Shaniya Davis Story

I rarely do missing child stories for a bunch of reason. The first is they’re not my style. The second is I find them to be very tabloidish, thank you very much Nancy Grace. And lastly and most importantly because there are a plethora of blogs that cover them better than I ever could. That doesn’t mean I don’t care about them.

Living in North Carolina I couldn’t help be affected by the story of 5-year-old Shaniya Davis missing from Fayetteville. With all the media attention, the pictures of her from the motel and the arrests of her mother, Nicole Davis and Mario Andrette McNeill I thought to myself that this time the victim would be found alive. As I’m sure most of you know by now that wasn’t the case.

I received a slew of tips from everybody and thank you for that. However I wanted to share one particular e-mail I received from a reader by the name of Dawn who also lives in North Carolina. She put it better than I ever could.

I am sure you know, as nearly all the world does now, but Shaniya Davis, who you mentioned a day or so past, was found dead today. I live in this small town, Sanford NC, and that baby’s body was found just over a mile from my home. Our community mourns for this child that we didn’t even know, but was left within our reach so callously. Hundreds of people from our community turned out to search for her, and in the end our hearts were broken. She was found dead, decomposing, next to a deer carcass, wearing only a tshirt.

Look at that fucker McNeill. Tell me you do not wish him a thousand brutal deaths, after he is dismembered, one small piece at a time. After the bastard admits to kidnapping her, he is scene smirking in his arrest photo.

May her mother rot in hell for eternity for this. We are supposed to give up our lives for our children. How can any mother ever understand, or look upon her with less than hate in their hearts, for selling this beautiful baby.

It is a sick, sick world we live in.

And unfortunately for the children there doesn’t seem to be any cure in the foreseeable future.

Shaniya Davis

Antoinette Davis, mother of 5-year-old Shaniya Davis found dead today near Sanford, North Carolina, will face charges.

The USA Today details the initial charges expected to be filed, as well as information on an accomplice who will be charged:

Antoinette Davis, 25 is charged with human trafficking and felony child abuse. An accomplice, Andrette McNeill, 29, will face kidnapping charges. He was seen on surveillance footage carrying Shaniya at a Sanford hotel. As a result, another man who was arrested last week has been freed.

Antoinette Davis, sometimes referred to as Antoinette Nicole Davis, reported her daughter Shaniya Davis missing Tuesday morning, leading to an extensive search led by the Fayetteville, North Carolina, police.

Bradley Lockhart Shaniya

NEW YORK (CBS/AP) Bradley Lockhart, father of 5-year-old Shaniya Davis, appeared with his sister Carey Lockhart-Davis on CBS’ “Early Show” Monday to beg for the girl’s safe return.

PICTURES: Shaniya Davis Found Dead

But their tearful plea was in vain; After a massive, nearly week-long search effort, Shaniya Davis was found dead Monday afternoon in Sanford, N.C., about 30 miles from her Fayetteville home. Sanford is 42 miles south west of Raleigh.

“Drop her off at Wal-Mart, anywhere, I don’t care – just so somebody can find her and bring her back to the people that love her,” her father Bradley Lockhart said Monday morning, hours before police found his daughter’s body.

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“She’s a precious, little angel, full of joy,” he said. “A little reserved when you first meet her, but once she gets to know you, she just runs around, plays and won’t leave you alone.”

“I just ask that, at this time, please just let her go,” said Shaniya’s aunt, Carey Lockhart-Davis. “She doesn’t deserve this. Have a kind heart.”

PICTURES: Shaniya Davis Found Dead

Bradley Lockhart and his sister, who live out of state, cared for the girl until last month, when she went to live with her mother. Antoinette Davis had worked to get her life together and had been working for at least six months and gotten a place of her own, Bradley Lockhart said.

“I should’ve never let her go over there,” he told The Associated Press on Saturday.

“She had asked if she could be a mother, and I felt she was sincere in asking, and I figured to give her a chance,” he said.

But according to police Antoinette Davis had not gotten her life back together and sold her daughter into sexual slavery. Her arrest documents say that she “knowingly provide[d] Shaniya Davis with the intent that she be held in sexual servitude” and she “permit[ted] an act of prostitution.”

Antoinette Davis was scheduled to appear in court Monday afternoon.

Another man, Mario Andrette McNeill, has been charged with kidnapping in the case. He was seen last Tuesday in a hotel surveillance video carrying Shaniya Davis towards an elevator in a Comfort Suites hotel in Sanford.

Police have not yet commented on whether the charges against Antoinette Davis and Mario Andrette McNeill will be amended to include murder. The relationship, if any, between Antoinette Davis and Mario Andrette McNeill is unclear at this time.