A New Jersey couple is charged with first-degree murder in the death of their 9-year-old daughter after they told investigators she was hit by a car while walking their dog, according to prosecutors.
The mother, India Miller, and the child’s stepfather, Sean D. Scott, called 911 around 1:10 a.m. Wednesday, October 13, saying they found their daughter not breathing by a shed outside their Paulsboro home, the Gloucester County Prosecutor’s Office said in a news release.
The couple allegedly suggested she was possibly struck by a car, with Miller, 27, claiming she heard a loud screech of what sounded like tires before Scott, 45, found the 9-year-old near the shed.
Their daughter was taken to a hospital with facial trauma, bruises covering her body and ‘additional injuries not consistent with a vehicle crash,” the prosecutor’s office said.
No vehicles were seen driving near the house during the time Miller and Scott claimed the girl had been potentially struck, according to the office, based on a review of surveillance footage from nearby public buildings.
During the investigation, the girl’s 4-year-old sibling said Scott hit the girl in her eyes and face, according to prosecutors.
The couple is accused of beating the child to death.
In addition to first-degree murder, Miller and Scott were both arrested on charges of first-degree accomplice to a murder, two counts of second-degree endangering the welfare of a child, fourth-degree making a fictitious report to police and fourth-degree hindering prosecution, according to prosecutors.
While investigating the girl’s death, authorities found wet children’s clothes and what appeared to be blood in an upstairs bathroom tub, on the tile floor around the tub, on a Swiffer Wet Jet and other cleaning supplies, the prosecutor’s office said.
The 9-year-old was ultimately declared dead at the hospital Tuesday evening, according to prosecutors. An autopsy performed by a medical examiner, who listed her death as a homicide, revealed some of her many injuries were healing, indicating she had been abused for a while.
“Both eyes displayed blunt force trauma, including the left eye being swollen shut, abrasions were observed in the inner thigh and intimate parts, a ruptured colon, indicative of blunt force trauma, was observed, and multiple ribs were broken, some of which were in various stages of healing,” the prosecutor’s office said, adding that her cause of death was “multiple blunt force injuries.”
It wasn’t immediately clear whether the couple retained legal counsel.
If Miller and Scott are convicted, they’d face up to life in prison.
In a Facebook video posted by Paulsboro Mayor John Giovannitti on Thursday, October 15, he called the girl’s death a “horrible crime” that has never been “seen before in this community.”
In a subsequent video, Giovannitti said a community vigil will be held for the girl, identified as Maya, in the parking lot of the Paulsboro firehouse the evening of Friday, October 16.
If you or someone you know is experiencing child abuse, call or text Child Help Hotline at 1-800-422-4453.
