Mourners pay tribute to slain 5-year-old. Thousands gather to remember 5-year-old North Carolina girl Shaniya Davis, who police say was abducted, raped and murdered earlier this month. NBC’s Ron Mott reports.
Shaniya's dad: ‘She touched a lot of people’. In an exclusive interview with TODAY’s Meredith Vieira, Brad Lockhart, the father of 5-year-old Shaniya Davis, who was abducted and murdered earlier this month, remembers his daughter and talks about the allegations against her mother.
Basketball star Shaquille O'Neal has paid for the funeral of a 5-year-old North Carolina girl whose kidnapping and slaying received national news coverage.
The Fayetteville Observer in North Carolina reported Thursday that the Cleveland Cavaliers player was touched by the case of Shaniya Davis.
More than 2,000 people attended her funeral Sunday. The girl's body was found Nov. 16 beside a rural road.
Her mother, Antionette Davis, is charged with human trafficking and child abuse involving prostitution. Mario McNeill is charged with murder, rape and kidnapping.
The funeral home declined to say what the service cost.
A Cavaliers official did not return calls from The Associated Press early Thursday. The funeral home declined comment.
The story of what happened to Shaniya Davis has affected thousands of people, including NBA star Shaquille O'Neal, who paid for the slain 5-year-old child's funeral.
"He was very touched by the story, and requested how to get in touch with the family," said a Cleveland Cavaliers spokesperson, who confirmed Wednesday that O'Neal paid for the service.
More than 2,000 people attended Shaniya's funeral at Manna Church on Sunday. She was buried at Fayetteville Memorial Cemetery.
Corey Breece, of Rogers and Breece Funeral Home, would not reveal Wednesday the cost of the child's service. However, he said the cost of a child's funeral "averages around $4,500."
Bradley Lockhart, 39, the child's father, could not be reached for comment. A family friend, Vaughn Eason, said the family was out of town for the holidays.
Shaniya's body was found Nov. 16 in a wooded area off N.C. 87 south of Sanford, six days after she was reported missing by her mother.
Mario McNeill, 29, is charged with first degree kidnapping, murder and rape in the case. McNeill turned himself into police on Nov.13 after he was seen on surveillance video at a Sanford hotel holding Shaniya in his arms.
Antoinette Davis, 25, the child's mother, is charged with human trafficking and child abuse involving prostitution against her daughter.
Davis and McNeill are incarcerated in state prison facilities in Raleigh until their next scheduled court dates.
Davis will appear back in Cumberland County on Dec. 3. McNeill's court date is scheduled for Dec. 9.
"I was sitting at home watching it on the news and the story brought a tear to my eye," Shaq, as he is commonly known, told The Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper on Wednesday night.
He first asked to get in touch with the Lockhart family on Nov. 18, the day after the State Medical Examiner's office confirmed that a child's body found in Lee County on Nov. 16 was in fact Shaniya's.
Bradley Lockhart and his family had setup a trust fund in memory of Shaniya to help raise money to pay for the funeral.
Eason said last week that any leftover funds earmarked for Shaniya's funeral would go to local charities, groups and agencies that help neglected or abused children.
"Being a law enforcement guy that investigates crimes against children, I wanted to be able to help in some way," Shaq told the Cleveland newspaper.
Shaq completed reserve officer's training when he lived in Los Angeles and Miami, the Cavaliers spokesperson said Wednesday. His last certification was in 2005.
Performing random acts of kindness is nothing new for Shaq.
Last year, according to the Cleveland newspaper, he paid for the funeral of NBA Hall of Famer George Mikan.
In 2007, Shaq had his own reality television show, "Shaq's Big Challenge," in which he helped children of middle school age lose weight and live a healthy lifestyle.
He was traded to the Cavaliers this past summer to be their new center. He stands at just more than 7feet tall.
Shaq, who is recovering from a shoulder injury, sat out his sixth consecutive game Wednesday night against the Detroit Pistons.
The father of a North Carolina girl who was kidnapped and killed said Tuesday he made the best decision he could at the time when he let her live with her mother, who has since been charged with prostituting the child.
Bradley Lockhart said during an interview on NBC's "Today Show" that he regrets how the decision turned out, but thought he was making the right choice for the daughter he had raised himself.
"We obviously make decisions in life that sometimes have repercussions or adverse situations that drift from our decision. We just have to continue to believe in God and hope that our decisions are the correct ones," he said.
Lockhart said he last saw Shaniya in early October as he left for an out-of-state work assignment. The girl moved in with Antoinette Davis, 25, about a week later after initially staying with Lockhart's sister, he said.
The father said he spoke to Davis after she reported the girl missing Nov. 10. Police said she was killed the same day. Lockhart said he hasn't spoken to Davis since she was charged last week with human trafficking and child abuse by prostitution of her daughter.
Authorities in Cumberland County said Tuesday that Davis had been moved from the county jail to the North Carolina Correctional Center for Women in Raleigh.
Lockhart said he didn't think he missed any warning signs that Shaniya would be at risk if he accepted Davis's request to help raise the girl. He has said Davis struggled financially over the years, but she had recently gotten a job and her own place.
"I don't think I really missed any (signs). Of course there's always speculation. There's always things you could look at and say, well maybe, maybe not," Lockhart said.
The North Carolina Child Fatality Task Force will review contacts the Cumberland County Department of Social Services had with Davis, who also has a 7-year-old son, The Fayetteville Observer reported Tuesday.
"This is a family that was already known to social service workers down there," task force co-chairman Tom Vitaglione said. "They are all very distraught about the whole thing."
The task force is charged with investigating every child death in the state, said Kevin Kelley a spokesman for the state's child welfare services. It will not begin looking into the Davis case until all criminal actions have been resolved or until a year after Shaniya's death, whichever comes later, Kelley said.
The task force will look at when local social services workers first contacted the family, the status of the case and whether proper procedures were followed, Vitaglione said. Investigators also will consider the impact of state and local budget cuts on social service agencies, he said.
"Child protective service divisions have been hit particularly hard," Vitaglione said.
Shaniya Davis, the 5-year-old girl who police say was taken from her home and then raped and murdered, was laid to rest Sunday.
More than two thousand people attended the funeral at Manna Church in Fayetteville.
At one point, more than a hundred looked through the windows of the church door because they couldn't get in.
Bradley Lockhart, Shaniya's father, was not scheduled to speak but got up and encouraged the community to not get angry about the situation.
He turned to his daughter's rose-colored casket and said "I know you're going to be waiting for me [in heaven], I'll see you when I get there."
Shaniya's brother, Byron Coleman, got up to speak but was obviously too overcome with emotion to say anything.
Shaniya's aunt, Carey Lockhart-Davis, read a story she wrote for Shaniya.
Brad Lockhart told one of the pastors he wanted this funeral to be a "homegoing" celebration.
Davis disappeared from her home last Tuesday and her body was found in a wooded area just south of Sanford.
Police say Davis was raped and strangled. Mario McNeill, 29, is charged with the crime. He allegedly admitted kidnapping the girl.
Police announced Thursday that Cumberland County will have jurisdiction in the case. The investigation has been tough for veteran detectives.
"And it's still pretty emotional - still up and down," Captain Mark Bidgeman with the Fayetteville Police Department said. "You know, it's one of those things. It's the hardest thing I've ever had to do in my career."
According to court documents, McNeill killed the 5-year-old the same day she was reported missing from her mother's mobile home in Fayetteville.
Shaniya's mother, Antoinette Davis, 25, is charged with human trafficking and child abuse involving prostitution.
McNeill previously was charged with kidnapping. The newest charges against him include first-degree rape of a child and first-degree murder.
McNeill made a court appearance for the new charges on Friday. He could face the death penalty if convicted.
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.
The recent deaths of Shaniya Davis and Tiffany Wright have cast a negative national spotlight on North Carolina's Human Trafficking, Sex Slavery Problem and how poorly NC DSS' System works to protect children. Especially Black Children.
Even Nancy Grace became emotionally involved in the murder case surrounding Shaniya's death.
