A boy in Michigan has been charged with murder after his stepsister’s body was found on Tuesday, police said.
Jameion Peterson, 14, was arrested in connection with the death of Na’Mylah J. Turner-Moore, 10, who was reported missing and whose body was later discovered in a lot near her stepfather’s house, MLive.com reported.
According to the report, Melonzine Turner, the girl’s mother, was in the hospital when she was notified that her daughter was missing and traveled home, where police told her the girl was dead.
"As soon as I made it to the scene is when they found her," Turner said, MLive.com reported.
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Turner described her daughter, who would be celebrating her 11th birthday later this month, as her "everything" and said she was often laughing, dancing, and making TikTok videos.
"My baby was everything," Turner said, per the outlet. "She was jolly, smiley-faced. She had personality. She had so many friends. Everybody wanted to be around her. She just was lovable."
"That was her thing, dancing and TikToking," she added. Her mother was in the hospital Tuesday for two stomach surgeries as she has Crohn's disease, a condition the 10-year-old had said inspired her to become a doctor.
"She always told me, ‘Momma, I’m gonna take care of you. I’m gonna be a doctor,’" Turner said. "She was more mature than her age."
Turner gave birth to twins in April and said the 10-year-old was supportive of her younger siblings.
"She just wanted them in her face all the time," the mother said, MLive.com reported. "She just wanted to love on her sisters and brothers because she knew she was the oldest."
Turner, still recovering from her surgeries, said she is hurt that her stepson may have been involved in her daughter’s death.
"I treated that boy like he was my own," she told MLive.com. "I put clothes on his back. He was like another child of mine. I would have never thought he would have done nothing like this. But then again, you can’t put nothing past nobody and you can’t judge a book by its cover."
The cause of death was not known at this time as her body awaits an autopsy.
Peterson’s preliminary examination is scheduled for Sept. 21.
