Recently, a 12-year-old girl was charged with suffocating her 8-year-old cousin while she was asleep during a family visit. According to prosecutors, video footage from a home security system shows the juvenile allegedly attacking her cousin in her sleep with bedding on July 15 at a Humboldt, Tennessee home, nearly 100 miles northeast of Memphis.
After killing her younger cousin, the girl allegedly cleaned up the victim’s body and repositioned it. The older girl, who turns 13 this month, has been charged with first-degree murder and tampering with evidence. The victim’s mother, Rayana Smith, identified the victim as Demeria Hollingsworth. She explained that before the death of her daughter, the two cousins had engaged in an argument over an iPhone.
“She liked to read books, go swimming, play outside, ride her bike every day, play with the kids in the neighborhood, play with my friends’ kids. My baby was sweet,” Smith told Fox 59. The mother added that the last thing she expected was that the conflict over the phone would turn deadly. “When they told me about that, I should have just gone to get my kid,” she added. “But they were having fun for the summer and I didn’t think she would kill my baby.”
“She did nothing to deserve for her life to be taken,” Smith said, illustrating how it is difficult to process what has happened to her young daughter. “She was only 8 years old. She just turned 8 in April,” she added. Frederick Agee, District Attorney General for the 28th District in West Tennessee, explained that his office is seeking Juvenile Judge Mark Johnson to transfer the child to Circuit Court to be tried as an adult.
“I consider this to be one of the most disturbing violent acts committed by either an adult or juvenile that my office has prosecuted,” Agee said in a statement shared on social media. “Last time I seen my baby, she was smiling, giving me kisses, telling me she will see me when it’s time for her to come back home. She never coming back home. She never coming back home,” Smith said.
A GoFundMe has been organized by Rayana to cover the costs of the funeral for her late daughter. As of writing this article, the fundraiser has brought in over $17,000 from nearly 500 donations, exceeding its goal of raising $10,000. The mother expressed that the pain of losing her daughter is unbearable, but she must persevere to raise her other child.