Story highlights
NEW: Police: The girl's father, stepmother are charged with murder
A man calls 911, says he might kill himself and his daughter has died
He says she drank a chemical and her body was with him, police say
The man shows police the girl's burned body in a trash can
Georgia police discovered a badly burned body of a 10-year-old girl Saturday in an apartment complex’s trash can – pointed out by her father, who was standing nearby.
The grisly episode began with a 911 call around 3:40 a.m. Saturday by a man who said he wanted to commit suicide, the Gwinnett County Police Department said.
While talking to dispatchers, the man indicated there was a dead body with him at the location – his young daughter, he explained, had drank some type of chemical and died.
Gwinnett County police headed to the family’s residence in Lawrenceville, a city of about 29,000 people some 30 miles northeast of Atlanta.
They found the man who’d apparently made the suicide call standing outside a building in an apartment complex. Police said he then directed officers to a trash can in a recreation area.
That’s exactly where the body of the girl was found.
Police subsequently went inside the man’s apartment, but didn’t find anyone else inside.
The slain girl’s father and her stepmother were subsequently arrested. Gwinnett Count police announced Saturday evening that both are being charged with felony murder, first-degree cruelty to children and concealing a body.
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