6-Month-Old Baby Boy Abducted, Burned Alive in Louisiana; Woman Arrested
Police in Natchitoches, Louisiana, say they've arrested a 25-year-old woman in connection with the death of a 6-month-old boy who was abducted from his mother in a trailer park and burned alive.
The woman, Felicia Marie-Nicole Smith, was booked into the Natchitoches Parish Detention Center Saturday on one count of first-degree murder for the death of the baby, Levi Cole Ellerbe, according to a release from the Natchitoches Police Department.
Officials say at approximately 9:10 p.m. on July 17 police received a 911 call about a 6-month-old baby being taken from a residence in the Mayberry Trailer Park.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
When officers arrived and spoke with the boy's mother, identified as Hanna Barker, she revealed that two unknown subjects came to her trailer and began beating on her door. When she opened the door she was sprayed in the face with a substance she believed to be Mace.
She ran from the trailer to escape her attackers but when she returned her baby was gone. At approximately 10:20 p.m. police received a report of a fire and when they got to the scene they found the boy with obvious burns all over his body. He was transported to a hospital in critical condition and later died.
The case has drawn significant outrage locally and nationally, but some who know Smith say they don't believe she killed the baby, while many others are calling for her swift death.
"I know this sweet young girl. ... She is not capable of doing what she is accused of doing. Something else going on here. Prayers that the truth will come out !!!! We are praying for you Callie...," wrote Judy Fair, a Natchitoches resident on the police department's Facebook page.
On Thursday, residents of the Mayberry Mobile Home Park were shocked to hear what happened.
"I got kids," Jarvis Smith told KTBS. "I don't want that to happen to nobody."
Shanita Coleman told the station that she was devastated by the news even though she did not know the boy's family.
"I couldn't even imagine, as a parent, what she's going through," Coleman said of the mother. "It hit close to home. I didn't know her. I didn't know of her family but it just broke my heart to just think about that."
In an obituary published shortly after the baby's death, the family remembered him as "the happiest baby."
"Levi was the happiest baby who always had a big smile. He spent his time playing with siblings and cousins especially outdoors, watching 'PJ Masks' and video gaming with Uncle J. He was an animal lover and anytime he could get his hands on his dog, Rex, he loved to pull his ears. Levi was a blessing to our family and everyone who met him. We will always remember him as our little 'Chunky Monkey,'" the family said.
A funeral was held for the baby on Friday.
