Authorities have arrested a mother and her boyfriend who were wanted in connection with the death of a 4-year-old girl in Sumpter Township, according to a news release from the Sumpter Township Police Department.
Candice R. Diaz, 24, and Brad E. Fields, 28, were taken into custody this afternoon near Lake Park, Ga. by the U.S. Marshals Service. No information was immediately released.
Diaz's daughter, Gabrielle Barrett, died after being found with severe burns New Year's Day in a mobile home in Sumpter Township.
On the morning of Jan. 1, police responded to a report of an unresponsive girl at a home in the Rawsonville Woods Mobile Home Community.
"Upon arrival, CPR was being administered by family members and officers found the child suffering from severe burns about her extremities," according to a news release. Gabrielle was taken by ambulance to St. Joseph Mercy Hospital in Ann Arbor, where she was pronounced dead.
The Washtenaw County Medical Examiner ruled the death a homicide with evidence of multiple traumatic injuries and battered-child syndrome — meaning she suffered multiple injuries, at multiple sites, at multiple ages.
Police launched a manhunt for Diaz and Fields, who have been charged with felony murder, second-degree murder, first-degree child abuse and torture, police said. Fields also has been charged as a habitual offender.
Contact staff writer Ann Zaniewski at 313-222-6594 or azaniewski@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter: @AnnZaniewski.
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