HUMBOLDT, Tenn. (WMC) - An eight-year-old girl was murdered by her older cousin on Monday in Humboldt, Tennessee, according to Frederick Agee, District Attorney General for Tennessee Judicial District 28.
Home security video obtained by Humboldt Police Department investigators reportedly shows a 12-year-old girl using bedding to suffocate her sleeping eight-year-old cousin on the top of the bunk bed they shared.
After the suffocation, the preteen allegedly “cleaned up” her cousin and repositioned her body.
“No words can describe it,” said DA Agee. “It’s unimaginable.”
Agee told Action News 5 that the eight-year-old was found unresponsive in her bed at a house on East Mitchell Street. Two days later, a tipster came forward saying surveillance video from the bedroom showed what happened.
“The video shows the 12-year-old with her full body weight taking bedding, it appears the eight-year-old is asleep, and she takes the bedding and covers the eight-year-old’s face,” Agee said, adding that the video also shows the younger girl struggling to survive the attack.
Her name is Demeria.
And Thursday, a memorial was established outside her grandmother’s house, where the crime occurred.
Demeria was visiting from Nashville. Her 12-year-old cousin was visiting from South Carolina. Their grandmother told Action News 5 the two were inseparable.
The evidence, said DA Agee, points to first-degree murder and tampering with evidence.
“There is video where the 12-year-old goes and gets tissues and papers,” said Agee, “and tries to clean the eight-year-old’s body and face, and also moves the child, to make it appear that she was under the covers.”
The memorial on East Mitchell Street features balloons in Demeria’s favorite colors: pink, purple and pale blue. Her cherished stuffed animals are on display, and bottles of the nail polish she loved to wear sit next to notes written by loved ones.
Her family and the police are struggling to figure out the motive.
“We’d ask your viewers to pray for the family and pray for our officers,” said DA Agee. “This is intense. It’s just not something that happens here.”
The young suspect is being held three hours away in Rutherford County, the closest juvenile detention facility to Humboldt.
DA Agee said the 12-year-old, who turns 13 soon, will appear in court in Trenton on Friday afternoon. He intends to ask the judge to transfer her to adult court.
“I consider this to be one of the most disturbing violent acts committed by either an adult or juvenile that my office has prosecuted,” DA Agee wrote in a release. “Due to the horrendous nature of this crime and under Tennessee law, the Juvenile Court loses jurisdiction after a juvenile turns 19, and therefore, the juvenile would be free from any further detention, supervision, or court-ordered mental health treatment.”
“Our Office is petitioning Juvenile Judge Mark Johnson to transfer the delinquent child to Circuit Court to be tried as an adult, which allows for a lengthier sentence, whether that will be through incarceration or supervision with court-ordered conditions.”
This article first appeared on actionnews5.com.
