Shaniya Raped, Killed on Day of Abduction: Cops

NC 5-year-old was asphyxiated, arrest warrant says
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Nov 20, 2009 5:04 PM CST
Shaniya Raped, Killed on Day of Abduction: Cops
Mario Andrette McNeill, already accused of kidnapping 5-year-old Shaniya Davis, faces new charges that he raped and asphyxiated her, police said Nov. 19, 2009.   ((AP Photo/Cumberland County Sheriff's Office))

A 5-year-old North Carolina girl was raped and killed the same day she was taken from her home, according to an arrest warrant released today. Shaniya Davis was sexually assaulted and asphyxiated Nov. 10, the day her mother reported her missing from the trailer park where she was staying, according to the warrant. After a nearly weeklong search, the girl's body was found dumped off a rural road.

Mario McNeill is charged with first-degree murder and first-degree rape of a child in the warrant. He was initially charged only with kidnapping. He appeared in court Friday for a brief hearing on the latest charges but did not enter a plea. The girl's mother, Antoinette Davis, is charged with filing a false police report, trafficking her daughter, and child abuse involving prostitution. Shaniya's father, Bradley Lockhart, appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show today, and Winfrey asked him if he had anything to say to Davis. "Right now I just think it's best that we let the justice system take its course," Lockhart said. (More Shaniya Davis stories.)

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