The father of the Georgia newborn found beaten to death in the woods on Sunday had been charged with murder in her death.
BREAKING NEWS: Georgia Father Accused of Beating 15-Day-Old Daughter to Death and Hiding Body in Cloth in Woods
On Wednesday, Christopher Michael McNabb, 27, of Covington, Georgia, was charged with malice murder, felony murder, aggravated battery and concealing a death, stated Capt. Keith Crum of the Newton County Sheriff’s Office said.
McNabb was accused of killing his own 15-day-old daughter, Caliyah McNabb, before hiding her body in the woods near his family’s mobile home, said C
rum.
An autopsy determined that the infant died from blunt force trauma to the head, Newton Coroner Tommy Davis said on Tuesday, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
“It’s heartrending that that small of a child — a baby only 15 days old — had been so injured that it died,” said Crum. “It’s hard to rationalize an irrational act.”
Caliyah McNabb
McNabb made his first appearance in court Thursday morning, where he was denied bond.
He refused a public defender, according to The Covington Times.
In the arrest warrants obtained, Newton County Sheriff’s Office Investigator Jeff Alexander alleged that McNabb struck the infant with an “unknown object.”
The blow “did cause the victim’s skull to be seriously disfigured and damaged beyond repair,” the warrant alleged. “This act further caused the death of the victim.”
McNabb then tried to hide the body with a t-shirt, blanket and a draw-string bag in the woods not far from the residence where the murder took place, the warrants allege.
Suspect Allegedly Yelled: ‘I Didn’t Do It’
On Saturday morning, the infant’s mother, Courtney Bell, called 911 to report that Caliyah was missing, Crum said.
Bell said she fed the baby and changed her diaper and put her to bed at about 5 a.m., said Crum.
In the 911 call released by police, a frantic Bell told the operator that her 2-week-old was not in her sleeper when she woke up.
Chris McNabbNEWTON COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE
Sobbing, Bell explained that she had been up with the baby most of the night and had fallen asleep on the couch at 5 a.m.
Chris McNabb
When the operator asked her if she thinks someone took the baby, she says, “My 2-year-old said she’s gone. And I looked everywhere in the house — I don’t know another possibility.”
McNabb was outside looking for the baby, she said.
On Sunday night, McNabb was taken into police custody shortly after he allegedly fled on foot after learning the body of his infant daughter had been found, Crum previously said.
Before he was captured, witnesses allegedly saw him acting erratically at a convenience store. “He was yelling, ‘I didn’t do it! I didn’t do it!’ ” Crum said.
When McNabb ran out of the store, police arrested him for an alleged unrelated probation violation out of Bartow County. He remained held at the Newtown County Jail.
After an extensive search on Saturday, volunteer searchers found the baby’s body wrapped up in “blue cloth” in a hole under a log, said Crum.
Store clerk Julie Hannah told Fox 5 Atlanta that she saw McNabb when he came into the store. “He was real wet and nasty like he had been running through the woods in the rain,” Hannah said. “He started hollering and talking about, ‘They are going to get me. They are going to get me. I’ve been running all day. I have been in the woods all day.’ ”
Hannah added, “He went on and on and on just rambling ‘I didn’t do it. It wasn’t me. It wasn’t the baby’s mama. Y’all going to look crazy when you figure this out.’”
The clerk called 911 and McNabb was taken into custody without any incident.
The mother, Bell, was questioned and released, said Crum. We calls to Bell were not immediately returned.
Woman hopes her story would be able to raise awareness about signs of sex slavery
ALERT: Survivor Shares Story Of Being Sold By Family Into Sex Trafficking In Michigan
A survivor who was sold into sex slavery by her family when she was a 12-year-old girl shared her story with Local 4, hoping it would be able to raise awareness about human trafficking warning signs.
Human trafficking or sexual slavery could happen anywhere, in any neighborhood, all the while goes unnotice by most people.
A woman named DeVaugh, 31, said there are signs people could notice to help save others like her.
DeVaugh said a pimp doesn’t necessarily wear a big hat with a feather, and pedophiles aren’t necessarily 40-year-old men who live in basements.
She said sometimes, sex traffickers looks just like family members.
“I was sold at 12, almost 13, by my mother to my sister and my brother-in-law from Kentucky to Michigan,” DeVaugh said.
From the age of 12, DeVaugh grew up in a neighborhood at Wayne Road and Michigan Avenue in Wayne. She said she went to school, had friends, but kept a secret: that she was a sex slave.
DeVaughn lived and grew up in this Wayne neighborhood. (WDIV)
“My brother-in-law was selling me to men who would come to the home,” said DeVaugh. “From our house, I was going to school, I had friends, and I was still being sold from inside my home.”
Now, she’s in the ever-evolving process of healing, speaking to anyone who will listen to her story and take a moment to notice the signs of trafficking.
“If people knew what to look for, it would be so glaringly obvious that something was happening,” DeVaugh told the crowd.
DeVaugh said sex trafficking happens in neighborhoods everywhere.
On Friday, she was the keynote speaker at Human Trafficking Symposium, which is held by Henry Ford Health Systems to train their health care professionals on how to spot human trafficking. She said she doesn’t want the general public to ignore their own neighborhoods.
DeVaughn shared her story at the Human Trafficking Symposium. (WDIV)
“Just by looking — we did look normal, but there were a lot of signs,” DeVaugh said.
Looking back on her life, DeVaugh said her house screamed trafficking, with a lot of visitors — most of them men — coming and going every hour.
When she went out to play, she said an adult was always hovering close by, and she was never allowed to speak freely. In fact, when she was questioned, said adults would always speak for her.
“We had a privacy fence in the backyard,” said DeVaugh. “Big, thick curtains covering every window.”
She would wear long sleeves on the hottest days to hide her bruises, but she still missed a lot of school due to bruises and injuries that couldn’t be covered with clothing, she said.
“If you read the red flags, I exhibited a lot of red flags,” DeVaugh said. “But if you weren’t knowing what to look for, you wouldn’t have saw it.”
Above all, she said neighbors should be nosy.
“If you think something is going on at a store, call the police,” DeVaugh said. “It’s better to be nosy and be wrong than to be quiet and let someone be hurt.”
Doctors are some of the most important people in this fight against human trafficking.