November 16, 2009 2:13 PM

Shaniya Davis Found Dead; Mother Turned Little Girl Into Sex Slave, Say Police

By
Sammy Rose Saltzman
Topics
Daily Blotter
(Family Photo/WRAL-TV)
Photo: Shaniya Davis.

STORY CONTRIBUTED BY CBS AFFILIATE WRAL

NEW YORK (WRAL) The body of missing 5-year-old Shaniya Nicole Davis was recovered Monday afternoon, Fayetteville Police Chief Tom Bergamine said.

PICTURES: Shaniya Davis Found Dead

The child was first reported missing from her home by her mother last Tuesday morning. On Friday, Mario Andrette McNeill, 29, was charged with first-degree kidnapping, and late Saturday, her mother, Antoinette Nicole Davis, 25, was arrested on accusations that she prostituted her daughter.

Fayetteville police scheduled a 2:30 p.m. news conference at the Benhaven Fire and Rescue Department on Barbeque Church Road.

Fayetteville police received a tip Sunday that Shaniya's body was dumped along Walker Road, off N.C. Highway 87, said Theresa Chance, spokeswoman for the Fayetteville Police Department. About 250 law enforcement agents and volunteers searched the area Monday morning, but they moved farther south after noon.

Searchers focused on an area about 6 miles from the last confirmed sighting of Shaniya. She was seen on security video at the Comfort Suites hotel in Sanford, along with a man who police believe is McNeill, last Tuesday morning.

Shaniya's father and aunt appeared on CBS' "Early Show" Monday to beg for the girl's safe return.

"I just ask that, at this time, please just let her go," said Shaniya's aunt, Carey Lockhart-Davis. "She doesn't deserve this. Have a kind heart."

Lockhart and his sister, who live out of state, cared for the girl until last month, when she went to live with her mother. Davis had worked to get her life together and had been working for at least six months and gotten a place of her own, Lockhart said.

Antoinette Davis is scheduled to appear in court Monday afternoon. Police said that arrest documents say that she "knowingly provide[d] Shaniya Davis with the intent that she be held in sexual servitude" and she "permit[ted] an act of prostitution."

Lockhart-Davis, who is not related to the girl's mother, recalled happy times with Shaniya, when the girl would come home from school showing off marks for good behavior.

"She's a precious, little angel, full of joy," Lockhart said. "A little reserved when you first meet her, but once she gets to know you, she just runs around, plays and won't leave you alone."

STORY CONTRIBUTED BY CBS AFFILIATE WRAL

MEDIA
PICTURES: Shaniya Davis Found Dead

MORE ON CRIMESIDER
November 17, 2009 - Antoinette Davis, Mom Accused of Selling Shaniya Davis as Sex Slave, is Pregnant Again
November 17, 2009 - Shaniya Davis, Fallen "Angel" Remembered In Pictures
November 16, 2009 - Mario Andrette McNeill: Things May Get Much Worse for Man Charged With Kidnapping Shaniya Davis
November 16, 2009 - Shaniya Davis Found Dead; Mother Turned Little Girl Into Sex Slave, Say Police
November 16, 2009 - Bradley Lockhart, Shaniya Davis' Father, Pled For Girl's Return in Vain
November 16, 2009 - Shaniya Davis Found Dead; Mother Turned Little Girl Into Sex Slave, Say Police
November 16, 2009 - Shaniya Davis Not Found: Cops Fear Missing Child is Dead, Search Focuses on Body
November 16, 2009 - Shaniya Davis: Missing 5-Year-Old Seen in Horrifying Hotel Video
November 16, 2009 - Shaniya Davis Missing: Mother Arrested for Human Trafficking, Putting Daughter in "Sexual Servitude"
November 11, 2009 - 5-Year-Old Shaniya Davis Missing; Foul Play Suspected


