Liberia: Woman, 24, Suffocates 1-Year-old Daughter to Death in Nimba
— The baby, according to the police, died of asphyxia as her head was placed in water for an extended period of time.
A 24-year-old woman in Nimba County has allegedly admitted to killing her 1-year-old daughter. Pauline Toe, the mother, secretly buried the baby after killing her, police findings revealed.
The baby, according to police, died of asphyxia as her head was placed in water for an extended length of time.
Toe told police that she killed the child because she was fed-up with continual taunting and bullying by friends and neighbors for the unpleasant physical appearance of her child. “She said she was tired of people telling her that her daughter was ugly and malnourished,” a police source told the Daily Observer.
“The child was killed more than a month ago on a farm. Pauline Toe had taken the child with her and, in the process, she had placed the child's head in water for more than 15 minutes, which resulted in the 1-year-old's death,” police in Ganta claimed.
“After the child had died, she found a nearby rubber farm and secretly buried ber baby in an old pit. This was done in the presence of Victoria Gonquoi, who is 15-years old. The minor would later remain mute as she was threatened after the incident on January 5.”
“From what we have learned so far, Pauline Toe was being bullied that her child was ugly and malnourished — a situation which pushed her to commit this unspeakable act, which is a crime.”
Toe, according to the police, is said to be normal in behavior and showing no sign of any mental illness. She had told her family members that the child was spending time with her step-mother, months after the child was missing as public concern mounted.
However, Toe ran out of luck as she was later arrested by some members of a Community Watch Forum, which turned her over to the police in Ganta for investigation — at which time she admitted to having killed her daughter.
“We visited the area where the baby was believed to have been buried and saw the alleged grave, but we are waiting for an instruction from the County Attorney to excavate the grave,” the police said.
“Investigation so far [shows] that Pauline Toe has given birth to three children but allegedly killed the first child by overdosing her. This is what some community members had told us.”
The child's mother is now being charged with murder, while her accomplice, Victoria Gonquoi, is charged with criminal conspiracy. They have been transferred to Sanniquellie (the capital of Nimba County), for trial.
The accomplice, Gonquoi, admitted that she saw the child's mother burying the 1-year-old who was nearing her 2nd birthday but was warned not to tell anyone, police said.
However, Gonquoi cannot be prosecuted as an adult unless a juvenile judge determines that her role warrants her being tried in adult court.