Police Arrest Missing Arizona Girl’s Mom on Child Abuse Charges in Jhessye Shockley Case
Police arrested the mother of the missing 5-year-old Arizona girl Jhessye Shockley on child abuse charges “directly related to her daughter” on Monday.
Glendale Police Sgt. Brent Coombs told reporters that police investigators are “still working diligently to locate Jhessye” and arresting her mother is “a step down that path.”
“I’d like to make it very clear that this is by no means the end to this investigation,” Combs said.
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The young girl was last seen over a month ago and her mother, Jerice Hunter, has been under a great deal of speculation since her daughter disappeared due to a past conviction on child abuse charges.
According to Hunter, Jhessye was last seen at their Glendale, Az. residence when Hunter left the little girl home while she stepped out to run an errand on Oct. 11.
Hunter alleges that Jhyessye wandered out of the family apartment unnoticed by her three older siblings that were in charge of watching her while Hunter completed her errand.
Combs described Hunter as the “No. 1 focus” in the investigation but held that others might be involved in the girl’s disappearance.
The police sergeant said, “We’re not so shortsighted to think that there may not have been an additional person or persons who may … have helped.”
In 2005, Hunter was sentenced to eight years in a California prison for child abuse charges that included torture and infliction of injuries on her other children. She spent four years behind bars prior to her May 2010 release.
Hunter has said that she feels that the media has paid too much attention to her and her criminal past instead of focusing on finding 5-year-old Jhessye.
“We feel that law enforcement is not active in finding Jhessye and that they’re more active in persecuting me instead of finding out where she is,” Hunter told the Associated Press at an Oct. 24th demonstration.
Police have said it unlikely the young child will be found alive.
