Maryland mom starved 15-month-old daughter then threw body wrapped in pillowcase in trash, charged with murder
MONTGOMERY, MARYLAND: A 23-year-old woman from Maryland was charged with first-degree murder after she reportedly admitted to starving her 15-month-old baby daughter for over three weeks until she died, according to police. The woman, identified as Kiearra Tolson, of Silver Spring, then threw the child's body in the trash. The Montgomery County Police Department, in a press release, said that Tolson was arrested on Wednesday, July 8, after an acquaintance called 911 to report that the woman had told her that she killed her daughter, identified as Blair Niles.
When Tolson was interviewed by police over the report, she allegedly confessed to the investigators and told them that she had starved her daughter for nearly three-and-a-half weeks. She added that the girl died last month and she had placed her body in a pillowcase and trash bags. Tolson then later discarded it in a dumpster at her apartment complex on November Circle on June 17.
Authorities have said that although Blair's body has not been recovered, the investigators in the case have found evidence in the mother's apartment corroborating her account, according to the Daily Mail. According to a court filing, police found a pillow without a pillowcase in Tolson's apartment.
Meanwhile, Blair's father, while talking to police officers, said that he last saw his daughter on April 17 and has not had any contact with Tolson since then.
Ramon Korionoff, a spokesperson for Montgomery County State's Attorney John McCarthy, said that State District Court Judge John Moffett at a hearing on Thursday, July 9, ordered that Tolson be held without bond. Tolson, during the hearing, was represented by a public defender, according to the spokesperson. She is set to make another appearance in court for a bond review hearing on July 16.
In a similar incident, a godmother of a five-year-old girl allegedly beat the child to death and strangled her. The incident occurred after the took a trip to Texas to visit her godmother. Brenika Lott, 32, was charged last month with capital murder for the death of her goddaughter Daviana Landry, 5. According to Daviana's family, the Louisiana girl had gone to visit her godmother whom she would fondly call 'nana'. According to WWLTV, the child had gone to visit Lott the day after Father's Day and was dead five days later. A relative of Daviana, Alice Landry said, "She had my baby more than one time, and I would have never, ever suspected anything like this because she loved my baby."
The Orange police, on June 26, was called to Lott's home where they found her performing CPR on the child. A probable cause affidavit revealed that the child had some bruising on her arms, her chest, and her face. Her eyes "appeared swollen shut." The document revealed that preliminary autopsy results found that Daviana had suffered from "craniocerebral trauma, to include skull fractures, subdural hemorrhage, and brainstem contusions." The child had died of blunt force trauma, the document added. The godmother's 11-year-old son allegedly told investigators that he saw his mother "slapping, choking, and beating up" the child.