2SharePrintEmail.GLENDALE, Arizona – (Isabelle Zehnder reporting) — Police on Monday arrested the mother of missing 5-year-old Jhessye Shockley who vanished last month, saying she is the main focus of their investigation – the same mother who spent time in jail for “whipping” one of her children with an extension cord (details below).
http://liarcatchers.com/missing_persons_investigations.html
Glendale Police Sergeant Brent Coombs said Monday that the little girl’s mother, Jerice Hunter, was “placed under arrest for child abuse directly related to her daughter, Jhessye Shockley,” and said that with the passage of time, he doesn’t expect they’ll find the little girl alive.
Coombs said at the news conference Monday that new information in the past few days led police to serve another search warrant on Hunter’s Glendale apartment and arrest her Monday. He wouldn’t elaborate.
Coombs said Hunter has refused to take a polygraph test
Hunter was booked Monday at the Maricopa County jail. A sheriff’s spokesman said Hunter was unable to talk to reporters because she had not yet been assigned a housing unit. She was scheduled for her first court appearance Monday night.
Hunter has previously been critical of police handling of her daughter’s case.
Last month Jhessye’s mother, Jerice Hunter pled for her daughter’s safe return saying, “Please bring my baby back … Her safe return is all I want … She belongs to this family … She’s somebody’s child … Mine … Please bring her home.” Read: Arizona mom pleads for 5-year-old daughter’s return, police scale back search.
And now, this mother has been arrested, once again on charges of child abuse – this time to her youngest daughter, Jhessye.
It is astounding at the number of mothers who have recently been the focus of their children’s disappearances. The most recent who come to mind are Baby Lisa Irwin, Baby Tyler Dasher,Baby Sky Metalwala, Hailey Dunn, Caylee Anthony, Sophie Parker Pederos, Camden Hughes,Kyron Horman (step-mother), Zahra Baker … there are undoubtedly many more that don’t make national headlines.
“Our investigators are still working diligently to locate Jhessye,” Coombs said. “This is a step down that path.”
He said that none of the leads about Jhessye’s disappearance have panned out but that information about Hunter proved to “have substance to the investigation and have proven to be accurate, as far as we can tell.”
Prior abuse charges
Jhessye (pronounced Jesse) went missing Oct. 11. Her mother, Jerice Hunter, said she returned from running an errand and discovered her daughter missing from their Glendale home. She said she left Jhessye in the care of her three older daughters – ages 13, 9, and 6 – who claimed to have no knowledge of where she was. The little girl has not yet been found.
Sgt. Coombs said previously that all three girls were interviewed separately by experts and have maintained they do not know what happened to Jhessye.
Hunter and her then-husband, George Shockley, were convicted of child abuse and served time in prison in 2006 for abuse inflicted on their children in 2005. It was reported they inflicted “cruel and inhuman” corporal punishment and injury on all four children, including the mother who “whipped one of her children with an extension cord.” Read: Missing Arizona girl’s parents convicted of child abuse, CPS removes sisters.
Hunter’s mother, Shirley Johnson, insisted her daughter had changed and is now a loving mother who is pregnant with her fifth child.
While Hunter is the main focus of their investigation, Sgt. Coombs said, “We’re not so shortsighted to think that there may not have been an additional person or persons who may … have helped,” CNN reports.
Coombs said with the passage of time, he doesn’t believe Jhessye will be found alive.
Sgt. Coombs said the reward information leading to Jhessye and those responsible for her disappearance has increased to $25,000.
