In Syracuse, New York, authorities embarked on a somber search for the remains of a 5-year-old girl, coinciding with her mother’s court appearance on charges linked to the tragic death of the child.
Latasha Mott, aged 29, faced charges of first-degree manslaughter and concealing a corpse, as reported by the Associated Press, the Post-Standard of Syracuse, and ABC’s WSYR-TV. Despite the grave allegations, Mott entered a plea of not guilty.
Court documents, as cited by the Post-Standard and WSYR-TV, reveal that prosecutors accuse Mott of striking her daughter, Nefertiti Harris, multiple times with a belt during a shower in their apartment in January.
The prosecution contends that the beating led to Harris’s death, alleging that Mott deliberately concealed her daughter’s body in a wooded area.
On the day of Mott’s court appearance, Syracuse police conducted a search for Harris’s body in a park and a field in the Eastwood neighborhood, close to where Mott lived. Officers equipped with rakes and buckets were seen entering the wooded area, as reported by WSYR-TV.
The search effort also included the use of a drone, according to the Post-Standard. Police informed WSYR-TV that the search would persist until they gather the necessary evidence for their investigation, with an Onondaga County medical examiner present at the scene.
The disappearance of Harris came to light after concerned relatives reached out to the Syracuse police, expressing that they had not seen or heard from the child. This led to the initiation of a missing person’s case, as stated by Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick to the Post-Standard.
During the investigation, when questioned by the police, Mott allegedly confessed to killing her daughter and hiding the body in the woods, Fitzpatrick disclosed.
Although Mott has pleaded not guilty to the charges, she is currently detained at the Onondaga County Justice Center without the possibility of bail, as per reports from the Post-Standard and WSYR-TV.
The Onondaga County District Attorney and Mott’s attorney, Don Kelly, were not immediately available for comment on the case. Kelly, however, conveyed to the AP that it was “way too early for me to even make any assessment in respect to the case.”