1-year-old found dead in burning home in 2017, Illinois cops say. Mom now arrested
Nearly six years after a 1-year-old girl was found dead in the debris of a burning home in Illinois, her mother has been arrested, according to police.
The Markham Police Department announced the arrest of 40-year-old Melody Townsend on Thursday, April 13. She has been charged with felony child endangerment and concealing and aiding a fugitive, but more charges are expected, officials said in a news briefing streamed by WGN.
“This has been a sad event through the years, as this child was murdered and we couldn’t come to any kind of resolution,” Markham Police Chief Jack Genius said in the briefing. “We don’t have complete resolution yet, but we do have an arrest.”
The 1-year-old was discovered July 3, 2017, the police chief said. Firefighters put out a fire at a vacant home, and when they went inside to investigate, they found the child’s body in the attic.
A coroner’s report concluded the child was a victim of a “homicide by undetermined means,” Sgt. Jessie Jones said in the briefing.
But as revealed in the coroner’s report, obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times, the girl suffered physical trauma unrelated to the fire.
Officers tried to determine who her parents were and who was responsible for the girl’s death, but the case went cold.
In 2019, Markham said, officers discovered Townsend was living in California. A warrant was issued for her arrest in 2022, and Townsend was arrested earlier in the week, the police chief said.
She was extradited to Illinois and was expected to appear before a judge Thursday, Markham police officials said.
Police did not comment on the whereabouts of the girl’s father.
Genius said the case “weighed on the entire city” for years.
“The ultimate goal is still to find out who killed this child, how this child died,” Genius said. “We want to find out who that was, how that happened and obviously bring them to justice.”
Markham is about 25 miles south of Chicago.
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