Hmmm, no offense but I guess Gov. Bev Perdue didn't think these poor Black girls mattered to anyone.
After all they were NOT Caucasian and their families weren't Wealthy.
Wrong!
Black Children are not Slaves or bits of trash to be thrown into shallow graves!
It does matter when a Black Child is Abused, Raped or Murdered, just as it matters when a Caucasian child is Abused, Raped or Murdered because they are ALL still Human Beings made in God's image!
Thank goodness people like Nancy Grace doesn't care about the Ethnicity of a Child. She just cares about the welfare of Children in general.
To make matters worse not only has Nancy Grace gotten involved but Newsweek Magazine recently published a story detailing how when a Black girl or woman is raped or murdered in North Carolina, both the local media and State Officials including the Governor, basically ignores it.
This includes NOT issuing Amber Alerts for Missing Black Children until days after they are reported missing versus immediately when Caucasian Children are reported missing.
Gov. Perdue have you no shame by not addressing this issue?
How many Press Conferences would you have held by now if one of those young girls had been Eve Carson or someone who looks like Eve Carson?
Your silence on the state's Serious Human Trafficking, Sex Slavery Problem and extremely Dysfunctional DSS System is not only making North Carolina look bad, but its making YOU appear very Cold-Hearted.
Your silence also helps to prove that when it comes to Negative Racial Relations (Caucasian vs Minorities) the South hasn't changed...much.
Gov Perdue I understand your schedule is quite busy however if you really cared couldn't you have sent a State Representative to speak on your behalf?
Why can't I just forget about all of this or ignore it? (like North Carolina State Officials do)
When I was a young girl I too was brutally raped (by a neighbhorhood "friend"), almost to the point of death.
God's Mercy is the only reason why I didn't end up like Shaniya Davis or Tiffany Wright.
The individual who raped me stole my innocence, my self-esteem and my trust of adults.
While I was able to rebuild my Confidence level, unfortunately many Women never do.
Perhaps now you'll understand why I can't ignore such sensitive issues as Child Abuse and Statutory Rape.
God will NOT allow North Carolina's Human Trafficking, Sex Slavery Problem and NC's extremely Dysfunctional DSS System to remain hidden.
Nor is he going to allow the numerous unsolved Murders of Black Women/Black Children killed in NC to remain hidden.
North Carolina your dirty laundry is being aired as it relates to how this state treats Black Women and Black Children.
You've been busted!
Since ignoring this problem is no longer an Option, going forward what are you going to do about it?
God will use your deaths to show the World that North Carolina is a still deeply Racist, Southern State.
I could also talk about North Carolina's Racially Segregated Public Schools and how wide the Achievement gap is between Minority Students and Caucasian Students, however that's a different topic.
In reference to North Carolina's current "reputation" I'm not proud of these embarrassing facts. Are you Gov Perdue?
Murder and rape charges will be filed against a North Carolina man in the death of 5-year-old Shaniya Davis, police said Thursday.
Mario Andrette McNeill had already been charged with kidnapping the Fayetteville, North Carolina, girl. She was reported missing last week, and her body was found Monday beside a road near Sanford, about 30 miles northwest of Fayetteville.
Preliminary autopsy results indicate the child was asphyxiated, Fayetteville Police Chief Tom Bergamine told reporters Thursday, but testing is still being completed and a final report has not been issued.
McNeill will be charged with first-degree murder and rape of a child, Bergamine said. The new arrest warrants were being served Thursday night.
The girl's mother, Antoinette Nicole Davis, has been charged with human trafficking and other offenses. Police have said they believe Davis was prostituting the child.
According to police, surveillance video taken November 10 from a hotel in Sanford, North Carolina, shows Shaniya in the company of McNeill.
Authorities had said Wednesday they would need to determine where Shaniya was killed before filing additional charges. Fayetteville is in Cumberland County, while Sanford is in Lee County. Bergamine said Thursday jurisdiction in the case would remain in Cumberland County. "We started it from the beginning and wanted to finish it out," he said.
Police still are not sure exactly where Shaniya was killed, Bergamine said. Police earlier had said they believe the child was alive when she left the hotel.
"Current charges on Ms. Davis are standing as they are right now," Bergamine said. But he told reporters the investigation was ongoing.
He and other officers spoke about the emotional toll the investigation has taken on them. Grief counseling has been under way for officers at the department, he said.
"It's been a tough case," said Fayetteville Police Capt. Charles Kimball, the toughest in his 14 years, he said. "Our mission was to find Shaniya and we did it."
"This case here has reached out and touched all of us," Bergamine said.
Shaniya's father, Bradley Lockhart, made a tearful appeal before reporters Tuesday afternoon, asking that "everybody makes it a point not to ignore, to look past a situation where a person, a child, or anybody might be in danger ... so that we don't have another tragedy like Shaniya."
The girl went to her mother's last month, he said.
What happened to Shaniya Davis shouldn't have happened. The 5-year-old giggly cherub should be alive and looking forward to first grade next year. Instead, despite hopes, prayers and a legion of searchers, her lifeless body was pulled from a thicket of kudzu along the border of Lee and Harnett counties, 30 miles from Fayetteville.
Police are still trying to piece together what happened to the little girl who disappeared from her Fayetteville home a little more than a week ago. But they think they know part of the story.
They've arrested Shaniya's mother, Antoinette Davis, who reported the youngster missing. Police have charged Davis with human trafficking, felony child abuse and making a false report. Mario McNeill, caught on a surveillance video carrying Shaniya toward an elevator at a motel in Sanford the morning she was reported missing, was arrested and charged with kidnapping.
The charges are horrifying, particularly those against the mother. Mothers are supposed to love and cherish their children, not push them into sexual servitude.
Davis' relatives don't believe she's involved, and it's still early in the investigation. But if the charges are proven to be true, Davis would be as responsible for her daughter's death as anyone else involved - and would deserve to be treated as such.
Sadly, human trafficking is not unusual in North Carolina. If Shaniya is a victim of it, she joins thousands of others law enforcers suspect are being victimized. Last month, the Observer reported Charlotte has become a center for sex trafficking along the East Coast. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has now stationed agents here to focus on human trafficking, smuggling and exploitation.
Law enforcers say North Carolina is a particularly attractive site for sex trafficking due, in part, to the presence of military bases, interstates and a large immigrant population. N.C. lawmakers were concerned enough to approve a bill in 2007 making human trafficking a felony offense and offering state assistance to victims.
We repeat what we said last month about human trafficking. It is a vile, loathsome activity that we must all work to rid our communities and state of. If you suspect trafficking, abuse or sexual exploitation, report it immediately.
Yet even if Shaniya's case turns out not to have involved human trafficking, something went terribly wrong for her to have turned up dead just a month after going to live with a mother with a troubled past. Shaniya's father, Bradley Lockhart, is anguished and regrets giving the girl's mother a chance to raise the daughter he had custody of for five years. But she had a job and seemed to be getting her life together. He had no crystal ball to tell him things would turn out so badly so quickly.
Still Shaniya's death is a warning to all adults of the critical responsibility we share for the safety and well-being of children. We must be vigilant and look for signs that parents or others might be putting kids in harm's way. We must be willing to report our suspicions of wrongdoing, even about those close to us.
Happy, giggling, caring little girls like Shaniya deserve every chance to become happy, caring adults. We've got to do more to help them get that chance.
A teenage girl on her way to a friend's house Sunday disappeared in Gastonia, and police are asking for the public's help in finding her.
Authorities say 15-year-old Kenesha Sanders of Gastonia left her house to visit a friend. But she never arrived there, and hasn't been seen or heard from since.
Police say Kenesha is 4-feet-3 inches tall and weighs 85 pounds. They haven't said whether they suspect foul play.
Anyone with information about her whereabouts is asked to call Gastonia Police Detective Marty Smith at 704-866-6939 or 704-866-6702.
A week after a 5-year-old Fayetteville girl disappeared and a day after her body was found near Sanford, police are still trying to sort out the evidence in the case to determine who to charge in her death.
