A sick New Jersey couple accused of murdering their 9-year-old daughter are now reportedly being investigated over claims that they also viciously abused her, including having her homeschooled so no one would “see the bruises.”
Mom India L. Miller, 27, and stepfather Sean D. Scott, 45, called 911 around 1:10 a.m. and claimed their daughter, Maya Thomas, had been hit by a car while she was out walking the family dog in Paulsboro, NJ.com reported Thursday, according to the Gloucester County Prosecutor’s Office.
Responding officers found Thomas unresponsive inside the home with facial trauma and bruising on her body, according to a probable cause affidavit obtained by the outlet.
Miller said her daughter had gone out to walk their dog when she “heard a loud sound, similar to tires screeching” and then found her by the shed and brought her inside, court documents said.
However, investigators said Thomas would have sustained different injuries if she had been hit by a car — and ultimately determined she was not hit by a vehicle, the outlet reported.
The girl was rushed to Cooper Hospital where she died around 6:45 p.m.
Hospital staff discovered injuries to her vaginal area, NJ.com reported Friday.
Thomas’ autopsy revealed several injuries — abrasions to her inner thigh, a ruptured colon, multiple broken ribs and her eyes were swollen shut.
Some of the injuries were in the healing phase, which indicated she had been abused over an extended period of time, according to the publication.
The little girl’s 4-year-old sibling, who shares a different father, told cops that Scott hit the girl in the face and that she was hit by a Paulsboro police car, the affidavit said.
Investigators discovered what appeared to be blood on the tile surrounding the tub in the family’s upstairs bathroom where wet and bloody children’s clothing were also found.
And blood was also found on a Swiffer mop and other cleaning supplies, authorities said.
The couple were each slapped with a slew of charges including murder, endangering and abuse/neglect of a child, filing a false police report and hindering prosecution, according to online records for the Salem County jail.
A spokesperson for the New Jersey’s Division of Child Protection and Permanency confirmed Friday that it’s investigating both physical and sexual abuse allegations.
The department was first alerted about the alleged abuse on Tuesday after the county prosecutor’s office called the New Jersey Child Abuse Hotline.
Thomas was homeschooled “because they didn’t want anybody to see the bruises,” her maternal grandmother Lynn Miller told the outlet Thursday.
The Miller matriarch said she raised Thomas from the time she was 18 months until she was 7-years-old in Las Vegas, until the little girl moved with her mother to New Jersey to live with Scott.
Lynn Miller said her daughter cut off contact around two years ago, which prevented her from speaking regularly with her granddaughter.
“She was a happy, carefree girl,” the grieving grandmother said.
The sick couple are being held at the Salem County jail and are scheduled to appear before a state judge on Tuesday.
Thomas’ sibling, meanwhile, is in the care of child protection, the department spokesperson confirmed.
The Gloucester County Prosecutor’s Office and the New Jersey Division of Child Protection and Permanency did not respond to The Posts’s requests for more information.
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