Add a Comment See all 160 Comments
by kiana0823 August 28, 2011 2:17 AM EDT
Wow this story got me sick to my fckin stomach!!! How the fck can a so called "Mother" let this happen to your child? A mother is to be the one that keeps the child safe and keep the child out of harm and thats exactly *** she put her into???? This brought tears to my eyes and broke my heart. People like her are the type of people that should have a fckin liscence to be a mother!!!! Wow! My heart and prayers go out to this beautiful young girl. Didnt even get to live a quarter of her life. So sad that the good die young. I hope the mother and the guy rott in fckin hell for putting this poor inocence child threw this pain in misery!!! And this is to the guy that did this! Answer this one qustion for me?? What fckin pleasure do you get out of a 5 year old girl.????????????? You sick bastartd!!!!! Men like you should get there balls chopped off in jail and have them fed to you fckin peice of ****!! God bless this cild! i'll pray for you mama! <333
Reply to this comment
by tamtizzle October 13, 2010 7:31 PM EDT
To JC040404: Would you happen to be Antoinette Davis? Is this woman really your main concern? There is a beautiful 5 yeard old baby dead from this and not 1 single web site says anywhere that the mother is innocent. Get your priorities straight! ***! Besides this whole tragedy the only other thing that is ridiculous is you! Do you sleep well at night defending sick pieces of trash like this all the time? You probably think Osama Bin Laden was framed. Well you sick F*#@% read this:
Just released; the autopsy report on little 5 year old Shaniya Davis, who was found deceased November 16; a week after her mother reported her missing on Nov 10 ? Shaniya died from asphyxiation and suffered injuries that confirm the little girl was sexually assaulted.
Her body was found by searchers who had been told the baby had been stashed near a deer carcass dumping ground ~ an area they had been combing for two days, hoping to bring some sort of closure to the horrific story that her egg donor had sold her baby girl into sexual servitude to settle a drug debt.
Shaniya was found under a thick patch of kudzu and was wearing only panties and an adult-sized black sweat shirt.
I?m sure it was a coincidence that family friend, convicted felon and fellow druggie ? Mario McNeill was wearing a black sweatshirt when the surveillance tape captured him carrying the angel in his arms into the Comfort Suites in Sanford into an elevator and into a room, some 40 miles from the feces covered trailer she called home, for the last 5 weeks of her life
Reply to this comment
by tamtizzle October 13, 2010 7:31 PM EDT
To JC040404: Would you happen to be Antoinette Davis? Is this woman really your main concern? There is a beautiful 5 yeard old baby dead from this and not 1 single web site says anywhere that the mother is innocent. Get your priorities straight! ***! Besides this whole tragedy the only other thing that is ridiculous is you! Do you sleep well at night defending sick pieces of trash like this all the time? You probably think Osama Bin Laden was framed. Well you sick F*#@% read this:
Just released; the autopsy report on little 5 year old Shaniya Davis, who was found deceased November 16; a week after her mother reported her missing on Nov 10 ? Shaniya died from asphyxiation and suffered injuries that confirm the little girl was sexually assaulted.
Her body was found by searchers who had been told the baby had been stashed near a deer carcass dumping ground ~ an area they had been combing for two days, hoping to bring some sort of closure to the horrific story that her egg donor had sold her baby girl into sexual servitude to settle a drug debt.
Shaniya was found under a thick patch of kudzu and was wearing only panties and an adult-sized black sweat shirt.
I?m sure it was a coincidence that family friend, convicted felon and fellow druggie ? Mario McNeill was wearing a black sweatshirt when the surveillance tape captured him carrying the angel in his arms into the Comfort Suites in Sanford into an elevator and into a room, some 40 miles from the feces covered trailer she called home, for the last 5 weeks of her life
Reply to this comment
by JC040404 October 11, 2010 8:21 PM EDT
Can someone please point to a link where it shows what grounds they have to charge Antoinette Davis and paint her as such a monster? She was working two jobs with a good employment record? There was a drug raid in a house she once lived in but no arrests were made? Has anyone thought that if no arrests were made that means that the police made a mistake by raiding the house that they suspected drugs were in? Could they be making a mistake when they charged with her all of those things? She reported the baby missing immediately, doesn't that prove that she does care for her daughter and wanted her found? Unlike other cases of neglect like Kaylee's mother waited one month to report her missing? Everyone on here talks so bad about Antoinette based on what a police report says, don't they understand that the police can write whatever they want in those reports? Arrest documents said she "knowingly provide[d] Shaniya Davis with the intent that she be held in sexual servitude" and she "permit[ted] an act of prostitution." How could the police know this? Why does everyone take this as fact just because the police wrote it in a document? I do understand that there are a lot of assumptions being made and a lot of people are angered by what they are hearing about this mother but how do they even know if this is true. Someone HEARD that Antoinette owed Mario money, there was a drug raid in a house she once lived in so they ASSUMED she owed him money for drugs, her daughter was stolen and killed so they ASSUMED that maybe she sold her to pay off the supposed drug debt? Am I missing something? Please point me to the link that shows why they charged Antoinette with all of these awful things. Please show me something more than what I have read so far which is that Antoinette may have had a drug problem and may have owed Mario money so she must have prostituted her daughter to pay off the debt, how absurd, no wonder why she is finally out on bail.
Reply to this comment
by tamtizzle October 14, 2010 1:50 AM EDT
Just released; the autopsy report on little 5 year old Shaniya Davis, who was found deceased November 16; a week after her mother reported her missing on Nov 10 ? Shaniya died from asphyxiation and suffered injuries that confirm the little girl was sexually assaulted.

