ABC News says her name was Imani Joiner. She was born with a birth defect where her brain didn’t develop into two hemispheres like it’s supposed to. Wikipedia says some cases are mild, but most babies with this condition die before birth or shortly after. Imani survived two years and was locally kind of famous for that. I’ve read up a bit on a similar condition, anencephaly, where the brain basically doesn’t develop at all. Anencephaly is a rare, tragic and totally unpreventable event; I’m guessing holoprosencephaly is the same.
The cops think someone who had heard about Imani was trying to use her body in a religious ritual. The article doesn’t say outright, but it looks like they found the body and identified it, then realized it was stolen from a grave, rather than the other way around. I hope people who know the truth about this are speaking up, or will soon. I expect they will; this has undoubtedly caused a lot of public outrage.
Speaking of buried and disinterred children, this out of Oklahoma with shades of Adam Herrman: Investigators have no reason to doubt the remains found in Milton-Freewater belong to Oklahoma girl Cheyenne Wolf. She’s the little girl thought to have been killed and her body buried and unearthed nearly a-half-dozen times by her parents Abel and Denise Wolf.
Such stories to open your day with!
The Charley Project Blog 