwhelming, and force her 13-year-old to help bury the body, she clearly could form a plan. And hiding the body shows she knew what she did was wrong. Yeah, and you go back to her past behavior with the other abuse charges.

This was leading all up to this. And there's this planning, like you said, there's no insanity. There's no delusion. There's nothing. This is deviant or as evil as you want to put it. This was a plan. And she solicited and basically forced the 13 year old to join in and help her dig the grave. I want to circle back to Lucille Puckett, a special guest joining us today along with Trish Williford. Lucille Puckett, an activist, founder of Take Back Our Hoods, in close contact with Jelly's dad.

Lucille, what exactly is alleged that the mom did to Jelly, her own blood biological mother? What was alleged with Jelly? I mean, her mom, even in one of the warrants, her own blood biological mother. What was alleged with Jelly? I mean, her mom, even in one of the warrants, we see where Jelly was swollen. She had black eyes. And like we already heard,

she had her daughter standing in a corner beside a washing machine for three days. And when Jelly felt weak, not only did she defecate on herself, but she fell out of the back door and she hit her head. Mom tried to administer CPR to Jelly, but what I find even worse in this situation, the grandmother told the mother not to call the police because she would go to jail. Did she not think that the truth was going to come out and her daughter was going to go to jail anyway? And that's why the mother was also arrested. I think the mother should have had even more serious charges with accessories.

To you, Trish Williford, WCCB, what did this child endure before her death? What was she forced to do? And so keep in mind, these are accounts, you know, that we're getting from from Majelic's 13 year old big sister. You know, according to this, this search warrant and according to the warrant, Majelic was actually being punished for having a bowel movement in her pants. Forced to stand up. What is this about? Making her stand up for long periods of time? Forced her to stand up. Explain. Forced, according to the warrants, forced her to stand up in the laundry room

and not allowed to sit or leave for three long days. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. You know, this is not the first time that children have actually died because of physical exertion, enforced physical exertion. I want to tell you about a similar transaction or a couple of them that are very similar to this. First, a little girl named Savannah Hardin. Listen to me questioning WBRC reporter Jonathan Hardison. This is our cut, about another little girl forced exercise till she literally drops dead.

Last Friday afternoon, about three o'clock, nine-year-old Savannah Hardin comes home from elementary school with her grandmother. She was fine when she left school. She gets back to her house, and that's when investigators say the grandmother discovered that at some point, we're not sure exactly when this was, maybe it was Friday, maybe it was the day before, the grandmother found out that Savannah had had a candy bar. Now, she was not supposed to have chocolate, according to the grandmother, 46-year-old Joyce Garrard, because Savannah had a bladder condition that they believed chocolate could exacerbate or make worse. So to punish her, according to investigators, Joyce Garrard began making her grandchild run around the house. And this continued, they say, for about three hours until she collapsed into a seizure about 645.

That's when her stepmom, 26-year-old Jessica Harden, who, by the way, at the time was nine months pregnant, called 911 and said, my stepdaughter is having a seizure. Medics come out to this scene in rural Etowah County, northeast of Birmingham, take her to a local hospital. They decide she's in bad enough condition. They're going to airlift her to Children's Hospital in Birmingham, and that is where she died about noon on Monday. Died of overexhaustion, heat, stroke,

from being forced to run around and around the house holding an armful of logs while Mommy had a cig with grammy up on the front porch watching may they both rot in hell savannah harden's not the only one there's charlie bothiel take a listen our cut 23 this is our friends at fox 2 detroit charlie told investigators he was beaten with a pbc pipe all over from his head and chest to the bottom of his feet, often forcing him to bleed and to the point he was too sore to sit or walk. Police are in the process of testing blood found on that pipe. They seized and a medical evaluation revealed scars on Charlie's chest and buttocks on days. Even after Charlie was allegedly beaten,

the 12 year old claims he was forced to undergo grueling workouts, 5,000 revolutions on the elliptical, 100 push-ups, 500 sit-ups, jumping jacks, and weights twice a day, seven days a week. And if he didn't finish, he would have to do it all over again. So let me ask you to Dr. Dupree, how does a child die of exhaustion? In this case, Jelly was forced to stand in the laundry room and if she got off, she'd be beaten. She would stand there until she defecated in her pants and she got beaten for that. How do you die of physical exertion? Well, Nancy, this is really, it's a very tragic case. The big thing here is she had no food and water. You can only live for maybe three days without water.

And because of this, her body is going to literally shut down. She'll go into shock. She'll be confused. Her heart rate will go up. Her brain will even swell. Eventually, she will pass out, which she likely did and fell out the back door, probably, again, causing other injuries. You cannot go without water for three days, especially a child of this age.

These are not the only cases of excessive exercising forced on children. There's also the case of Emmerich Asuna. Take a listen to our friend Mark Johnson, KTVB 7. The father of a 9-year-old boy who prosecutors say died after months of abuse is not mentally competent to stand trial, but it doesn't mean he's off the hook. Right now, 30-year-old Eric Osuna is facing a first-degree murder charge in the death of his son, Emrick Osuna. Investigators say the boy was beaten and locked in closets and forced to do repetitive exercises, punishment.