Her body was found by searchers who had been told the baby had been stashed near a deer carcass dumping ground ~ an area they had been combing for two days, hoping to bring some sort of closure to the horrific story that her egg donor had sold her baby girl into sexual servitude to settle a drug debt.

Shaniya was found under a thick patch of kudzu and was wearing only panties and an adult-sized black sweat shirt.


I?m sure it was a coincidence that family friend, convicted felon and fellow druggie ? Mario McNeill was wearing a black sweatshirt when the surveillance tape captured him carrying the angel in his arms into the Comfort Suites in Sanford into an elevator and into a room, some 40 miles from the feces covered trailer she called home, for the last 5 weeks of her life
by GodsChild1903 October 5, 2010 3:51 AM EDT
I am a bi-racial female too. First and for most...I wanna thank my Lord and Savior. Too all thoses who don't believe in God, I pray for u. Because when u die who do u think u are going to see face to face. You will believe then!!! I agree with all the the people out there who know God, and who has and is praying for this BEAUTIFUL ANGEL. We shouldn't be sad, we should be giving God praised, that baby is living the life. For thoses of you who say where was God when all this happened. Shame on you, if you don't know what ur talking about..KEEP UR MOUTH CLOSE. Don't say something u don't know. You shouldn't question God in anything...God says we have no right to judge. Read the Bible before u open ur mouth. For the people out there who are saying it's the Black men why this happened. It don't matter about race!!! The comments that people wrote rude about God, guess what I got news for you, ur going to be held responible for that. God brought ur behide in this world and he can take u OUT!!! For the mother and the men who did this...I wouldn't want to be in ur shoes, because everything that ya'll put that baby through..ya'll are going to feel the pain 10 times worse. I am 22 years old and I am a surviver of Rape, and being molested over and over. So, I know what that baby went through and worst. I am glad God took his child and saved her so she will never hurt AGAIN!!! God has a purpose for everybody in the world, it's ur choice if you listen and obey. For thoses people who say Shaniya is looking down on us, that's not true..AGAIN READ THE BIBLE...God doesn't allow people in Heaven to look down on us because he doesn't want us Sad up in Heaven. That's the point of being in Heaven. I pray for every innorant person that wrote about God, black people, ect...And by the way it has nothing to do with Muslim. As for myself I have two daughter 4 and 6...and let me tell u..had this happened to them...All serious I would be in jail. What ever judge released one of the guys, I pray for you. Alot of people said if this was this way it wouldn't went different if it was that way it would of went different. No it wouldn't no human on this earth know how things are gonna go but GOD!!! For the few people on here that wrote why do we have to put God in everything...That's because we believe there is a God, we wan't to go to Heaven we wan't our soul to take. We wan't enternal life and behind. Anything and everthing you ever had nice HEAVEN is 20 zillion times BETTER. You should honor God even if things don't go our way. We worship him even in the bad times. One day God is coming back and anyone who doesn't have their life together and don't believe there is a God...Have a one way ticket to Satan. Don't blame God for the people who did this, blame Satan. For those of you saying it is North Carolina and ect...blameing the state. It has nothing to do with this state...Every state has something going on, some more than others. I read so many comments and it broke my heart. My heart and love goes out to the family of Shaniya Davis...May God Bless all of you. And yes I mention God so many times, because that is how I live my life, honoring him. Remember lil Angel God loves you and so do I.
Reply to this comment
by shardea July 15, 2010 2:53 PM EDT
i belive its time for more people to stand up and sto human trafficking because its rediclouis && should be stoped NOW!! im so sorry what happen to the pretty lilltle girl the both of them (the mama & the man need to put it the gas chair wit no ?'s asked that was stuipd she didnt have a chance to live her life .....but i all can say is sorry to the family that you guys have to go thorw this but they will be puninshed ...put it in the lords hand and every thing will be alright.....!
Reply to this comment
by JC040404 October 12, 2010 11:19 AM EDT
Why should there be no questions asked???? How do you know that the mother really did this? I believe the police don't like Antoinette and blamed her for letting her daughter go missing, yes there may have been some neglect, but that doesn't mean she "sent her daughter into sexual servitude" omg, LE and the media, leave it to them to team together and make people crazy about something that didn't even happy. The facts are the facts, the little girl was murdered and that is awful and horrific, that doesn't mean the police have to make things up to make things look even worse.
by LadyLascassas May 8, 2010 10:24 PM EDT
Two words shoot em
Reply to this comment
by lespinoza1969 January 29, 2010 5:36 PM EST
Urgent: We need your help
To members of I WANT JUSTICE FOR SHANIYA DAVIS
Tara Malachi January 16 at 1:03pm Reply

