A health worker decided this week {that a} trio of sisters who briefly went lacking earlier than their our bodies turned up in a Texas pond final summer season have been strangled to dying earlier than being deserted within the water, sparking a murder investigation.
The our bodies of Zi’Ariel Oliver, 9, Amiyah Hughes, 8, and Temari Oliver, 5, have been discovered within the pond on July 30 in rural Cass County—close to the border with Arkansas. Their deaths have been initially reported as tragic drownings that despatched their household and the small group of Atlanta, Texas, into mourning.
New particulars rising this week paint a distinct image of what occurred, nevertheless. A health worker decided the sisters had “lacerations” on their faces and that all of them died by strangulation, stated Cass County District Lawyer Courtney Shelton in a information launch obtained by the Texarkana Gazette.
The youngsters have been reported lacking round 9 p.m. on July 29 by their cousin, Paris Propps, who was babysitting them and their different three siblings—who have been unhurt—whereas their mother labored, the Gazette beforehand reported.
Dive groups from a neighboring county rushed to a pond on their neighbor’s property, about 200 ft from their dwelling, after an deserted shoe and purple bicycle was noticed close by. The Gazette reported that the siblings’ our bodies have been discovered round 3 a.m. the next morning.
Shommaonique Oliver, the ladies’ mom, posted to Fb that the lack of her “candy infants” had been “so unreal.” She later wrote in a GoFundMe fundraiser, which raised $17,000, that the tragedy was a “massive shock.”
A number of calls and messages to members of the family of the sisters weren’t returned on Friday afternoon.
Final summer season, Cass County Sheriff Larry Rowe informed the Gazette that he had “no thought” what the ladies have been doing close to the pond, with different officers confirming the children weren’t sporting life jackets or swimwear.
Shelton stated “a number of witness statements” have been taken by authorities and that DNA testing is ongoing. He made no point out of potential suspects or a attainable motive within the alleged triple slaying.