Last night there was an amber alert for a
2yo girl that had gone missing. I turned
on the news this morning and I seriously
couldn't believe what I was hearing. This
story enraged me. I almost don't want to
post it because it's that disturbing but I
really just couldn't believe it.
**********
mother is charged with suffocating
2-year-old daughter
police say she stuffed toddler's body
inside diaper box in closet of hill
district home
friday, january 12, 2007
by torsten ove and moustafa ayad,
pittsburgh post-gazette
pittsburgh police last night charged a
25-year-old mother of four with
suffocating her 2 1/2-year-old daughter
and stuffing her body in a box inside a
closet of her hill district home.
Ronda watts initially reported her
daughter bryonna missing in the afternoon,
but after police conducted a search of her
home, they found the little girl dead in
the closet of an upstairs bedroom at 2335
reed st. Her body lay in a 2-foot-tall
pampers cardboard box with a plastic bag
over her head.
Police said the girl, who stood two feet
tall and weighed 28 pounds, appeared to
have been suffocated.
Ms. Watts was charged with homicide.
During an interview at police headquarters
last night, ms. Watts told police that
after her two eldest daughters left home
for school in the morning, she was home
alone with bryonna and her 4-month-old
son.
She said that while dressing the girl, the
toddler became upset and started crying.
Ms. Watts cupped her hand over her
toddler's mouth in an attempt to silence
her cries and the toddler lost
consciousness, police said.
Ms. Watts told police she then grabbed a
plastic bag and placed it over the girl's
head and then found a box and put her body
inside it. She placed the box in a closet
on the second floor of the home.
The girl was found fully dressed inside
the box, her body still warm, police said.
Cmdr. Thomas stangrecki said the child
had "obvious signs of trauma" on her body
but would not comment further.
The allegheny county medical examiner's
office had not ruled on cause of death.
Allegheny county children youth and
families workers removed two other
children from the home as police carried
evidence from the house.
Police would not discuss a possible motive
but believe the mother said that bryonna
had disappeared as a cover story.
Officers from zone 2 responded to the
house after ms. Watts called 911 at 12:40
p.M. To report the girl was gone from her
front porch.
While police dispatchers broadcast a
description of bryonna, saying she was
wearing pink pants and had beads in her
hair, the officers looked through the
house.
Explaining that sometimes children play
games and that maybe the girl was hiding
somewhere in the residence, the officers
searched room by room. As the search
progressed, police said, ms. Watts became
increasingly uneasy. When the officers
entered the upstairs bedroom, she became
extremely agitated and even grabbed one of
the officers.
Police then found bryonna in the closet.
She was pronounced dead at 1:52 p.M.
Two lawyers for the mother, giuseppe
rosselli and his partner, james sheets,
said they had been denied access to their
client for more then five hours last night
because an officer said the mother had
waived her right to have an attorney
present. They said they were only allowed
three to five minutes with their client.
They said ms. Watts was a caring mother
of four who often baby-sat for her
sisters' and cousins' children as well.
"there is nothing to suggest that she is
anything but a 25-year-old single mother
raising four children in a loving manner,"
said mr. Rosselli.
"she has no prior criminal record."
several female family members, who were at
police headquarters while ms. Watts was
being questioned and then later charged,
swarmed the mother last night as she was
led out to a police car headed for the
allegheny county jail.
The women, some of whom took turns yelling
"we love you co-co," also said they were
standing by her. Ms. Watts was crying as
she was led around the police parking lot
to an unmarked police car.
Two other female relatives were also
questioned but were not considered
suspects. Police said that ms. Watts'
boyfriend, who is also not considered a
suspect, was being questioned last night.