Shaniya Nicole Davis was reported missing from her home, at 1116-A Sleepy Hollow Drive, by her mother last Tuesday morning. Volunteer searchers found her body Monday afternoon in some woods off N.C. Highway 87 near the Lee-Harnett county line.
Two people have been arrested in Shaniya's disappearance – charges against a third person were dropped – but no one has been charged with killing her.
Lee County authorities have referred all questions to the Fayetteville Police Department. The department has a news briefing scheduled for 10 a.m. Wednesday, but it's unclear whether new charges will be announced then.
Police arrested Mario Andrette McNeill, 29, on Friday and charged him with first-degree kidnapping in the case. Investigators said McNeill has admitted to taking Shaniya from her home, and hotel security video from a Comfort Suites in Sanford last Tuesday shows the girl being carried by a man believed to be McNeill.
Shaniya's mother, Antoinette Nicole Davis, 25, was arrested late Saturday and charged with human trafficking, felony child abuse–prostitution, filing a false police report and obstructing a police investigation. Arrest warrants state that Davis "did knowingly provide Shaniya with the intent that she be held in sexual servitude" and she "did permit an act of prostitution with Shaniya."
After those arrests, police wouldn't comment on Shaniya's whereabouts. On Sunday, investigators received "reliable information" that Shaniya's body had been dumped off N.C. 87, which led to an extensive search of the area and the discovery of a child's body.
The body was removed from the woods late Monday and sent to the State Medical Examiner's Office in Chapel Hill to determine a cause of death. The medical examiner confirmed Tuesday that the body was Shaniya's.
Police wouldn't say whether McNeill, who is described as a former boyfriend of Davis, provided the information that prompted the search, but they made clear Monday that the information didn't come from an outside tip.
Both McNeill and Davis are being held in isolation at the Cumberland County Detention Center for their protection, authorities said.
Authorities confirmed Tuesday that Davis is pregnant and that Clarence Coe is the father of the child.
Davis initially accused Coe of kidnapping Shaniya, but police dismissed the charge and released him from jail after determining the information to be false and then arresting McNeill. Father to speak with media
Shaniya's father, Bradley Lockhart, plans to speak with reporters at his Fayetteville house at 4 p.m. Tuesday.
Lockhart attended a candlelight vigil for Shaniya Monday night and cried out as people held him up.
"Lord, I come to you with open arms, and it is hard. It is hard," Lockhart said, his legs shaking and tears in his eyes as he spoke to the crowd of about 500. “Don’t give up on me, and don't give up on Shaniya."
During a Monday morning interview on CBS' "Early Show," he said he and his sister had been caring for Shaniya until a few weeks ago, when she went to live with her mother. Davis had worked to get her life together and had been working for at least six months and gotten a place of her own, he said.
"She had asked if she could be a mother, and I felt she was sincere in asking, and I figured to give her a chance," he said.
Cumberland County Schools officials said Shaniya was a kindergarten student at Morganton Road Elementary School until October, when she was taken out of the school and wasn't enrolled elsewhere. No reason was given for the move.
A search of court records turned up no previous criminal charges against Davis, but she has been investigated by the Cumberland County Department of Social Services.
Her uncle, Michael Davis, said DSS looked at her with regard to her 7-year-old son, not Shaniya. The case was closed, and Antoinette Davis was able to retain custody of the boy, her uncle said.
DSS Director Brenda Jackson has declined to comment on her agency's involvement with the Davis family.
Antoinette Davis worked in the kitchen at Carolina Inn at Village Green, an assisted living facility in Fayetteville.
CES, a South Carolina-based staffing company that has a contract with Carolina Inn, hired her in June 2008 after an extensive background check, an official said. She had a good employment record at both Carolina Inn and the Haymount Nursing Rehabilitation Facility, but she is no longer employed by the company, the official said.
Authorities in North Carolina say they have found the body of a 5-year-old girl who disappeared a week ago.
Fayetteville Police spokeswoman Theresa Chance told The Associated Press on Monday that searchers found the body of Shaniya Davis off a road southeast of Sanford in the central part of the state.
Two people have been charged in Shaniya's disappearance, including her 25-year-old mother, Antoinette Davis. Police have charged Davis with human trafficking and felony child abuse, saying Shaniya was offered for prostitution. Davis was due in court Monday afternoon.
Authorities have also charged 29-year old Mario Andrette McNeill, who was seen in surveillance footage carrying Shaniya at a Sanford hotel.
Shaniya's mother reported her missing last Tuesday.
Authorities have said McNeill admitted taking the girl, though his attorney said he will plead not guilty to the charge. Police have not said if McNeill and Davis knew each other.
Shaniya's father, Bradley Lockhart, said he raised his daughter for several years but last month decided to let her stay with her mother.
"I should've never let her go over there," he told The Associated Press on Saturday.
The movie sensation "Precious" ends with the line "for precious girls everywhere." Director Lee Daniels's story of Precious, a poor, abused, illiterate and overweight African American teenager, is indeed a tribute to the forgotten girls living at the edges of U.S. society. When was the last time that a teen mother in Harlem, raped and impregnated by her father, brutally abused and exploited by her mother, and left behind by a dysfunctional educational system, emerged as the hero of any movie -- especially a movie with a high-profile cast that is generating Oscar buzz?
I cannot recall another opportunity raised by popular culture that invited us to thoughtfully address the largely hidden issues of incest, violence and girls at the margins. As the executive director of a national organization that works to raise awareness about and to reduce violence against vulnerable women and girls, I am moved and grateful that attention is finally being paid to our forgotten girls.
But this movie is in many ways a fairy tale. The character Precious gets to be saved by a caring caseworker and a loving teacher. In real life, poor, undereducated and sexually victimized girls are most likely to end up in the juvenile justice system.
I see it all the time. There is the 13-year-old who became pregnant to stop her uncle from raping her -- a girl whom I met not at an incest survivors group but in a girls' detention facility. Or the girl raped so many times by age 13 that she feels worthy of being prostituted and cannot see a life for herself beyond jail. Or the girl who was kidnapped by a pimp, repeatedly raped by him, prostituted by him -- only to be arrested and placed behind bars for prostitution.
Girls in the United States are subject to violence with horrifying frequency. One in three American girls will experience sexual violence by age 18, regardless of race or class. Girls ages 16 to 19 across the ethnic and economic spectrum are four times more likely than others to be victims of rape, attempted rape or sexual assault. No girl is safe from being raped, exploited or abused.
Yet when girls in economically stable families are hurt by sexual violence, the protective layers of functional schools, safe neighborhoods and access to mental-health services tend to buffer them from further exploitation. For girls at the margins, sexual violence often funnels them into the criminal justice system.
Sex Trafficking or running away from abusive homes and foster-care placements are the primary reasons for girls' incarceration. These girls are not being detained for violent offenses or because they are becoming gang-bangers or murderers. Girls are ending up behind bars after the damage they endure from rape and sexual abuse. A recent Oregon Social Learning Center Study of Chronically Delinquent girls found that the median age of the first sexual encounter among detained girls was 7.
The judges sentencing these girls to detention aren't necessarily another bad guy in their stories. Often, judges don't want to return girls to abusive homes or to a ruthless pimp, so they detain the girls as a way to keep them safe.
Unfortunately, detained girls often endure sexual violence and exploitation behind bars. Many girls are placed in solitary confinement, where self-mutilation often occurs. Some facilities require girls to shower in front of male guards or subject them to cross-gender strip searches. Girls in detention facilities are also routinely sexually coerced or abused by staff. While girls make up only 11 percent of the population of state-operated juvenile facilities, they account for 34 percent of the victims of sexual violence in these facilities.
There are few model programs for vulnerable and abused girls. So the vast majority of abused girls don't have access to trauma-recovery residential programs, comprehensive mental health services or safe alternatives to detention. They are expected to simply "deal with it" -- as if there is something inevitable about being poor, female and abused.
I hope that Lee Daniels's movie will change how girls at the margins are treated. Maybe, at long last, they will be considered precious girls -- who deserve love, safety and healing. I hope this because right now, these precious girls everywhere are denied the happy endings of Hollywood movies.
