A MISSING five-year-old girl whose mother was accused of offering her for sex was found dead near a heavily wooded road yesterday, ending a week-long search.  

By Alysia Patterson in Washington | The Daily Telegraph | November 18, 2009

  • Mum offered five-year-old daugher for sex
  • Girls body later found in woods
  • Mother faces human trafficking charges

A MISSING five-year-old girl whose mother was accused of offering her for sex was found dead near a heavily wooded road yesterday, ending a week-long search.  

Weeping searchers found Shaniya Davis' body near Sanford, in central North Carolina, police spokeswoman Theresa Chance said.

"We've got a lot of people out at the scene right now that are torn up," Ms Chance said.

"Detectives have been running off adrenalin to find this little girl and to bring her home alive. You have a lot of people in shock."

Two people have been charged over her disappearance, one of them her mother Antoinette Davis, 25.

Police charged Davis with human trafficking and felony child abuse and said Shaniya was offered for prostitution.

Davis was calm and quiet during a five-minute court appearance in Fayetteville this week.

She gave one-word answers to the judge's questions and held her hands in front of her, without handcuffs. She requested a court-appointed lawyer and did not enter a plea.

Her sister Brenda Davis, 20, said outside the court that she did not believe the charges.

Police also charged Mario Andrette McNeill, 29, with kidnapping after they said surveillance footage from a Sanford hotel showed him carrying Shaniya there. Authorities said McNeill admitted taking the girl, although his lawyer said he will plead not guilty.

Davis had reported Shaniya missing last week and police first arrested a

man named Clarence Coe but charges against him were dropped a day later when investigators tracked down McNeill after receiving a tip from a hotel employee.

Additional information led police to a search site near Sanford on Sunday. They continued searching on Monday, scouring miles of landscape, roads, ravines and fields on four-wheelers and with helicopters.

After Shaniya's body was found, a solemn group of searchers met quietly at a nearby fire station.

"We were hoping someone could carry her home," Syd Severe said.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,26366218-401,00.html





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