I Want Justice for Shaniya Davis: has joined forces with some wonderful citizens who want to be sure Shaniya's tragic death was not in vain.

Our plan is to ask everyone to start calling the prosecutor assigned to this case and demand that Shaniya's mother be charged with murder.

We are looking for the prosecutor's number and the legal statute. We are asking everyone to join us in this effort. We need the participation and advise of every member.

A special request goes out to anyone with legal expertise who can help us
achieve this goal.
Please email me with any questions, answers and suggestions


Cordially,
Ready to roll up her sleeves and work,
Tara Malachi


Honorable Colon Willoughby, Jr., DA (919) 755-4117
District Attorneys? Office
Prosecutorial District #10
P. O. Box 31

Raleigh, NC 27602Honorable Susan Doyle, DA (919) 209-5520
District Attorneys? Office
Prosecutorial District #11
P. O. Box 1029

Smithfield, NC 27577 Honorable Edward Grannis, DA (910) 678-2915
District Attorneys?...... Office
Prosecutorial District #12
117 Dick Street, Suite 427
Fayetteville, NC 28301
Reply to this comment
by JC040404 October 11, 2010 8:21 PM EDT
Can someone please point to a link where it shows what grounds they have to charge Antoinette Davis and paint her as such a monster? She was working two jobs with a good employment record? There was a drug raid in a house she once lived in but no arrests were made? Has anyone thought that if no arrests were made that means that the police made a mistake by raiding the house that they suspected drugs were in? Could they be making a mistake when they charged with her all of those things? She reported the baby missing immediately, doesn't that prove that she does care for her daughter and wanted her found? Unlike other cases of neglect like Kaylee's mother waited one month to report her missing? Everyone on here talks so bad about Antoinette based on what a police report says, don't they understand that the police can write whatever they want in those reports? Arrest documents said she "knowingly provide[d] Shaniya Davis with the intent that she be held in sexual servitude" and she "permit[ted] an act of prostitution." How could the police know this? Why does everyone take this as fact just because the police wrote it in a document? I do understand that there are a lot of assumptions being made and a lot of people are angered by what they are hearing about this mother but how do they even know if this is true. Someone HEARD that Antoinette owed Mario money, there was a drug raid in a house she once lived in so they ASSUMED she owed him money for drugs, her daughter was stolen and killed so they ASSUMED that maybe she sold her to pay off the supposed drug debt? Am I missing something? Please point me to the link that shows why they charged Antoinette with all of these awful things. Please show me something more than what I have read so far which is that Antoinette may have had a drug problem and may have owed Mario money so she must have prostituted her daughter to pay off the debt, how absurd, no wonder why she is finally out on bail.
by TiredofFanatics December 22, 2009 9:04 PM EST
Kotsyamama,
This sort of thing happens all over the world! There are sick minded people in America, France, and Iraq, etc. -- Muslims and Christians and whatever other religion out there that feeds off people for the sake of money and control. I'm also baffled by your prejudice towards single / unwed mothers, that is not the problem here either. The topic is the senseless tragic death of a child at the hands (or because) of her mother. It doesn't have anything to do with being single, doesn't have anything to do with being an American, doesn't have anything to do with being Christian. Besides, there are married women - mothers - who have done some insane things too - with their own hands: Andrea Yates, Susan Smith -- just to name a few. Maybe women shouldn't be allowed to have children at all - ya think? But that wouldn't be fair or possible. Yet, this woman had problems before giving birth to this child. The father had custody before the mother "cleaned herself up and got a job". I don't care how cleaned up she became, she should have never been afforded the right of visitation without be observed and watched. This should not and did not have to happen.