FAYETTEVILLE Authorities in North Carolina say they are now searching for the body of a missing 5-year-old girl.
Fayetteville Police spokeswoman Theresa Chance said Monday officers are searching along a central North Carolina highway based on "reliable information" that indicated the body of Shaniya Davis may have been dumped there.
About 200 searchers fanned across several miles southeast of Sanford. Some walked along roads, ravines and fields while others drove on four-wheelers.
Shaniya has been missing since Nov. 10. Her mother, 25-year-old Antoinette Davis, has been charged with human trafficking and felony child abuse. Police have also charged 29-year old Mario Andrette McNeill, who was seen in surveillance footage carrying Shaniya at a Sanford hotel.
Authorities acted on a tip Sunday and searched a wide area in south-central N.C. trying to find Shaniya. Capt. Charles Kimble of the Fayetteville Police Department said several agencies spent the day looking for signs of Shaniya between Spring Lake and Sanford, which are about 25 miles apart. The N.C. Highway Patrol sent a helicopter to aid in the search, Lt. Everett Clendenin said.
Kimble would not elaborate on what information officers had received. They suspended the search at dark. The area included woods and some homes, police said.
Earlier Sunday, authorities arrested Antoinette Nicole Davis, Shaniya's mother. The charges against Davis are related to her daughter's disappearance, said Theresa Chance, a spokeswoman for Fayetteville police.
Shaniya hasn't been seen since Tuesday, when a surveillance camera recorded the man charged in her kidnapping carrying the girl into a hotel room.
According to arrest documents cited by The Fayetteville Observer, Davis "knowingly provide(d) Shaniya Davis with the intent that she be held in sexual servitude" and she "permit(ted) an act of prostitution."
Shaniya had only been living with her mother since last month. Davis reported the girl missing Tuesday morning from a mobile home community in Fayetteville, and authorities began searching nearby wooded areas.
Camera footage showed Mario Andrette McNeill carrying Shaniya into a hotel room, and he was arrested and charged with kidnapping on Friday. A kidnapping charge against a man described as Davis' boyfriend was dropped.
Authorities have said McNeill admitted to taking the girl, though his attorney says he will plead not guilty to the charge. They have not said if McNeill and Davis knew each other.
Police said a hotel worked spotted a child matching Shaniya's description at the hotel in Sanford, about 40 miles from Fayetteville. Relatives helped confirm that the child on the recording was Shaniya.
Fayetteville police officer Brian Gainey said Davis did not have an attorney and was scheduled to appear in court today.
Shaniya's father, Bradley Lockhart, told The Associated Press that he raised his daughter for several years but last month decided to let her stay with her mother.
"I should've never let her go over there," he said Saturday.
A North Carolina man has admitted to kidnapping a 5-year-old girl, authorities said Friday, but investigators still have not found the child more than three days after she disappeared from a mobile home park.
Mario Andrette McNeill, 29, admitted to taking Shaniya Davis, said Fayetteville Police Department spokeswoman Theresa Chance. He was charged with kidnapping while authorities dropped charges against another man, Clarence Coe, who was initially arrested in the case.
"We're hoping we find her alive," Chance said at a news conference. "We found Mr. McNeill, and Miss Davis was not with him."
Surveillance footage had showed McNeill carrying Shaniya into a hotel room on Tuesday morning, when she was reported missing from a mobile home park. A hotel worker called police to report seeing a child matching Shaniya's description, but by the time police got there, McNeill had left.
McNeill faces a first court appearance Friday afternoon.
Investigators had used police dogs but could not pick up the child's scent during a search of the neighborhood. They found a blanket that may have belonged to Shaniya in a garbage can outside a neighbor's home.
Shaniya's father, Bradley Lockhart, made a tearful appeal Thursday for his daughter's safe return.
"Shaniya, if you're listening to daddy, I miss you so much, honey," he said. "I'm waiting for you. I'm not going to give up. You don't give up either, honey."
Cumberland County authorities say foul play is suspected in the disappearance of Shaniya Nicole Davis. The 5-year-old girl went missing from her home, 1116-A Sleepy Hollow Drive in Fayetteville, Tuesday morning.
An Amber Alert was initiated for Shaniya just before noon, Lt. David Sportsman said.
Police responded to the home around 6:50 a.m., and Shaniya's mother told officers that she last saw her daughter at 5:30 a.m. The mother’s boyfriend and her sister, along with an infant and Shaniya's 7-year-old brother were also in the home when the girl went missing.
“There is definitely something not right about the situation. Foul play is suspected,” Fayetteville police spokeswoman Theresa Chance said Tuesday evening.
It is unclear how the child left the home.
"The circumstances surrounding her disappearance are very odd. A 5-year-old usually...(is) not awake at 5:30 a.m. normally, and they just wouldn't leave their home," Chance said. "If she would have wandered out of her home, she would be around here somewhere."
Chance said the family has a history with the Department of Social Services.
"There have been major DSS issues with this family – who has custody, switching back and forth," Chance said.
Chance said it's unknown whether the child's disappearance is related to those issues. Police said Shaniya's father flew in from out of state Tuesday afternoon and was talking to investigators.
"We're treating this as a child in danger, with the information we have," Chance said.
Chance said police have been called to the home before. This summer, officers served a search warrant at the home and found a variety of drugs inside.
The family was not allowed inside the home Tuesday evening after it was deemed a health hazard due to extensive sewage leaks, authorities said.
Police K-9s, firefighters and sheriff's deputies searched the area throughout the day Tuesday.
“We are searching for her and hoping to find her alive, but we just don't know at this point,” Chance said.
Chance noted that search dogs did not pick up Shaniya's scent, which they would have if the child was wandering around outside.
Shaniya is described as 3 feet tall and 40 pounds. She has brown hair and brown eyes. She was last seen wearing a blue T-shirt with pink underwear. She is thin and has a scar on her foot.
Fayetteville police say three registered sex offenders live in the neighborhood. Theresa Chance said the offenders, along with everyone else in the neighborhood, have been interviewed.
The sex offenders are not considered suspects, Chance said.
Anyone with information is urged to call Fayetteville police at 910-433-1856 or call or call 911 or *HP.
A Mooresville man who sparked an Amber Alert when he disappeared with his 12-year-old pregnant adopted daughter and her 11-year-old sister now faces rape and incest charges.
Mathew Charles Hess, 40, had already been charged with misdemeanor child abuse and contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile after, authorities say, he took his two adoptive daughters to Tennessee despite the condition of the daughter who was nine months pregnant.
Now he faces additional charges in Lincoln County - indecent liberties with a child, first-degree rape and felony incest between near relatives. Details of the charges were unavailable. Authorities haven't said whether they believe Hess is the father of the older daughter's baby.
Hess and his wife, who is the girls' biological mother, are separated, authorities said. The girls were living with Mathew Hess in Lincoln County when the older girl became pregnant.
The Observer published the girls' names when they were the subject of a large-scale search, but is not naming them now because authorities say at least one was a victim of a sex-related crime.
Authorities believe Hess drove away with his daughters on Sept. 24 after leaving a note for his wife saying he was taking them to school. The girls' mother called authorities soon after, when the pregnant daughter didn't show up for a doctor's appointment.
Last week when the pregnant girl missed an important medical procedure, authorities issued a nationwide Amber Alert.
A motorist in Tennessee who saw the alert on an interstate sign recognized the family's faded green Ford Explorer and called the Tennessee Highway Patrol on Wednesday. Less than half an hour later, the search was over. Social services took temporary custody of the girls.
Two members of the Iredell Sheriff's Office's warrant squad drove to Tennessee on Friday and brought Hess back to North Carolina. His first court date for the Iredell County charges is Nov. 16 in Statesville.
Now, he's in Iredell jail under a $12,000 bond. He's also deemed a flight risk because of the charges in Lincoln County.
Tiffany Wright stood alone in the dark, waiting for her school bus.
It was just before 6 a.m., and her foster grandmother had walked back home to get Tiffany's water bottle.
