USA: Woman drove car for months with bodies of nephews in trunk

An American motorist was arrested while carrying the bodies of his nephew and niece in the trunk of his car, police said on Friday after the macabre discovery during a routine traffic check.

Nicole johnson, from the city of Baltimore, on the East Coast, faces multiple charges, including child abuse leading to the death of seven year old girl and five year old boy.

The 33-year-old woman he had packed his niece’s body in a suitcase and placed it in the trunk in May of last year, but continued to use the car normally, according to the newspaper The Baltimore sun. A year later, the aunt placed the boy’s body next to his decomposed sister’s, wrapped in a plastic bagadded the report.

Police arrested her for speeding on Wednesday and decided to impound the car when they learned she did not have the correct documents. According to the newspaper, an officer told Johnson the vehicle needed to be towed and she replied, “It doesn’t matter, I won’t be there for five days.” And then he said: “Everyone will see me on the news making my big debut.”, as the newspaper reports, citing a police report.

In 2019, the two children were placed in Johnson’s care by his sister.

Johnson admitted during questioning that he punched his niece on several occasions which resulted in the young woman banging her head on the ground. However, he did not explain how the child died, indicated on Baltimore sun.

The press agency PA noted that a probable cause of death statement indicated that the severely malnourished body of the girl weighed only 8 kilos at the time of her autopsy. The boy weighed only 9 and a half kilograms. Doctors have reported that “It would have taken several months of malnutrition to reach these weights”, according to the indictments.

Baltimore County Sheriff Melissa Hyatt issued a statement calling the crime “heinous.” Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski Jr.’s statement calls him “A horrible, heartbreaking loss of life.”

Investigators say the children’s biological mother, Dachelle Johnson, told detectives that left her children in her sister’s care because she couldn’t care for them. The transfer of the children took place some time after the mother moved from Ohio to Maryland in July 2019.

(With information from AFP and AP)

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