Autopsy rules 20-month-old was alive when grandmother baked her in an oven after stabbing her
WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT
Last week, a gruesome crime in Mississippi saw a grandmother arrested after she allegedly killed her toddler granddaughter and baked her inside an oven. The incident, which unfolded in Shaw, a small town of just 2,000 people in the Mississippi Delta, left the country in shock. The culprit, 48-year-old Carolyn Jones, was taken into custody by the Bolivar County Police Department, though the motive for committing such a horrendous act remained unclear.
While law enforcement authorities are still investigating what may have triggered Jones into killing 20-month-old Royalty Marie Floyd, another burning question has finally been answered. At the time, while it was certain that the child was stabbed and burned, the timeline of events was unknown.
Royalty's body was sent to the state crime lab in Pearl for an autopsy and according to the Mirror, the coroner has determined that the 20-month-old was still alive when Jones placed her inside the oven. The official cause of death was established as both stabbing and burning. However, authorities still have no information on the circumstances leading up to the child's death.