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Stepmom Allegedly Strangled 10-Year-Old To Death Over A Charm Bracelet
"She wouldn't explain why she had killed her other that she was very angry," a probable cause statement regarding the murder of Skylea Rayn Carmack states.
An Indiana woman accused of killing her own stepdaughter allegedly admitted she did it after becoming irate over a charm bracelet.
The body of 10-year-old Skylea Rayn Carmack was found in a plastic garbage bag inside a shed behind her Gas City home earlier this month days after her step-mom, Amanda Carmack, 34, claimed she ran away.
A probable cause affidavit filed on Friday and obtained by Oxygen.com gives insight into what allegedly happened between stepmom and stepdaughter leading up to the child’s death.
The afternoon that Skylea vanished, the same day investigators think she died, her stepmom said they were working in the backyard when she realized Skylea "had taken a charm bracelet from one of the other children in the home.” After disciplining Skylea for that, Amanda originally said Skylea ran off.
Amanda initially claimed that she didn’t know what happened to Skylea. Before the girl’s body was found, when pressed about if she had anything to do with the missing child, Amanda responded with, "I don't remember" or, "It doesn't matter,” according to the probable cause. When asked if she killed her, “the defendant did not admit or deny the allegation but just stared at [a detective.]”
Eventually, she allegedly admitted to slapping Sylea across the face with an open hand over the charm bracelet before later admitting to killing her.
“She stated she does not remember all of the details but she remembers being on top of her in the barn while she was on her back,” according to the statement. “She started choking her with her hands, then she thinks she tied something around her neck."
It states, "She wouldn't explain why she had killed her other that she was very angry.”
She now faces charges of murder, neglect of a dependent resulting in death, domestic battery resulting in death, and strangulation. She’s being held without bond, hasn’t yet entered any pleas, and it’s not clear if she has a lawyer yet.
At a news conference held earlier this month, law officials said they couldn’t wrap their mind around the tragedy and stated that killing a 10-year-old child was an “act of cowardice.”
Six other children lived in the home along with Skylea but Skylea was the only one Amanda had no blood relation to. Three of those children are Amanda’s and the other three were her brother’s, according to the probable cause statement. Skylea was the biological daughter of Amanda's husband.
Some of those children allegedly admitted in police interviews that Amanda was a “strict disciplinarian” who physically abused them, forcing them to face a wall for hours as well as using a pink belt to whip them.
