By Dave Andrusko
Caliyah McNabb
CHRISTIE ETHRIDGE/FACEBOOK
On Wednesday, Christopher Michael McNabb was charged with malice murder, felony murder, aggravated battery and concealing a death. The 27-year-old McNabb “is accused of killing his 15-day-old daughter, Caliyah McNabb, before hiding her body in the woods near his family’s mobile home” Capt. Keith Crum of the Newton County Sheriff’s Office told People magazine.
WXIA reports that McNabb “remains in custody without bond.” He made his first appearance in court Thursday and reportedly refused a public defender.
“After little Cailyah’s body was located, a forensic examination was able to determine that she died from blunt force trauma to the head, “Michael King reported. “According to the warrant, McNabb, ‘did strike the victim … with an unknown object. This action did cause the victim’s skull to be seriously disfigured and damaged beyond repair.’”
“It’s heartrending that that small of a child — a baby only 15 days old — had been so injured that it died,” Crum told the Atlantic Journal-Constitution. “It’s hard to rationalize an irrational act.”
Little Caliyah weighed only five pounds when she was born premature on September 23. Her body was found wrapped in a blue cloth underneath a log, about a quarter mile from her home.
Christopher Michael McNabb
Early on Saturday a frantic Courtney Bell, Cailyah‘s mother, called 911 to report that Caliyah was missing.
“Volunteers were searching a wooded area near the family home Sunday when they discovered the infant’s body under a log,” the Daily Mail reported. “Police went looking for McNabb Sunday evening, as according to Crum, McNabb was in his girlfriend’s car when he found out that his daughter’s body had been found. He allegedly jumped out of the car at the intersection of Highway 36 and Covington By-Pass Road and ran away.”
According to People magazine
Before he was captured, witnesses allegedly saw him acting erratically at a convenience store. “He was yelling, ‘I didn’t do it! I didn’t do it!’ ” Crum said.
When McNabb ran out of the store, police arrested him for an alleged unrelated probation violation out of Bartow County. He remains held at the Newtown County Jail.