GhLinks Media
Mariah Thomas, a 26-year-old mother from Missouri, is facing charges of endangering the welfare of a child.
Tragically, her one-month-old daughter, Za’Riah Mae, was discovered deceased with burn wounds, leading to the accusations against Thomas.
The authorities were alerted to the situation when they received a report of an unresponsive child at Thomas’ residence in Kansas City, the day after her birthday.
Upon arrival, they found the infant with severe burns, her clothing melted onto her diaper.
What we know so far
According to dailymail.com, Za’Riah’s grandfather told police he received a call from her mom at around 1pm on Friday in which she told him ‘something was wrong with the baby and he needed to return home immediately’.
On returning home immediately began to smell smoke and found Za’Riah dead in her crib.
Thomas told him she had ‘accidentally’ put her in the oven, according to court filings.
Za’Riah was discovered by police in a car seat inside her home with ‘apparent thermal injuries on various parts of a her body’.
She was wearing a bodysuit over a diaper which appeared to have melted onto it which was ‘very dirty, possibly burned’.
A charred baby blanket was also discovered and taken as evidence.
Thomas was transported to police headquarters for an interview where she invoked her fifth amendment right to remain silent.
But she consented to detectives obtaining a blood draw and accessing her phone data.
Thomas’ social media presents her as a doting mom, who referred to her daughter as her ‘princess’.
In one Facebook post she states her desire to be, ‘the best mother I can be to my beautiful daughter.’
But in one haunting post made just weeks before the tragedy Thomas complained that nobody was looking out for her.
‘Mfs claim they my friend by don’t never check up on me or Za’Riah,’ she wrote on January 20.
Thomas is currently being held at the Jackson County Detention Center.
