POLICE have charged the mother of a missing four-year-old from Memphis after she makes shocking confession about the human remains discovered near their home.
Young Sequoia Samuels was reported missing by her mother, Brittany Jackson, and her mother's boyfriend, Jaylon Hobson, on Thursday morning.
4
4
4
4
But she later confessed to investigators from the Memphis Police Department that her daughter had died weeks before after being attacked by her boyfriend several times, according to the arrest affidavit reviewed by local news station WMC-TV.
When Samuels was unresponsive after the last attack, she and Hobson tried to resuscitate her but did not otherwise seek medical aid, she said.
The couple then allegedly stuffed the corpse inside several garbage bags and stored it inside the house until Thursday, when it was dumped inside a garbage bin near their home where investigators found it.
Jackson had originally told police that she and Hobson had awoken around 6:30am on Thursday to find their front door open and her daughter gone.
Read more about missing persons
Both the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and the MPD issued an endangered child alert and a request for information from the public by that afternoon.
A massive search began around the family's apartment on the 200 block of Caldwell Avenue, with officers and volunteers going door-to-door in search of the missing child.
Police had said that they believed that Samuels left the home alone and began wandering the streets, according to local news station ABC24.
The MPD issued an update on Friday morning cancelling the missing child alert, and the TBI posted an explanation of why the search was canceled.
Most read in The US Sun
"It is with heavy hearts that we share the search for four-year-old Sequoia Samuels has ended as investigators believe she is deceased," they wrote in a post at 10:36am.
"We wish comfort for all of those who knew and loved her," they said, including another photo of the smiling child in the post.
The MPD later released a statement that gave more details about what the police found.
"After several hours of a relentless effort to find missing child Sequoia Samuels, late last night MPD discovered a body believed to be the child's remains," Chief Cerelyn 'CJ' Davis wrote in the statement.
"The remains were found in close proximity to the apartment where Sequoia resided with her family," he wrote.
"However, a positive identity has not been confirmed at this time."
Samuels' mother has been charged with aggravated child neglect, abuse of a corpse and filing a false police report, while Hobson has just been charged with filing a false report.
Jackson and Hobson are both currently in custody.
