Parents indicted in death of 5-year-old daughter found concealed in family restaurant

JACKSON TOWNSHIP, Ohio — An Ohio couple has been indicted in the January beating death of their 5-year-old daughter, whose body was found hidden in their restaurant.

Mingming Chen, 29, and Liang Zhao, 34, of Jackson Township, were indicted on charges of murder, endangering children, tampering with evidence and obstruction of justice, among other charges, WKYC-TV in Cleveland reported.

Zhao initially called police the night of Jan. 9 and reported that the couple’s daughter, Ashley Zhao, had disappeared from their restaurant, Ang’s Asian Cuisine. He claimed that she had gone into a back room to take a nap earlier in the evening but was missing when Chen went to check on her.

Her disappearance launched a massive overnight search, including with drones and police dogs, which ultimately took officers back to the restaurant, where a more thorough search of the building led to the grim discovery of the girl’s lifeless body.

The Canton Repository reported that investigators believe Chen struck the girl several times in the head with her fists. They alleged that when Zhao found Ashley unresponsive, with green liquid coming from her mouth, he tried to clean her up and attempted CPR before helping his wife hide her body.

Fox 8 in Cleveland reported that police believe the girl died on the morning of Jan. 9, but her parents waited until after 9 p.m. to call 911, leaving her body hidden as they ran the restaurant all day.

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The exact location of Ashley's body has not been made public, but Jackson Township police Chief Mark Brink told Fox 8 in January that her body was hidden well enough that his department's first search of the restaurant failed to locate her.

Brink said at the time that officers initially thought she may have hidden of her own accord, but when the search branched out from the restaurant, an officer was left to guard the restaurant.

By that time, investigators had begun to believe that a more thorough search of the building would have to take place.

"We did not want anybody to be able to do anything with that building during that time," Brink told the news station. "So eventually, we would have taken a second look at that building, but we would have searched in other places, because by that time, you would know you don't simply have a child that walked away."

It was not immediately clear if there was a history of child abuse in the family. Fox 8 reported that Ashley's 6-year-old sister was placed in foster care after their parents were arrested.

Zhao and Chen are scheduled to be arraigned March 15, WKYC-TV reported. 

Cox Media Group