Shaniya Davis, Fallen "Angel" Remembered In Pictures

(CBS/Family Photo)

Photo: Shaniya Davis.

SANFORD, N.C. (CBS/AP) For one week, North Carolina held its breath, hoping that 5-year-old Shaniya Nicole Davis would be found alive after her mother Antoinette Davis reported her missing Nov. 10.

PICTURES: Shaniya Davis Found Dead
PICTURES: Shaniya Davis' Vigil

But, seven days later, the reality that police say they are uncovering is far worse than anyone could have imagined.

Police believe Shaniya Davis' mother, Antoinette Davis, 25, sold her daughter into sexual slavery.

(CBS/Family Photo)

Photo: Shaniya Davis.

PICTURES: Shaniya Davis Found Dead
PICTURES: Shaniya Davis' Vigil

On Saturday, they arrested her and charged her with human trafficking, but, police say, she offered no help in finding her baby girl.

Then Monday, Shaniya Davis' lifeless body was found by rescue workers in a wooded area near a highway in Sanford, N.C., a small town 40 minutes south west of Raleigh and 30 miles from Shaniya Davis' Fayetteville trailer park home.

(AP Photo/Jim R. Bounds)

Photo: Vigl for Shanyia Davis in Fayetteville, N.C., Nov. 16, 2009.

PICTURES: Shaniya Davis Found Dead
PICTURES: Shaniya Davis' Vigil

"I still feel kind of sick to my stomach," said Angela Jackson, 27, of Sanford, who has a 2-month-old daughter and was one of hundreds who searched for days.

Another man, Mario Andrette McNeill, 29, has been charged with kidnapping the girl. He was seen on video surveillance carrying Shaniya Davis down the hallway of the Comfort Suites hotel in Sanford on the same day the girl was reported missing. A hotel worker called police, but by the time they had arrived McNeill and Shaniya Davis were gone.

McNeill eventually turned himself in, but refused to help officers find Shaniya Davis. Police claim he admitted to the kidnapping, but his attorney, Allen Rogers, says he will plead not guilty.

The relationship between McNeill and Antoinette Davis is not yet clear, although Antoinette Davis' aunt, Leona Cromartie, told the The Fay Observer on Sunday that she had met McNeill before. She also said that Antoinette Davis is pregnant.

Antoinette Davis only recently took custody of Shaniya Davis, according to the child's father Bradley Lockhart, who said he raised her for the first four years of her life. On Monday, on CBS' The Early Show, Lockhart pleaded for his daughter's life.

"Drop her off at Wal-Mart, anywhere, I don't care - just so somebody can find her and bring her back to the people that love her," he said. "She's a precious, little angel, full of joy ... 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."

Hours later, Shaniya Davis was found dead.

At a Monday night vigil for his murdered daughter, Lockhart, so weak he was held up by others, cried to a crowd of 500 "Lord, I come to you with open arms and it is hard ... Don't give up on me and don't give up on Shaniya. She's right there with you."

Fayetteville police have not yet said if they will add murder charges for McNeill and Antoinette Davis nor if there are any other suspects in the case.

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PICTURES: Shaniya Davis Found Dead
PICTURES: Shaniya Davis' Vigil

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