CHARLOTTE — A mother struggling with addiction thought she was doing the right thing for her daughter by stepping aside, so her baby’s aunt could give her a better life.
But six years later, her aunt is charged for the young girl’s murder, accused of severely abusing 6-year-old Dominique Moody until she died.
Moody’s mother, Ikea McKnight, told Channel 9’s Eli Brand she wants to know how the system failed to save her little girl.
“My baby didn’t deserve what she went through,” Ikea McKnight said. “My job as a parent was to give her what I never had, which is why I trusted Tonya.”
McKnight spoke out about her daughter’s tragic death for the first time Monday morning, alongside other family members and her attorney, the nationally recognized civil rights lawyer Ben Crump. Crump says he and his law firm have not yet taken legal action but are working to find out how the alleged abuse of Moody was not discovered before she died.
“Stevie Wonder would see the abuse,” Crump said. “If you just did your job and did an inspection.”
Moody died while in the custody of her aunt, Tonya McKnight. She was granted custody in 2021 after concerns surrounding Moody’s mother’s ability to care for her at the time.
Police reports indicate Moody was found dead weighing only 27 pounds, after being kept in a dog cage and tied with duct tape.
Tonya McKnight has since been charged with murder. Two other women also face charges in the case.
[ READ MORE >> Third arrest made in death of 6-year-old in east Charlotte ]
“When you hear the word lynch, you think about everything she suffered,” Crump said. “It’s a different kind of lynching for this baby.”
Crump says a distant relative of Moody is a funeral director and prepared her body for the funeral. He claims to have found bones that had been broken years ago and burns on her body he believes happened after she died. That embalmer’s report was not released at the news conference.
Attorneys claim authorities were called multiple times about abuse.
Channel 9 reached out to the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services about the case in the past. They expressed their condolences but did not answer questions about how often they had check-ins.
Alongside Tonya McKnight, Tery’n McKnight and Susan Robinson have been charged with felony child abuse.
Days after their arrests, the house in east Charlotte where the abuse occurred was set on fire. Investigators are unsure who did it.
VIDEO: ‘House of horrors’: Police detail conditions leading to 6-year-old’s death after guardian’s arrest
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