No one had seen three-year-old Kimora Monique Simon for months when the Michigan child welfare officials came knocking at the family's home after her older brother's teacher had expressed concerns that he was being abused.

An employee of the state’s Department of Health and Human Services who was sent to look into signs of suspected child abuse of Kimora's older brother soon began asking questions about Kimora.

According to MLive.com, this led to a much darker and shocking discovery: Kimora had been murdered more than a year earlier by her parents. 

The mother, Erika Finley, from Flint and the father, Khairy Simon from Detroit, continued to take welfare benefits for their dead daughter, the authorities said.

27-year-old Simon reportedly said that his partner, 29-year-old Finley, had been beating the child as a punishment during potty training. 

Simon recalled that Finley struck her daughter with a fist and then an extension cord. According to WJRT, Simon said, "I tried to stop her, but she’s domineering. She’s much bigger than me. And, at that time, she felt like she had to get her point across".

However, the authorities believe that both the parents committed the violence in 2015. The parents were initially charged in the year 2016. 

After Kimora was killed, Simon reportedly buried her body alongside train tracks. Her remains have never been found and the district attorney said that animals may have moved them.

Simon pleaded guilty in June to second-degree murder and removing a dead body without the permission of the medical examiner. He agreed to testify against Finley.

Erika Finley pleaded guilty to five charges in August, including second-degree murder, first-degree child abuse, tampering with evidence and welfare fraud. 

According to a prosecutor's spokesman, Finley was sentenced to 15 to 40 years in prison on Wednesday while Simon was sentenced to 12-40 years in prison on the same day. 

Earlier in the week, Finley's attorney read a letter in court on her behalf where she claimed she was deeply sorry. In the letter, she also suggested that Simon was to blame for all the abuse and she was unable to escape a violent and traumatic relationship. According to a video from the hearing, she said, "I cannot tell you how much I miss my daughter. I cannot tell you how sorry I am to everyone for what has happened during this situation". 

"I was a mother who did everything I could for my children, trying to provide for them and take care of them the best that I can. … I realize I have to be punished and I know that no matter how much time I do it’s not going to bring my daughter back," Finley said.  Simon too said he was sorry for the killing and said, "I want to apologize to everyone that this situation affected. I ask for forgiveness". 

However, the judge was not all fazed by their apologies and said, "Ms Finley — you have a stain on your soul. The heinous act that you did causes every mother in this community to wonder why. Every parent in this community is appalled," reported MLive.com. "You tried to shift some of the blame to the other gentleman. You could have stopped what happened". 

To Simon, the judge said, "Your participation in all of this was selfish and cruel and sad. Just sad. This poor defenseless child".

Kimora's two older brothers have now been placed with a foster family.