Woman gets 32 years for fatally starving 8-year-old girl, driving around with her corpse in a U-Haul

SPOKANE COUNTY, Wash. (TCN) -- A woman has been sentenced to 32 years in prison for killing her adopted daughter in 2022.

On Jan. 14, Mandie Miller, 36, pleaded guilty to homicide by abuse, assault, and unlawful imprisonment of 8-year-old Meela Miller, KREM reports. At the sentencing on Feb. 6, the prosecutor said the plea agreement will spare the community a trial and provide finality for Meela Miller’s loved ones. The child was Mandie Miller’s niece, but she had legally adopted her.

Miller restrained the child for several hours each day in the months leading up to her death, Spokane County Prosecutor Emily Sullivan said at the sentencing. Home video surveillance footage showed the child being tied to a car seat with zip ties, assaulted, and starved. According to Law & Crime, her toes were beaten with a hammer when she misbehaved. 

Law & Crime reports Miller and her boyfriend, 31-year-old Aleksander Kurmoyarov, lived with Meela Miller’s body for three months because they reportedly wanted to spend more time with her. In December 2022, they rented a U-Haul, placed a coffin with the child’s body in it, and drove it more than 1,000 miles from their home in Spokane, Washington, to Mitchell, South Dakota. 

They went to a funeral home and requested that she be buried. Employees contacted the police when the couple was unable to provide documentation of her death, Law & Crime reports. They were charged with failure to notify law enforcement of the death of a child in South Dakota and were extradited back to Washington to face the other charges.

In an announcement on Dec. 15, 2022, the Mitchell Police Department said Kurmoyarov and Miller gave conflicting statements about when Meela Miller had died. Kurmoyarov said she had died shortly before Halloween 2022 and Miller said Meela had died on Sept. 10. They claimed they did not report the death because they were afraid they would get in trouble. 

Sullivan said the corpse weighed only 26 pounds by the time the couple arrived in South Dakota, KREM reports. 

A search warrant executed at the home on Dec. 15, 2022, found multiple fragrance products consistent with someone trying to mask the odor of a body decomposing, according to court documents. The search warrant also found the zip ties seen in the video footage. 

As part of her plea agreement, prosecutors recommended Miller serve 30 years in prison, but Judge Rachelle Anderson sentenced Miller to 32 years, the maximum allowed for the crimes, KREM reports. After her prison term is completed, Miller will serve three years of community custody.

At the sentencing, Miller read a statement to the court detailing difficulties she had in foster care as a child, KREM reports. According to the Spokesman-Review, she said Meela Miller “repurposed” her life.

She said, “I have to wake up every day remembering she’s passed away. Earth is hell for me. … My daughter did not deserve any abuse or neglect from me, and she most definitely didn’t deserve any abuse from Alex. … It’s hell to be reliving this. I want to grieve my daughter too.”

KREM reports Miller’s sister and the biological mother of Meela Miller, Andrea Miller, forgave her.

Kurmoyarov is expected to be sentenced Feb. 10, per KREM. He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, assault, and unlawful imprisonment charges as part of a deal that eliminated the possibility of life in prison.

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