Tiffany, 15, was eight months pregnant but determined to stay on track in school. She wanted to be a lawyer. And after just a few weeks at Hawthorne High, she had impressed teachers as smart and ambitious, despite a difficult childhood.
At 5:51, Tiffany sent a text.
"Wheres the bus?"
One stop away, replied her friend, already on the bus.
At 5:55, as the bus lumbered toward Tiffany's stop, people began calling police to report gunshots.
A school bus dispatcher radioed Tiffany's bus driver: Change course - something's happening ahead.
Tiffany lay dead in the road, shot in the head, that morning, Monday, Sept. 14. Her baby girl was delivered at the hospital and lived a week, but died Sunday.
Nobody's charged in the killings, but police call Tiffany's adoptive brother, Royce Mitchell, a "person of interest."
In the months before she died, local agencies took steps aimed at stabilizing her home life and keeping her safe. But her story exposes failures in the system that was supposed to protect her.
Among the missteps:
•In February, a Mecklenburg court clerk appointed Mitchell as Tiffany's temporary guardian — even though he was a felon who served time in federal prison. He was also tried in 2006 for murder, but found not guilty. And last year, he was accused of domestic violence, though the case was dismissed.
•In July, social workers told police that Mitchell, 36, might have committed statutory rape with Tiffany, but police didn't question him about it for seven weeks, and didn't charge him with the rape until after Tiffany was killed.
•This month, Mecklenburg social services failed to cut off communication between Tiffany, who was in foster care, and Mitchell, said a source close to the investigation.
On the day of Tiffany's killing, Charlotte-Mecklenburg police jailed Mitchell for statutory rape and indecent liberties with a child, naming Tiffany as the victim.
Police defend their work, saying they followed the industry's best practices - which takes time. Police didn't feel a need to rush, they say, because they believed Tiffany was secure, hidden in a foster home with no threat to her safety.
Police say it's hard to prove statutory rape: Of the 262 reports of statutory rape police received over three years, only 16 percent - 42 cases - were accepted by prosecutors.
Experts say statutory rape cases are complicated because they involve victims ages 13, 14 or 15 who often consider themselves voluntary participants in sex with someone at least six years older. So victims can be reluctant to help police.
But child advocates say in cases like Tiffany's, police should act more aggressively. An immediate arrest sends a signal to a suspect and can persuade them to stay away from victims.
"The cases may be difficult to win, but they're not difficult to charge," says Brett Loftis of Charlotte's Council for Children's Rights.
UNCC criminologist Paul Friday says: "Often, nothing is done in these kinds of cases because they're based on improper assumptions about the rationality of someone that age. But the minors are often unaware of disease, birth control and they can be exploited by someone."
Adopted by foster mother
Tiffany first entered the child welfare system as a toddler in Buffalo, N.Y., when her mother lost custody.
She was adopted at 4 by her foster mother, Alma Wright, an older woman with eight grown children, who was excited about raising another child.
One of Wright's grown sons was Royce Mitchell, a star quarterback in high school who'd gone on to play for a semi-pro team in Buffalo. But Mitchell also was indicted in 1999 as part of a drug trafficking ring and went to federal prison.
While he was in prison, authorities also charged Mitchell with an earlier murder, but a jury found him not guilty.
In 2004, Alma and Tiffany left Buffalo for North Carolina, settling near Kings Mountain. Tiffany made friends easily at school and church. She ran track at Bessemer City High School.
In 2007, Mitchell was released from prison and followed his mother to North Carolina.
But last fall, Alma Wright got sick. Friends at church helped out with Tiffany, inviting her for dinners and weekends. Tiffany spent time with Mitchell and his wife, too.
Alma Wright died Jan. 25, and Tiffany moved in with the Mitchells in Charlotte.
On Jan. 30, Royce Mitchell asked a Mecklenburg court to appoint him and his wife as Tiffany's guardians.
On his application, he wrote: "We are seeking guardianship because we were requested to do so by Mrs. Alma Wright before she died."
He wanted to transfer Tiffany to West Mecklenburg High School.
The court set a hearing for Feb. 5 and appointed a child advocate to study the situation and look after Tiffany's best interests in court.
There's no transcript of what happened in court, and the clerk who handled Tiffany's case declined to discuss his decision.
Frederick Benson, a Mecklenburg assistant clerk of superior court, appointed Mitchell the temporary guardian of Tiffany's welfare.
It's unclear if Benson, a lawyer, knew about Mitchell's criminal background. Court clerks are not required to perform background checks in guardianship cases, says Clerk of Superior Court Martha Curran. It's up to each clerk to decide what checks are necessary, and they often rely on court-appointed child advocates to advise them in such cases.
Tiffany's advocate, lawyer Martha Efird, declined to discuss her actions in the case.
It was in the weeks surrounding the Feb. 5 court hearing that Tiffany got pregnant, if hospital estimates are accurate.
But friends say Tiffany, who started at West Mecklenburg High in February, wouldn't realize for four or five months that she was pregnant.
On Feb. 27, clerk of court Benson ordered DSS to conduct a "home study" of the Mitchell household. Officials won't release their findings.
But Mitchell didn't keep custody long, according to several of Tiffany's friends in King's Mountain.
In late March, Mitchell left Tiffany at a group home called With Friends in Gastonia, according to Marlene Jefferies and Cruceta Jeffeirs, two adult family friends who watched Tiffany grow up.
The group home wouldn't confirm that. But the friends say the home reported to social services that Tiffany was abandoned. And she was soon back in foster care.
On March 31, Jeffeirs, a Shelby pastor, wrote a letter to Benson seeking custody of Tiffany: "My desire is to see Tiffany accomplish all the goals that she has set for herself and I believe she can do that in a stable environment with lots of guidance and love."
DSS officials in Gaston and Mecklenburg won't discuss Tiffany's case or answer questions about what steps they took to protect her.
But friends and family say Tiffany was eventually placed in the care of foster parent Susan Barber, in a townhome off Mallard Creek Road in Derita.
By July, it was clear Tiffany was pregnant, friends say.
Barber tried to shield Tiffany from talking to those she believed might be bad influences, according to Tiffany's cousin Brittany Page. But a source close to the investigation said Tiffany and Mitchell continued communicating.
Despite repeated attempts, Barber could not be reached.
As the school year approached, Tiffany prepared to change schools again, this time to Hawthorne High in Charlotte, which offers a special program for pregnant students.
Delayed Investigation
On July 27, social workers reported to police that Royce Mitchell might have committed statutory rape with Tiffany.
It took eight days for a detective to look at the case, and three days more for it to be officially assigned to Teresa Johnson, a detective with CMPD's youth crime and domestic violence unit.
Another 12 days passed before Johnson interviewed Tiffany.
It's unclear when detective Johnson discovered Mitchell's background, but it wasn't enough to ramp up the investigation. Investigators say they believed Tiffany was safe in a foster home and faced no threats from Mitchell.
Police say their performance in the case followed procedure and met standards.
Police interview alleged victims immediately if the crime has occurred within the previous 72 hours, so they can gather evidence that may remain. But in cases like Tiffany's - where months had elapsed since the alleged offense - police try to arrange just one interview when children and teen victims of abuse are involved.
Police acknowledge that strategy takes time but minimizes trauma and reduces the chances that young victims might be led into inaccurate testimony by repeated questioning.
Police also let such victims decide when they want to be interviewed at the county's child-victim center called Pat's Place. There, specially trained interviewers talk to victims, while social workers, psychologists, police and others watch from another room.
Tiffany chose an Aug. 19 interview. She didn't say much during the formal interview. But later that day, Johnson won her trust and obtained enough information to move forward with the investigation.
The next day, Aug. 20, the detective made her first call to Mitchell to ask him about the charge, she says. Johnson left a message and gave him a few days to call back.
When Mitchell didn't respond, she made calls over the next two weeks to social workers and a federal probation officer to ask Mitchell to come talk to police.
Police say they didn't immediately arrest him because they believed they could get better information if he talked voluntarily.
On Sept. 9, a federal probation official told Johnson that Mitchell was not coming in.
