Warrant: Mom made daughter bury sister, 4, in backyard

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — The mother of a 4-year-old girl whose remains were found at a North Carolina home last month forced her 13-year-old daughter to help bury her sister in the backyard, according to a search warrant.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg police charged Malikah Bennett, 31, with first-degree murder, felony child abuse, inflicting physical injury and felony concealing a death, The Charlotte Observer reported. Bennett also has three pending misdemeanor child abuse charges from February 2020, according to a search of public records.

Police also arrested and charged Bennett’s mother, Tammy Taylor Moffett, 53, with concealing a death and accessory to murder after the fact, her arrest warrant said.

Officers found the body of Miegellic “Jelli” Young buried outside her mother’s home in Charlotte. The warrant accuses Miegellic’s mother of forcing her to stand in a laundry room for three days as punishment for soiling her pants. She eventually became too weak to stand, fell out the back door and hit her head, the 13-year-old sister told police. The girl told police that Bennett performed CPR on the child, but she died.

Bennett placed Miegellic's body in two black plastic trash bags in the trunk of an SUV, where she remained for five days until the smell became bad, the warrant said. Bennett then drove the SUV to go buy a shovel, and after digging the hole, made the 13-year-old pick up her sister’s body, place it in the ground and cover it with dirt, the search warrant said.