We blame the sick trick mother and the pathetic criminal man but where was the Muslim God when this was happening to the little girl . . . I'm sure she must've cried out when she was being abused. People in pain always call on God. So someone tell me where was the God of Islam . . . the Christian God when this was carrying on . . . what was He doing when this child was crying?
Reply to this comment
by jessieandtheboys December 27, 2009 5:13 AM EST
This was a horrible, horrible tragedy the happened to this baby. There is only one God. People call him whatever they want, but he is only One. God is not to blame for people's actions. He created us with free will, and people like the sick bastard that killed little Shaniya, abuse their free will. Do not forget, and do not doubt the devil works through people as well. The devil was present the day and the moment that child left this earth. God heard that little girls cries. That is why he gave us everlasting life. Shaniya Davis is in heaven right now as a beautiful angel. Free of that pain, free from this cruel world. Don't blame god. Blame the evils of man, blame the mother! Blame these monsters. God will pay them back. He will punish them with a vengence. Evil only lasts for so long. People are so quick to blame God for peoples sins, and peoples evil doing. Blame the ones responsible. The mother and that murdering sick bastard made a choice...and such a terrible choice it was. Now they're are goin to pay for it. In this life and the next.
by Parlemort October 23, 2010 10:38 AM EDT
There is no heaven,
There is no hell,
There is no god,
I wish jessieandtheboys well.
by aswalways December 12, 2009 4:21 PM EST
I SAW THIS ON NANCY GRACE AND THIS MADE ME SICK TO MY STOMACH.I DONT SEE HOW ANY MAN CAN TAKE INTEREST IN A LITTLE GIRL LIKE THAT.AND HOW CAN A MOTHER WHO REALLY CARES ABOUT HER CHILD DO THIS TO THEM.THIS ***** IS SICK AND I THINK THEY SHOULD GIVE HER THE DEATH PENALTY WHENEVER THEY CHARGE HER ASS WITH MURDER.SHANIYA WAS A BEAUTIFUL LITTLE GIRL AND SHE WAS SO YOUNG,I MEAN SHE WAS ONLY FIVE YEARS OLD HOW COULD THEY CHEAT HER OF LIFE.SHE HAD NOT HAD A CHANCE TO LIVE YET ALL SHE PROBABLY EVER KNEW WAS TOYS AND COLORING NOT LAYING ON HER BACK LETTING A MAN HAVE SEX WITH HER.IT MAKES ME SICK TO MY STOMACH TO SEE STUFF LIKE THIS HAPPEN AND NOT JUST IN THE BLACK COMMUNITY IN ALL COMMUNITIES.I COULD NOT SEE MYSELF BEING A MOTHER OF SOMEBODY I HAVE CARRIED IN MY WOMB FOR NINE MONTHS AND WENT THROUGH SEVERAL HOURS OF LABOR AND HELL DELIVERING THEM,JUST TO GIVE THEM AWAY TO BE A DAMN SEX SLAVE........ANTIONETTE YOU DONT DESERVE TO HAVE ANOTHER CHILD.AND YOU WILL REAP WHAT YOU SOW YOU MURDEROUS *****..............SINCERELY ALICIA W.
Reply to this comment
by JC040404 October 12, 2010 11:21 AM EDT
Okay, keep watching "Nancy Grace" and her ridiculous side show and you will stay sick. Nancy Grace reads police reports, which are already fabricated, and then adds even more of her own spin on to it, and then here you stupid people are watching Nancy Grace like she is God and knows what happened. Omg.
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