SANFORD, N.C. (AP) — A missing 5-year-old whose mother was accused of offering her for sex was found dead off a heavily wooded road in a rural area Monday, ending a weeklong search, police said.

Searchers found Shaniya Davis' body early Monday afternoon about 100 feet off a road southeast of Sanford, in central North Carolina, Fayetteville Police spokeswoman Theresa Chance said. She declined to comment on a cause of death or the condition of Shaniya's body.

"We've got a lot of people out at the scene right now that are torn up," Chance said. "Detectives have been running off adrenaline to find this little girl and to bring her home alive. You have a lot of people in shock right now."

Two people have been charged in her disappearance, one of them her mother, Antoinette Davis, 25. Police charged Davis with human trafficking and felony child abuse, saying Shaniya was offered for prostitution.

Davis was calm and quiet during a five-minute court appearance in Fayetteville on Monday afternoon. She provided one-word answers to the judge's questions and held her hands in front of her, without handcuffs. She requested a court-appointed attorney and did not enter a plea.

Her sister, Brenda Davis, 20, said outside that she does not believe the charges.

"I don't believe she could hurt her children," said Brenda Davis, who was able to speak to her sister at the jail Sunday.

Authorities also charged Mario Andrette McNeill, 29, with kidnapping after they said surveillance footage from a Sanford hotel showed him carrying Shaniya there. Authorities said McNeill admitted taking the girl, though his attorney said he will plead not guilty.

Davis reported Shaniya missing Tuesday. Authorities first arrested a man named Clarence Coe, but charges against him were dropped a day later when investigators tracked down McNeill after receiving a tip from a hotel employee.

Additional information led investigators to a search site near Sanford on Sunday. They continued searching Monday, scouring miles of landscape, roads, ravines and fields on four-wheelers and with helicopters.

After Shaniya's body was found, a solemn group of searchers met quietly at a nearby fire station to ensure that all volunteers were accounted for.

"We were hoping that someone could carry her home," said Syd Severe, 42, who came from Raleigh to help with the search. "It's just sick."

A cluster of emergency vehicles and law enforcement personnel gathered where Shaniya's body was found, about a quarter mile from N.C. Highway 87. Authorities blocked access to the road, a rural area popular with hunters that is less than a mile from a large lakeside community.

Shaniya's father, Bradley Lockhart, said he raised his daughter for several years but last month decided to let her stay with her mother. He had pleaded for her safe return.

Lockhart told The Associated Press on Saturday that he and Davis never argued about him raising Shaniya, and Cumberland County courts had no record of a custody dispute. He described his relationship with Davis as a "one-night stand" and said he did not know McNeill.

Davis struggled financially over the years, but she recently obtained a job and her own place, so Lockhart said he decided to give her a chance to raise their daughter.

"I should've never let her go over there," he said Saturday night.

Before Shaniya's body was found, he said on CBS's "The Early Show" Monday that he remained hopeful someone would bring his daughter somewhere safe, such as a police station or hospital.

"They can drop her off at Walmart, I don't care," he said.

A friend at Lockhart's home Monday afternoon said Lockhart did not want to speak with reporters.

___

Associated Press Writers Mike Baker in Raleigh and Martha Waggoner in Fayetteville contributed to this report.






Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.


SHE WAS SO BEAUTIFUL



[Edited 11/16/09 14:28pm]
[Edited 11/16/09 15:35pm]

I just cannot believe the violence perpetrated against children in our society. Where is this sickness coming from?

dude's name is mario andrette?

people will ghetto-ize any damn name

for dad.

oh boy

Gotta agree Supa.

It's nothing new, but it never ceases to sadden me when such violence is perpetrated against a child.

I can't even read all of that. RIP lil one.

MOTHER FUCK!!!!!

I was following up on this story. I swore they would bring her back alive.


Fuck!!!!!

