from www.usatoday.com – The body of a missing 5-year-old North Carolina girl has been found and her mother will be in court later today to face initial charges of offering her daughter for sex.
Searchers found the body of Shaniya Davis near Sanford, in central North Carolina. She was reported missing last Tuesday.
Her mother, Antoinette Davis, [pictured] 25 is charged with human trafficking and felony child abuse.
An accomplice, Mario Andrette McNeill, 29, will face kidnapping charges. He was seen on surveillance footage carrying Shaniya at a Sanford hotel. As a result, another man who was arrested last week has been freed.
The cause of death has not been announced. The Fayetteville Observer reports that one searcher said her body was found in woods near a deer carcass.
Shaniya’s father, Bradley Lockhart, said over the weekend that he raised his daughter for several years but last month decided to let her stay with Davis.
“I should’ve never let her go over there,” he told the Associated Press.