California mom charged with murder of toddler
LANCASTER, Calif. (AP) -- A Southern California mother has been charged with murdering the 18-month-old daughter she initially reported missing last month.
Prosecutors in Los Angeles County said Monday that 24-year-old Stacey Marie Barker of Quartz Hill was charged with one count each of murder, assault on a child causing death, and child abuse.
Barker had claimed that an attacker knocked her out and abducted her daughter Emma on March 18, authorities said. She later recanted and helped sheriff's deputies locate the child's body in the brush beside a road in the Sylmar area of Los Angeles.
"At this point, as best as we can determine, the infant died through suffocation at the hands of the mother," sheriff's Lt. Pat Nelson said. "After her third or fourth version of events, we knew she wasn't telling the truth."
Barker's brother, Nick, told The Associated Press after her arrest last Thursday that she says the child's death was an accident, but she didn't tell him what happened.
Detectives arrested Barker last Thursday because of "indications she might flee or disappear," Nelson said. She was being held on $1 million bail.
Investigators believe the girl died four or five hours before her mother reported her missing, he said.
Barker is scheduled to be arraigned May 11.
(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