I hope that BITCH will fry in FUCKIN' HELL for what she did to that poor little girl. She didn't get a chance to live. How in the fuck as a parent could you sell your own child, a 5 year old at that, into prostitution? What the fuck is going on this world these days? Surely we in a recession but times ain't THAT FUCKIN' HARD that you have to sell your children for money. And now that poor girl, who didn't have a chance is dead. I can't even imagine what her father feels, I know he is wishing he could kill himself for just letting his daughter spend time with that demon. Oh my goodness
[Edited 11/16/09 15:21pm]

That dead girl's mother deserves no mercy from the courts!

this world makes me sick....

missfee said:

oh she will, burn over and over and over again till her creator sees fit

Fury said:

SICK!!!!!

look at the light on that child's face. Unbelievable the nightmare existence she had to live, and from her mother's hands no less.

I have no words for this ...
And I loathe, just loathe peadophiles, fucking pedo's, parasites who exploit economic inequality.

The death penalty is too good for that b*tch. Damn shame.

You're right, 2elijah....The death penalty is too good. Too quick. I say put the mom and all the guys who had her in jail together in the open population with orders NOT to shank and kill but to torture and rape with a barbed wire stick for as long as possible.


RIP little angel...at least you don't hurt anymore.
[Edited 11/16/09 17:21pm]

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said:

take your pick. television, internet, video games, media, adverts, people in general.
sad to say, but as horrific as these stories are, they almost seem less surprising and almost desensitizing to the general public. a quick "oh my god how sad." then it's just an after thought. people can barely speak to one another or acknowledge another human being in everyday life. no one says, excuse me, or hello; people don't apologize anymore or accept faults, it's distgusting but also become common place. so who's going to care about a missing girl?

I can't believe her own mother let men do whatever they wanted to her....sick piece of ....

paintedlady said:

Amen

1013Nightlife said:

This girl was not kidnapped. Exploit economic inequality? Aren't there two sides to a commercial transaction? C'mon. It's called free will. It was a calculated transaction putting a child in harms way with premeditation. Totally sickening and despicable. I can't imagine the depravity to do something like this.

The bitch of a whore/slut mother and her co-conspirator dreaded demon friend both need to be killed. Plain and simple. We are too lenient with these motherfuckers and that's why child rape and murder and human trafficking will continue and in fact increase. Sex crimes are never treated with the severity of murder when in fact they are a form of murder. You can murder someone's mind as well as their body. This child probably suffered unspeakable horrors all at the age of 5. Then her violators leave her in the woods next to some deer carcass like a peace of trash.

I cannot for the life of me understand why this father would allow his child to be placed with this woman nor can I fathom why he'd knock her up in the first place. I think Shaniya was failed by both parents.

And wtf, $51,000 bail? Who can't raise that? A child is dead and the mother may get bailed. Her side of the family doesn't even appear to be grieving for Shaniya. Just unfuckingbelievable.

Considering that the girl's father likely didn't just send her over out of the blue, I can only imagine her scheming to procure her daughter.

I just really don't want to believe that people can, and do.

let's have a quick execution for mom (and the pedo, for that matter)

let's set a MAJOR example - America is not going to put up with this shit anymore

SUPRMAN said:

Mother should NEVER EVER have had children. But it is a fact that pedo's take advantage of situations where people would do such things, usually economic related. Why do you think pedos are especially active in some Asian countries? Latin America, Africa for that matter?
There used to be some pedo traffic to the former Eastern Block where people were that desperate to sell their child for sex. I heard about fucking pedos bragging about having sex with 13 year olds in Hungary.
[Edited 11/17/09 1:36am]

RIP Baby Girl

that is awful...
poor little thing

abigail05 said:

I will gladly shoot all them mofos. Or hang them. Or kick them off a 20 story building. None of that lethal injection shit. Too easy. They need to have pain like that poor little child had pain.

Fury said:

OH MY GOD...I went to school with her! This is...whoa.