Caliyah McNabb Case: Mother Arrested After 2-Week-Old Daughter Found Dead in Georgia

Stock photo of police tape. Carl Ballou/Shutterstock

The mother of a baby who was found dead in a wooded area in Georgia has been charged in the two-week-old baby’s death.

The child, Caliyah McNabb, was reported missing in October in Newton County, Georgia. She was later found dead in a bag near the home, and her father, Christopher McNabb, was charged in her death.

Courtney Bell. Newton County Sheriff’s Office

The infant’s mother, Cortney Bell, was arrested Saturday in connection with her daughter’s death, WSB-TV reported.

Bell was arrested in the parking lot of a Home Depot in Conyers, Georgia, and when she was taken into custody, police charged her with second-degree murder, deprivation of a minor, and cruelty to children, according to the report.

According to a 911 call, Bell’s 2-year-old child was the first to notice that Caliyah went missing. “My 2-year old says she’s gone. I’ve looked everywhere in the house and I don’t know another possibility,” Bell told a Newton County 911 operator, according to WSB-TV.

“Her blanket is gone. Her pacifier is on the floor. Her blanket is not with us,” said Bell.

Bell then said she fell asleep on a couch in her home, and that she saw the child five hours before she called the authorities.

Caliyah, an autopsy revealed, died from blunt-force trauma,  reported the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

McNabb, 27, has remained in a jail in Newton without bond since his arrest in October.

He was charged with malice murder, felony murder, second-degree murder, aggravated battery, and concealing the death of another.

According 11Alive, before he was charged in connection with the case, McNabb had been telling people that he didn’t do it. Shortly after a search party found the the child but before he knew about it, McNabb reportedly walked into a convenience store and told a clerk, without being asked, that he “didn’t do it.”

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