It took hours of searching, but police found a missing little girl in the early hours of Saturday morning. One-year-old Zyia Roch-Quelle Alyssa Turner hadn't left her grandmother's Detroit home at all, it seems. The baby was found inside the closet, buried under some 20 pounds of clothing.
It's a heartbreaking end to what is already a sad story. Zyia's family called police late Friday afternoon, thinking she was gone. It would take hours for police to find her body inside the house ... after they searched the neighborhood.
According to police, her mom left the 17-month-old in the care of an uncle so she could go to a medical appointment. He went into his own bedroom, leaving little Zyia and some other children unsupervised for a short period of time.
Kind of makes you wonder why they didn't start the search for little Zyia inside, doesn't it? I'm not a cop, but we are talking babies after all. Crawling babies. Kids who love to disappear into any section of the house and hide.
I know parents who have found their kids under their own cribs after their backs were turned for just a second. Heading to the closet isn't exactly ... rocket science. So I'm more than a little curious how it took nine hours (the time between 4 p.m. when she was reported missing and 1 a.m. when she was found by a cadaver dog) until this missing baby was discovered.
I don't blame the family right now. I blame the searchers. What happened to common sense, people? Can you imagine the agony this family went through?
It seems like this isn't the first time police have found the body of a missing child closer to their own home than you would expect. Last week a missing boy in Michigan was found under his porch -- although reports are now pointing to the body having been moved. Zyia, on the other hand, seems to have spent the sad last moments of her life right there in the closet. And that makes my heart hurt.
What is the first thing you do when you can't find your child? Where is the very first place you would search?
Image via brianteutsch/Flickr
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Comments 89
Seriously? You don't blame the family, you blame the searchers??? First of all the closets are one of the first places the family should have looked themselves! Second of all, there wouldn't have been a need for searchers if the uncle hadn't let the kids out of his site in the first place! Third, how do you know he didn't do something to her and put her there and say she was missing, just like the 4 year old Michigan boy you referred to in your article???
I think it's sad that people are blaming either. The family probably frantically were searching but didn't think to look under the clothes they might have opened the closet quickly looked in and didn't see anything. If she suffocated you don't know when it happened since you know no details about her death. She could have not been moving and been quiet at the time. The cops probably thought the family looked everywhere in the house and wanted to find her in the neighborhood before person taking her got away or if she was walking around before she got hurt. I think it's horrible how quick people are to judge others while they are sitting at their desks or computers and not having to deal with what is happening to another. I think all the judgemental things said by some are people who need to get a life. I know I wouldn't be in a calm frame of mind had this happened to any of my children and might accidentally overlook something while rushing around freaking out. It was a mistake on everyone's part not to look thoroughly at first but that doesn't make them dumb or bad people common. I am sure that everyone involved already feels as horrible as possible inside as it is. Go hug your kids and clean out your closets instead.