Funeral to be held for slain Fayetteville girl
A community and family will mourn at the Sunday afternoon funeral of a 5-year-old Fayetteville girl who police say was murdered.
Investigators believe that Shaniya Nicole Davis was raped and killed after she was taken from her home early Nov. 10. Her body was found in a patch of kudzu near the Lee-Harnett county line last Monday.
Shaniya will be laid to rest at Manna Church, 5117 Cliffdale Road in Fayetteville, at 3 p.m. The public is invited to attend.
Shaniya's kindergarten classmates at Morganton Road Elementary will be her honorary pallbearers, according to her obituary in the Fayetteville Observer.
"You came into our lives for a little while. You left footprints on our hearts, and we will never be the same," read her obituary.
Shaniya's family described her in the obituary as liking "girly things," such as dress-up, fixing hair and playing with Barbie dolls. But she also liked to get outside and ride on her scooter.
"Shaniya was a happy, loving and friendly little girl. She was a good little helper around the house," the obituary read. Her favorite colors were pink and yellow.
Her surviving family includes two sisters and four brothers.
Mario Andrette McNeill, 29, has been charged with first-degree murder, rape of a child and kidnapping. Shaniya's mother, Antionette Nicole Davis, 25, is also charged with human trafficking, felony child abuse–prostitution, filing a false police report and obstructing a police investigation.
Security video shows a man police believe to be McNeill carrying Shaniya in a Comfort Suites hotel in Sanford on the morning of her disappearance. Preliminary autopsy results show that she was sexually assaulted and asphyxiated.
A memorial fund has been set in Shaniya's memory. Donations can be made to The Shaniya Davis Trust Fund, c/o Wachovia Bank, 4200 Morganton Road, Fayetteville, N.C. 28304.
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Sources: WRAL, CNN, Google Maps
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