A judge sentenced a Cleveland woman to three years in jail for dumping her five-year-old daughter’s body in the trash.
India Parker, 35, admitted that in late 2006, she kept her daughter Kaliyah’s deceased body in her house for at least a week, then placed the body in a garbage bin outside. She was found guilty of tampering with evidence and abuse of a corpse.
“I loved my daughter,” Parker said in court. “I don’t know what happened. Why I had a lap in judgment in regards to her. It was a lot for me. I had just gotten her back.”
Parker said she didn’t know where her daughter was, and Judge Timothy McCormick told her, “God forbid if she’s in harm’s way, and alive, there’s going to be a problem.”
Parker was arrested late last year, after her family started questioning why they hadn’t seen the girl for nearly six years.
“I saw [Parker] maybe a year ago at a club, continuing with life as if nothing ever happened and asked about my niece and was told she was doing good,” said Amber Hill, Kaliyah’s aunt.
Other family members said they’d last seen Kaliyah on her fourth birthday.
“I had no contact with my grandbaby,” Cora Hill said. “That was the cruel part. It was cold-hearted. We tried to find her. [Kaliyah] had a caring, loving family that wanted her and wanted to keep her and loved her and we couldn’t find her. And now this tragedy has happened.”
Kaliyah’s body has never been found, and no one knows exactly how she died.
Evelyn Parker, India’s mother, said if anything did happen, it was an accident.
“I love my daughter. She is a good person,” Evelyn said. “She was afraid. She didn’t know what was going to happen to her. She was a good person, and for the past five or six years, she’s been in her own prison.”