Mum, boyfriend arrested after toddler killed and dumped in sewage drain
The mother of a two-year-old girl whose body was found in swamplands in Texas in August has been arrested, along with her boyfriend, for their roles in her death.
Maliyah Bass was reported missing by her family after she played in her apartment complex’s playground on August 22.
A day later, a jogger spotted the girl’s lifeless body in Brays Bayou in an area southeast of the University of Houston that is about 27 kilometers west of Maliyah’s home.
Houston police said on Tuesday that Maliyah’s mother, 20-year-old Sahara Ervin, and her boyfriend, 21-year-old Travion Thompson, have each been charged with injury to a child and tampering with evidence.
Prosecutors allege that Ervin and her boyfriend put Maliyah’s body in a sewage drain after her death. The body then floated about 30km to the swamps where it was later found, KHOU11 reported.
Court documents detailing additional information about the case were not immediately available.
Online records with the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences indicated on Tuesday that a cause of death for Maliyah was still pending in the case.
When Maliyah’s body was found, Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo had said that investigators had suspected foul play and they were treating the case as a murder investigation.
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