On Sept. 10, a team of social workers, police and other agencies held a standard follow-up meeting to discuss how to proceed in Tiffany's case.
On Friday, Sept. 11, detective Johnson phoned Mitchell's wife and left a message. She asked her to call back to discuss Tiffany, Johnson says, but didn't give details of the rape allegation.
That Monday, Tiffany was shot and killed.
As emergency vehicles rolled to the scene, Tiffany's school bus was diverted from its normal route. But the students could see flashing lights. Tiffany's friends on the bus, Cimone Black and Tamia Corpening, began to worry.
"I kept texting her phone...," Cimone said. Then she started calling, but all she got was voice mail.
The bus continued on to Hawthorne. For Tamia, the hourlong ride was excruciating.
Sources: Nancy Grace Show, Washington Post, NY Times, NY Daily News, MSNBC, CNN, CBS News, Fayetteville Police, McClatchy Newspapers, Charlotte Observer, WIVB, WRAL, Washington Times, CDF, Lionsgate Films, Under Privileged Journalism, Rainn, Amber Alert, Examiner, Wikipedia, Creepygif.com, Google Maps
Missing N.C. girl's body found. North Carolina authorities say they have found the body of a 5-year-old girl who disappeared a week ago. Msnbc's Melissa Rehberger reports.
Tiffany Wright: Another Black Child killed due to NC DSS Negligence during a Child Abuse investigation. I guess that since these are Black Children dying, Gov. Bev Perdue doesn't give a darn! I'd say its definitely time for a thorough Federal Investigation and DSS Reform for North Carolina. Wouldn't you agree? Please Check out the articles below. After reading them perhaps you'll see where I'm coming from on this issue.
A week after a 5-year-old Fayetteville girl disappeared and a day after her body was found near Sanford, police are still trying to sort out the evidence in the case to determine who to charge in her death.
Shaniya Nicole Davis was reported missing from her home, at 1116-A Sleepy Hollow Drive, by her mother last Tuesday morning. Volunteer searchers found her body Monday afternoon in some woods off N.C. Highway 87 near the Lee-Harnett county line.
Two people have been arrested in Shaniya's disappearance – charges against a third person were dropped – but no one has been charged with killing her.
Lee County authorities have referred all questions to the Fayetteville Police Department. The department has a news briefing scheduled for 10 a.m. Wednesday, but it's unclear whether new charges will be announced then.
Police arrested Mario Andrette McNeill, 29, on Friday and charged him with first-degree kidnapping in the case. Investigators said McNeill has admitted to taking Shaniya from her home, and hotel security video from a Comfort Suites in Sanford last Tuesday shows the girl being carried by a man believed to be McNeill.
Shaniya's mother, Antoinette Nicole Davis, 25, was arrested late Saturday and charged with human trafficking, felony child abuse–prostitution, filing a false police report and obstructing a police investigation. Arrest warrants state that Davis "did knowingly provide Shaniya with the intent that she be held in sexual servitude" and she "did permit an act of prostitution with Shaniya."
After those arrests, police wouldn't comment on Shaniya's whereabouts. On Sunday, investigators received "reliable information" that Shaniya's body had been dumped off N.C. 87, which led to an extensive search of the area and the discovery of a child's body.
The body was removed from the woods late Monday and sent to the State Medical Examiner's Office in Chapel Hill to determine a cause of death. The medical examiner confirmed Tuesday that the body was Shaniya's.
Police wouldn't say whether McNeill, who is described as a former boyfriend of Davis, provided the information that prompted the search, but they made clear Monday that the information didn't come from an outside tip.
Both McNeill and Davis are being held in isolation at the Cumberland County Detention Center for their protection, authorities said.
Authorities confirmed Tuesday that Davis is pregnant and that Clarence Coe is the father of the child.
Davis initially accused Coe of kidnapping Shaniya, but police dismissed the charge and released him from jail after determining the information to be false and then arresting McNeill. Father to speak with media
Shaniya's father, Bradley Lockhart, plans to speak with reporters at his Fayetteville house at 4 p.m. Tuesday.
Lockhart attended a candlelight vigil for Shaniya Monday night and cried out as people held him up.
"Lord, I come to you with open arms, and it is hard. It is hard," Lockhart said, his legs shaking and tears in his eyes as he spoke to the crowd of about 500. “Don’t give up on me, and don't give up on Shaniya."
During a Monday morning interview on CBS' "Early Show," he said he and his sister had been caring for Shaniya until a few weeks ago, when she went to live with her mother. Davis had worked to get her life together and had been working for at least six months and gotten a place of her own, he said.
"She had asked if she could be a mother, and I felt she was sincere in asking, and I figured to give her a chance," he said.
Cumberland County Schools officials said Shaniya was a kindergarten student at Morganton Road Elementary School until October, when she was taken out of the school and wasn't enrolled elsewhere. No reason was given for the move.
A search of court records turned up no previous criminal charges against Davis, but she has been investigated by the Cumberland County Department of Social Services.
Her uncle, Michael Davis, said DSS looked at her with regard to her 7-year-old son, not Shaniya. The case was closed, and Antoinette Davis was able to retain custody of the boy, her uncle said.
DSS Director Brenda Jackson has declined to comment on her agency's involvement with the Davis family.
Antoinette Davis worked in the kitchen at Carolina Inn at Village Green, an assisted living facility in Fayetteville.
CES, a South Carolina-based staffing company that has a contract with Carolina Inn, hired her in June 2008 after an extensive background check, an official said. She had a good employment record at both Carolina Inn and the Haymount Nursing Rehabilitation Facility, but she is no longer employed by the company, the official said.
Authorities in North Carolina say they have found the body of a 5-year-old girl who disappeared a week ago.
Fayetteville Police spokeswoman Theresa Chance told The Associated Press on Monday that searchers found the body of Shaniya Davis off a road southeast of Sanford in the central part of the state.
Two people have been charged in Shaniya's disappearance, including her 25-year-old mother, Antoinette Davis. Police have charged Davis with human trafficking and felony child abuse, saying Shaniya was offered for prostitution. Davis was due in court Monday afternoon.
Authorities have also charged 29-year old Mario Andrette McNeill, who was seen in surveillance footage carrying Shaniya at a Sanford hotel.
Shaniya's mother reported her missing last Tuesday.
Authorities have said McNeill admitted taking the girl, though his attorney said he will plead not guilty to the charge. Police have not said if McNeill and Davis knew each other.
Shaniya's father, Bradley Lockhart, said he raised his daughter for several years but last month decided to let her stay with her mother.
"I should've never let her go over there," he told The Associated Press on Saturday.
FAYETTEVILLE Authorities in North Carolina say they are now searching for the body of a missing 5-year-old girl.
Fayetteville Police spokeswoman Theresa Chance said Monday officers are searching along a central North Carolina highway based on "reliable information" that indicated the body of Shaniya Davis may have been dumped there.
About 200 searchers fanned across several miles southeast of Sanford. Some walked along roads, ravines and fields while others drove on four-wheelers.
Shaniya has been missing since Nov. 10. Her mother, 25-year-old Antoinette Davis, has been charged with human trafficking and felony child abuse. Police have also charged 29-year old Mario Andrette McNeill, who was seen in surveillance footage carrying Shaniya at a Sanford hotel.
Authorities acted on a tip Sunday and searched a wide area in south-central N.C. trying to find Shaniya. Capt. Charles Kimble of the Fayetteville Police Department said several agencies spent the day looking for signs of Shaniya between Spring Lake and Sanford, which are about 25 miles apart. The N.C. Highway Patrol sent a helicopter to aid in the search, Lt. Everett Clendenin said.
Kimble would not elaborate on what information officers had received. They suspended the search at dark. The area included woods and some homes, police said.
Earlier Sunday, authorities arrested Antoinette Nicole Davis, Shaniya's mother. The charges against Davis are related to her daughter's disappearance, said Theresa Chance, a spokeswoman for Fayetteville police.
Shaniya hasn't been seen since Tuesday, when a surveillance camera recorded the man charged in her kidnapping carrying the girl into a hotel room.