They even say he was starved by his stepmother, 28-year-old Monique Osuna. They say the father knew about this but never intervened, adding he later tried to hide the evidence that it ever happened. And to you, Dr. Jory Croson, a psychologist and faculty, St. Leo University. Dr. Jory, I think the street meaning of she had to be crazy to force her four-year-old girl to stand in the laundry room until she defecated in her pants and she got beaten for that. But crazy in vernacular is not crazy under the law. That's correct.

Insanity is a legal term. You don't find that anywhere in the psychological stuff. The ability to know right from wrong is basically the standard, the criteria we look for. And again, she knew right from wrong. Her behavior before and after the crime. So, you know, I couldn't see an insanity defense working at all here. I mean, they may try to rise. And not only that, Trish Williford, WCCB, she had been accused of mistreating the children in the past. What more do we know about what was done to little Jelly before her death?

Well, we do know on two or three occasions that police have arrested Bennett on charges of child abuse. And we do know that one of those episodes included leaving several children home alone for more than 24 hours. Keep in mind, she had eight kids, and she's been charged before. These are still pending uh charges here in mecklenburg county for for child abuse uh previous to this murder charge so nothing happened with those cases and finally there's a dead child lucille puckett i mean it's just one horrible fact after the next and another thing lucille it's reminiscent of cult mom Lori Vallow and top mom Casey Anthony in another way. While their children were, quote, missing, truth, dead at their own hands, they carried on as if nothing was wrong.

Cult mom Lori Vallow shops online, buys a wedding dress, gets married, and goes to move to Hawaii. Top mom Casey Anthony is up dancing on every stripper pole in every bar in town while her daughter is missing, i.e. dead. And here you've got this mom posting online with selfies and photos of herself while her daughter is dead in the backyard. Also posting pictures of her other children, like everything is fine, having birthday celebrations and all that kind of stuff. And the mom was pregnant. During this time that she buried her other child, the mom was pregnant. So what do we know about the cause of death, Lucille?

Well, right now we're still waiting on the autopsy to come back. They say they're waiting on the toxicology report. So in affirmative, we really know nothing. But, you know, preliminary, we know that the baby had two black eyes. She was swollen. And for you to be able to see after eight months nine months um you know still this kind of evidence you know that it had to be very horrific very horrific and for this mother to tell her other seven children that if anybody said anything the same thing would happen to them

so for her other children especially the 13 year olds to live in such fear of dying at their mother's hand can you only imagine can you only imagine and jelly only just wanted to spend time with her mother being raised by her dad for four years and to have to look up at the woman that she loved taking her life and just wanting to go home with her daddy, just wanting to be back where she was safe with her father. What do we believe happened in that laundry room, Trish Williford? What we do know is from that search warrant, again, police interviewed Bennett's 13-year-old daughter that would be Majelic's older sister. She was forced to stand up in the laundry room, not allowed to sit or leave for three days.

Again, the child got so weak, according to the warrant, that she fell out of the back door, hitting her head on the ground. According to the little girl, Majelic's breathing was on and off, on and off, and that she died after three days. We also know, according to this warrant, the girl said that her mom attempted to do CPR, but couldn't. This is after three days. Why was she being forced to stand up in the laundry room and not sit down?

That was her punishment. Punishment for what? For using the bathroom on herself, according to the warrant. Guys, take a listen to our cut for, this is Jamal goss fox 46 cmpd says 31 year old malika bennett has been arrested and is facing charges for the death of her four-year-old daughter police say they found the little girl buried near some woods in the back of her home on braden drive right now bennett is facing several charges including felony child abuse and child abuse and murder and And also, take a listen to this. These are our friends at WCNC Charlotte.

A Charlotte mother accused of killing her 4-year-old daughter and then hiding her remains. The mother now facing multiple charges, including first-degree murder in her daughter's death. Now, according to you, Lucille Puckett, the father is taking this horribly. He can't bring himself to speak of it. Why? Yes, her father, Darren Young, is really going through because he really, you know, in part fought to himself because after raising his daughter for four years and the daughter,

Jelly's wish for her birthday was to spend time and see her mom, and he granted her that wish. And then after her birthday party, she just wanted to spend a little bit more time with her mom, and her mom said, okay, we'll go for an overnight visit. And unbeknownst to him that that would actually be his last time seeing his daughter alive. Darren is just, I mean, he's outside of himself. He has really separated himself from the family. I mean, the family is just like really worried, you know, about him because, I mean, he's, again, outside of himself. And back to you, Trish Williford, what happens next in the

case? Well, Melissa Bennett has been indicted by a grand jury, so we'll just have to wait until it goes to trial. Again, her mother, Tammy Moffitt, is out on bond right now, about a $10,000 bond for each charge. What has happened to the children, specifically the 13-year-old? She forced to help bury the child's body. Well, prior to even them finding the body, the 13-year-old had went to live with her dad because she had started acting out behaviorally. You know, she had started running away. The situation had really started to bother her in her mind. So she's now living with her dad.

And all of the other children are either with their grandparents or with their father. We wait as justice for Majelic unfolds. Nancy Grace Crime Story, signing off. Good night.