Colorado mom who left daughters to die in car without food or water after cult leader told her they were 'impure' gets life term
NORWOOD, COLORADO: A mother was jailed for life with no parole for her involvement in the deaths of her two daughters who died of starvation in a car after a cult told her they were "impure".
On Tuesday, October 1, Nashika Bramble was handed down double life sentences — one for each of her daughters — for her role in the deaths of 10-year-old Makayla Roberts, and eight-year-old Hannah Marshall, in September 2017.
According to police records, Bramble was a member of The Family, a small nomadic religious group that settled in a Norwood farm in the summer of 2017 to await the total solar eclipse of that year — which they believed was an ensuing apocalypse that would transport them to another spiritual realm.
Madani Ceus, the group's spiritual leader allegedly deemed Bramble's daughters to be unclean and ordered them to be confined in Bramble's 1999 Toyota Sedan, which was parked on the property.
Group members were forbidden to have contact with the children or give them food and water. Ceus' husband, Ashford Archer, worked together with the group's leader to conceal the car beneath a tarp, the Telluride Daily Planet reported.
On September 8, 2017, the girls' mummified remains were found in Bramble's car on the farm. An autopsy revealed that the girls had died of heat, starvation, and dehydration.
Also, their bones showed they had endured stress that could be linked to malnutrition. Their decomposing bodies remained in the car for at least two weeks after their deaths.
Shortly after authorities discovered the remains of her daughters, a heavily pregnant Bramble turned herself in to the police and was held in the Gunnison County Jail. Ceus and other members of the cult were also taken into custody and will stand trial in January 2020.
San Miguel County Sheriff Bill Masters who investigated the case told Fox31, "In my 37 years as sheriff, I have never seen anything as cruel and heartless as this."
After less than an hour of deliberation, the jury in the case found Bramble guilty of two counts of first-degree murder. Her defense lawyer said that he planned to appeal the sentence.