A mother from West Virginia is being alleged by officials that she killed her own daughter, who she claimed that went missing back in 2011. The authorities made a progress on the investigation after five years.
The three-year-old girl was identified as Aliayah Lunsford and her mother, Lenal Lunsford, made authorities and her family believed that the little girl went missing. According to the authorities, they believe that Lenal hit Aliayah with a blunt object in the head causing her death. It is possible that the hitting took place inside their Ben Dale home in Lewis County, West Virginia, Chicago Tribune reported.
Lenal was arrested on Thursday and was charged with the death of a child by child abuse. Lewis County Sheriff Adam Gissy said in a statement that the body of Aliayah has not been found yet but they believed that Lenal knows her whereabouts. She remained in police custody, New Zealand Herald reported.
A criminal complaint states that Lenal, 34, kept witnesses from helping Aliayah after she suffered the blow that killed her. She also asked them to keep quiet over what happened. She then went on to report Aliayah to be missing on Sept. 24, 2011. She claimed that Aliayah was around earlier that day but when she checked on her at a later time, she could no longer be found.
It was not detailed what led police officials to arrest Lenal. She has been living in Florida and was extradited back to West Virginia but Gissy said that witnesses were interviewed and they had direct knowledge over the death of Aliayah. It remained unclear if these witnesses will be tried or charged as well.
The FBI got involved with the missing person case years ago and six months later, investigators said they do not believe someone broke into the home and took Aliayah. FBI also offered a $20,000 reward for any information over the whereabouts of Aliayah.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children also published an age-progressed photo of Aliayah months after. Meanwhile, Lenal has six more children but lost parental rights over them.
