A day after her 1-year-old daughter was found dead in a closet, a Detroit mother said she wants answers.
Erica James, 24, had a medical appointment Friday morning and dropped her child Zyia Turner off at her paternal grandmother’s house in the18800 block of Brinker the night before, she said. The girl’s grandmother left the child and her two siblings in the care of an uncle Friday when she ran errands. James said she got a call at 4 or 4:30 p.m. that afternoon that her child was missing.
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“I immediately rushed over and started looking for my baby,” James said.
Police searched the house then began to search the neighborhood, Detroit police spokesman Sgt. Alan Quinn said. Detroit police didn’t have a cadaver dog available, so they had to look for one from another department, he said.
“We weren’t able to use it until it got there,” he said.
The girl’s body was found by a Southfield Police Department cadaver dog around 1 a.m. Saturday morning in the home.
“I knew… my baby had to be in that house somewhere, but I didn’t know where,” James said.
She said her daughter doesn’t like closets and she wants to know how she got in one.
“I (have) two closets at home and she never went in,” she said.
Police did not confirm Sunday where the girl was found inside the home and said the cause of death has not been determined. An autopsy was performed by the Wayne County Medical’s Examiner’s Office, but the results were pending Sunday.
“I don’t know what really happened,” James told the Free Press.
The girl’s uncle, who was babysitting Zyia, her siblings and several of her cousins, told police he left the kids alone and went into his bedroom. When he returned, Zyia was gone and the other children were unsure where she had gone.
James said she saw Zyia at the morgue and she had white foam coming from her mouth and nose. She was told the child had roach bites on her face that weren’t there when the child was dropped off, James said.
She described Zyia as a normal one-year-old who was fun to be around. She has two brothers, ages 6 and 2.
“She loved her brothers,” James said. “Her brothers loved her.”
Police said they are investigating the death as they wait for the medical examiner’s office to determine how the girl died. No arrests have been made.
“We’re actively investigating to try and find out what happened,” Quinn said.
