Majelic ‘Jellie’ Young, a 4-year-old North Carolina child, died after her mom reportedly administered a punishment that resulted in her death. A child protective services social worker called 911 to seek a welfare check after family members hadn’t seen the girl in months. Police responded to the complaint on Braden Drive in Charlotte, where the child’s mother resided with at least eight kids. Officials discovered Jellie’s remains in the backyard.
Jellie had been dead for around nine months when her remains were discovered, according to authorities, but that was only one of many distressing aspects that would be revealed throughout the inquiry into the child’s murder. Detectives allegedly interrogated a guy who said that the kid’s mom informed him that Jellie was deceased, but she did not report her death since the child had bruises on her body and she was terrified of getting in trouble. But it was even worse than he had imagined.
Search warrants quickly revealed the 4-year-old child’s tragic and agonizing last days while also finding a crime of mind-boggling magnitude that would lead to her mother’s and others’ imprisonment. Based on the warrant, Jellie’s 13-year-old sister informed police that Jellie was compelled to stand in the laundry room as punishment and was not allowed to sit down or leave days before her death. She then had a bowel movement in her pants.
But the punishment did not stop there. Jellie, on the other hand, was compelled to stand for three days, getting so weak that she fell out of the back door, hitting her head on the ground. Jellie’s breathing was characterized as “off and on” by her sister after fainting from apparent tiredness and hurting her head. She told authorities that was the day the child died, but the misery was far from finished.
Malikah Diane Bennett, 31, reportedly tried CPR on Jellie after she stopped breathing but was unable to do so. Bennett cleaned the child’s body and placed her corpse in two black plastic garbage bags after realizing she was dead. Bennett then reportedly kept the remains in her SUV for around five days until the odor of decomposition became overpowering.
Bennett, who was apparently pregnant with another kid at the time, went out and purchased a shovel, digging a hole in the backyard. Surprisingly, the mother then let her 13-year-old daughter assist in placing Jellie’s body in the small grave and covering it with dirt. Bennett reportedly told cops during an interview that she dropped Jellie off with another relative 9 months ago and hadn’t seen her since. However, when authorities inspected the premises, they discovered a shovel and human bones.
According to reports, the girl’s body was covered with bruises, she had black eyes, and she suffered serious wounds. Malikah Diane Bennett was arrested and charged with first-degree murder, felony child abuse, causing bodily damage, and criminal concealing a death after being suspected of murdering her daughter and attempting to cover it up. Jellie’s grandma, Tammy Moffett, 53, was charged with concealing a death and being an accomplice after the fact a few days later.
“I’ve worked homicide for most of the last 10 years, and I can tell you this case is deeply disturbing,” Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department Lieutenant Bryan Crum said of the incident at a news conference. Bennett had a history of child abuse accusations concerning her and her kids, including three ongoing misdemeanor child abuse charges from only 6 months before Jellie’s murder, making this situation worse.
Majelic ‘Jellie’ Young’s ordeal was described as “torture,” according to family friend Lucille Puckett, who has been following the case since the child’s bones were discovered. To actually see the search warrant hurts her, Puckett said. She does not think this is limited to Jellie. We have no idea how many kids are lost in the system or may be in the same scenario. Indeed, this situation should make us all question the system.
A woman facing several child abuse charges was given the freedom and chance to compel a 4-year-old to stand for three days before collapsing from fatigue, hitting her skull, and stopping breathing. This may have been avoided if Malikah Diane Bennett had been held responsible for the alleged child abuse she perpetrated 6 months prior to allegedly murdering her daughter with an extreme punishment that culminated in what had to be an agonizing death. There is absolutely no justification for this.