According to arrest documents cited by The Fayetteville Observer, Davis "knowingly provide(d) Shaniya Davis with the intent that she be held in sexual servitude" and she "permit(ted) an act of prostitution."
Shaniya had only been living with her mother since last month. Davis reported the girl missing Tuesday morning from a mobile home community in Fayetteville, and authorities began searching nearby wooded areas.
Camera footage showed Mario Andrette McNeill carrying Shaniya into a hotel room, and he was arrested and charged with kidnapping on Friday. A kidnapping charge against a man described as Davis' boyfriend was dropped.
Authorities have said McNeill admitted to taking the girl, though his attorney says he will plead not guilty to the charge. They have not said if McNeill and Davis knew each other.
Police said a hotel worked spotted a child matching Shaniya's description at the hotel in Sanford, about 40 miles from Fayetteville. Relatives helped confirm that the child on the recording was Shaniya.
Fayetteville police officer Brian Gainey said Davis did not have an attorney and was scheduled to appear in court today.
Shaniya's father, Bradley Lockhart, told The Associated Press that he raised his daughter for several years but last month decided to let her stay with her mother.
"I should've never let her go over there," he said Saturday.
The mother of a missing North Carolina girl has been charged with human trafficking and other offenses, authorities said Saturday night.
Other charges against Antoinette Nicole Davis include felony child abuse, prostitution and filing a false police report, according to the Fayetteville Police Department. No more details were released on the arrest.
The whereabouts of her daughter, 5-year-old Shaniya Davis, remain unknown. Her mother told police Tuesday that she vanished from their mobile home in Fayetteville.
However, hotel surveillance video taken around the same time Shaniya was reported missing shows the girl with a man identified as Mario Andrette McNeill. He has been charged with first-degree kidnapping.
Police dropped kidnapping charges against another man, Clarence Coe, who was arrested Thursday.
Anyone with information on Shaniya's whereabouts is urged to contact the Fayetteville Police at 910-433-1856.
A North Carolina man has admitted to kidnapping a 5-year-old girl, authorities said Friday, but investigators still have not found the child more than three days after she disappeared from a mobile home park.
Mario Andrette McNeill, 29, admitted to taking Shaniya Davis, said Fayetteville Police Department spokeswoman Theresa Chance. He was charged with kidnapping while authorities dropped charges against another man, Clarence Coe, who was initially arrested in the case.
"We're hoping we find her alive," Chance said at a news conference. "We found Mr. McNeill, and Miss Davis was not with him."
Surveillance footage had showed McNeill carrying Shaniya into a hotel room on Tuesday morning, when she was reported missing from a mobile home park. A hotel worker called police to report seeing a child matching Shaniya's description, but by the time police got there, McNeill had left.
McNeill faces a first court appearance Friday afternoon.
Investigators had used police dogs but could not pick up the child's scent during a search of the neighborhood. They found a blanket that may have belonged to Shaniya in a garbage can outside a neighbor's home.
Shaniya's father, Bradley Lockhart, made a tearful appeal Thursday for his daughter's safe return.
"Shaniya, if you're listening to daddy, I miss you so much, honey," he said. "I'm waiting for you. I'm not going to give up. You don't give up either, honey."
Cumberland County authorities say foul play is suspected in the disappearance of Shaniya Nicole Davis. The 5-year-old girl went missing from her home, 1116-A Sleepy Hollow Drive in Fayetteville, Tuesday morning.
An Amber Alert was initiated for Shaniya just before noon, Lt. David Sportsman said.
Police responded to the home around 6:50 a.m., and Shaniya's mother told officers that she last saw her daughter at 5:30 a.m. The mother’s boyfriend and her sister, along with an infant and Shaniya's 7-year-old brother were also in the home when the girl went missing.
“There is definitely something not right about the situation. Foul play is suspected,” Fayetteville police spokeswoman Theresa Chance said Tuesday evening.
It is unclear how the child left the home.
"The circumstances surrounding her disappearance are very odd. A 5-year-old usually...(is) not awake at 5:30 a.m. normally, and they just wouldn't leave their home," Chance said. "If she would have wandered out of her home, she would be around here somewhere."
Chance said the family has a history with the Department of Social Services.
"There have been major DSS issues with this family – who has custody, switching back and forth," Chance said.
Chance said it's unknown whether the child's disappearance is related to those issues. Police said Shaniya's father flew in from out of state Tuesday afternoon and was talking to investigators.
"We're treating this as a child in danger, with the information we have," Chance said.
Chance said police have been called to the home before. This summer, officers served a search warrant at the home and found a variety of drugs inside.
The family was not allowed inside the home Tuesday evening after it was deemed a health hazard due to extensive sewage leaks, authorities said.
Police K-9s, firefighters and sheriff's deputies searched the area throughout the day Tuesday.
“We are searching for her and hoping to find her alive, but we just don't know at this point,” Chance said.
Chance noted that search dogs did not pick up Shaniya's scent, which they would have if the child was wandering around outside.
Shaniya is described as 3 feet tall and 40 pounds. She has brown hair and brown eyes. She was last seen wearing a blue T-shirt with pink underwear. She is thin and has a scar on her foot.
Fayetteville police say three registered sex offenders live in the neighborhood. Theresa Chance said the offenders, along with everyone else in the neighborhood, have been interviewed.
The sex offenders are not considered suspects, Chance said.
Anyone with information is urged to call Fayetteville police at 910-433-1856 or call or call 911 or *HP.
A Mooresville man who sparked an Amber Alert when he disappeared with his 12-year-old pregnant adopted daughter and her 11-year-old sister now faces rape and incest charges.
Mathew Charles Hess, 40, had already been charged with misdemeanor child abuse and contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile after, authorities say, he took his two adoptive daughters to Tennessee despite the condition of the daughter who was nine months pregnant.
Now he faces additional charges in Lincoln County - indecent liberties with a child, first-degree rape and felony incest between near relatives. Details of the charges were unavailable. Authorities haven't said whether they believe Hess is the father of the older daughter's baby.
Hess and his wife, who is the girls' biological mother, are separated, authorities said. The girls were living with Mathew Hess in Lincoln County when the older girl became pregnant.
The Observer published the girls' names when they were the subject of a large-scale search, but is not naming them now because authorities say at least one was a victim of a sex-related crime.
Authorities believe Hess drove away with his daughters on Sept. 24 after leaving a note for his wife saying he was taking them to school. The girls' mother called authorities soon after, when the pregnant daughter didn't show up for a doctor's appointment.
Last week when the pregnant girl missed an important medical procedure, authorities issued a nationwide Amber Alert.
A motorist in Tennessee who saw the alert on an interstate sign recognized the family's faded green Ford Explorer and called the Tennessee Highway Patrol on Wednesday. Less than half an hour later, the search was over. Social services took temporary custody of the girls.
Two members of the Iredell Sheriff's Office's warrant squad drove to Tennessee on Friday and brought Hess back to North Carolina. His first court date for the Iredell County charges is Nov. 16 in Statesville.
Now, he's in Iredell jail under a $12,000 bond. He's also deemed a flight risk because of the charges in Lincoln County.
Tiffany Wright stood alone in the dark, waiting for her school bus.
It was just before 6 a.m., and her foster grandmother had walked back home to get Tiffany's water bottle.
Tiffany, 15, was eight months pregnant but determined to stay on track in school. She wanted to be a lawyer. And after just a few weeks at Hawthorne High, she had impressed teachers as smart and ambitious, despite a difficult childhood.
At 5:51, Tiffany sent a text.
"Wheres the bus?"
One stop away, replied her friend, already on the bus.
At 5:55, as the bus lumbered toward Tiffany's stop, people began calling police to report gunshots.
A school bus dispatcher radioed Tiffany's bus driver: Change course - something's happening ahead.
Tiffany lay dead in the road, shot in the head, that morning, Monday, Sept. 14. Her baby girl was delivered at the hospital and lived a week, but died Sunday.
Nobody's charged in the killings, but police call Tiffany's adoptive brother, Royce Mitchell, a "person of interest."
In the months before she died, local agencies took steps aimed at stabilizing her home life and keeping her safe. But her story exposes failures in the system that was supposed to protect her.
Among the missteps:
•In February, a Mecklenburg court clerk appointed Mitchell as Tiffany's temporary guardian — even though he was a felon who served time in federal prison. He was also tried in 2006 for murder, but found not guilty. And last year, he was accused of domestic violence, though the case was dismissed.
•In July, social workers told police that Mitchell, 36, might have committed statutory rape with Tiffany, but police didn't question him about it for seven weeks, and didn't charge him with the rape until after Tiffany was killed.
•This month, Mecklenburg social services failed to cut off communication between Tiffany, who was in foster care, and Mitchell, said a source close to the investigation.
On the day of Tiffany's killing, Charlotte-Mecklenburg police jailed Mitchell for statutory rape and indecent liberties with a child, naming Tiffany as the victim.
Police defend their work, saying they followed the industry's best practices - which takes time. Police didn't feel a need to rush, they say, because they believed Tiffany was secure, hidden in a foster home with no threat to her safety.
Police say it's hard to prove statutory rape: Of the 262 reports of statutory rape police received over three years, only 16 percent - 42 cases - were accepted by prosecutors.
Experts say statutory rape cases are complicated because they involve victims ages 13, 14 or 15 who often consider themselves voluntary participants in sex with someone at least six years older. So victims can be reluctant to help police.
But child advocates say in cases like Tiffany's, police should act more aggressively. An immediate arrest sends a signal to a suspect and can persuade them to stay away from victims.
"The cases may be difficult to win, but they're not difficult to charge," says Brett Loftis of Charlotte's Council for Children's Rights.
UNCC criminologist Paul Friday says: "Often, nothing is done in these kinds of cases because they're based on improper assumptions about the rationality of someone that age. But the minors are often unaware of disease, birth control and they can be exploited by someone."
Adopted by foster mother
Tiffany first entered the child welfare system as a toddler in Buffalo, N.Y., when her mother lost custody.
She was adopted at 4 by her foster mother, Alma Wright, an older woman with eight grown children, who was excited about raising another child.
One of Wright's grown sons was Royce Mitchell, a star quarterback in high school who'd gone on to play for a semi-pro team in Buffalo. But Mitchell also was indicted in 1999 as part of a drug trafficking ring and went to federal prison.
While he was in prison, authorities also charged Mitchell with an earlier murder, but a jury found him not guilty.
In 2004, Alma and Tiffany left Buffalo for North Carolina, settling near Kings Mountain. Tiffany made friends easily at school and church. She ran track at Bessemer City High School.
In 2007, Mitchell was released from prison and followed his mother to North Carolina.
But last fall, Alma Wright got sick. Friends at church helped out with Tiffany, inviting her for dinners and weekends. Tiffany spent time with Mitchell and his wife, too.
Alma Wright died Jan. 25, and Tiffany moved in with the Mitchells in Charlotte.
On Jan. 30, Royce Mitchell asked a Mecklenburg court to appoint him and his wife as Tiffany's guardians.
On his application, he wrote: "We are seeking guardianship because we were requested to do so by Mrs. Alma Wright before she died."
He wanted to transfer Tiffany to West Mecklenburg High School.
The court set a hearing for Feb. 5 and appointed a child advocate to study the situation and look after Tiffany's best interests in court.
There's no transcript of what happened in court, and the clerk who handled Tiffany's case declined to discuss his decision.
Frederick Benson, a Mecklenburg assistant clerk of superior court, appointed Mitchell the temporary guardian of Tiffany's welfare.
It's unclear if Benson, a lawyer, knew about Mitchell's criminal background. Court clerks are not required to perform background checks in guardianship cases, says Clerk of Superior Court Martha Curran. It's up to each clerk to decide what checks are necessary, and they often rely on court-appointed child advocates to advise them in such cases.
Tiffany's advocate, lawyer Martha Efird, declined to discuss her actions in the case.
It was in the weeks surrounding the Feb. 5 court hearing that Tiffany got pregnant, if hospital estimates are accurate.
But friends say Tiffany, who started at West Mecklenburg High in February, wouldn't realize for four or five months that she was pregnant.
On Feb. 27, clerk of court Benson ordered DSS to conduct a "home study" of the Mitchell household. Officials won't release their findings.
But Mitchell didn't keep custody long, according to several of Tiffany's friends in King's Mountain.
In late March, Mitchell left Tiffany at a group home called With Friends in Gastonia, according to Marlene Jefferies and Cruceta Jeffeirs, two adult family friends who watched Tiffany grow up.
The group home wouldn't confirm that. But the friends say the home reported to social services that Tiffany was abandoned. And she was soon back in foster care.
On March 31, Jeffeirs, a Shelby pastor, wrote a letter to Benson seeking custody of Tiffany: "My desire is to see Tiffany accomplish all the goals that she has set for herself and I believe she can do that in a stable environment with lots of guidance and love."
DSS officials in Gaston and Mecklenburg won't discuss Tiffany's case or answer questions about what steps they took to protect her.
But friends and family say Tiffany was eventually placed in the care of foster parent Susan Barber, in a townhome off Mallard Creek Road in Derita.
By July, it was clear Tiffany was pregnant, friends say.
Barber tried to shield Tiffany from talking to those she believed might be bad influences, according to Tiffany's cousin Brittany Page. But a source close to the investigation said Tiffany and Mitchell continued communicating.
Despite repeated attempts, Barber could not be reached.
As the school year approached, Tiffany prepared to change schools again, this time to Hawthorne High in Charlotte, which offers a special program for pregnant students.
Delayed Investigation
On July 27, social workers reported to police that Royce Mitchell might have committed statutory rape with Tiffany.
It took eight days for a detective to look at the case, and three days more for it to be officially assigned to Teresa Johnson, a detective with CMPD's youth crime and domestic violence unit.
Another 12 days passed before Johnson interviewed Tiffany.
It's unclear when detective Johnson discovered Mitchell's background, but it wasn't enough to ramp up the investigation. Investigators say they believed Tiffany was safe in a foster home and faced no threats from Mitchell.
Police say their performance in the case followed procedure and met standards.
Police interview alleged victims immediately if the crime has occurred within the previous 72 hours, so they can gather evidence that may remain. But in cases like Tiffany's - where months had elapsed since the alleged offense - police try to arrange just one interview when children and teen victims of abuse are involved.
Police acknowledge that strategy takes time but minimizes trauma and reduces the chances that young victims might be led into inaccurate testimony by repeated questioning.
Police also let such victims decide when they want to be interviewed at the county's child-victim center called Pat's Place. There, specially trained interviewers talk to victims, while social workers, psychologists, police and others watch from another room.
Tiffany chose an Aug. 19 interview. She didn't say much during the formal interview. But later that day, Johnson won her trust and obtained enough information to move forward with the investigation.
The next day, Aug. 20, the detective made her first call to Mitchell to ask him about the charge, she says. Johnson left a message and gave him a few days to call back.
When Mitchell didn't respond, she made calls over the next two weeks to social workers and a federal probation officer to ask Mitchell to come talk to police.
Police say they didn't immediately arrest him because they believed they could get better information if he talked voluntarily.
On Sept. 9, a federal probation official told Johnson that Mitchell was not coming in.
On Sept. 10, a team of social workers, police and other agencies held a standard follow-up meeting to discuss how to proceed in Tiffany's case.
On Friday, Sept. 11, detective Johnson phoned Mitchell's wife and left a message. She asked her to call back to discuss Tiffany, Johnson says, but didn't give details of the rape allegation.
That Monday, Tiffany was shot and killed.
As emergency vehicles rolled to the scene, Tiffany's school bus was diverted from its normal route. But the students could see flashing lights. Tiffany's friends on the bus, Cimone Black and Tamia Corpening, began to worry.
"I kept texting her phone...," Cimone said. Then she started calling, but all she got was voice mail.
The bus continued on to Hawthorne. For Tamia, the hourlong ride was excruciating.
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