Missing Oklahoma toddler Oaklee Snow found dead, placed in drawer in abandoned Indiana house
04/26/2023 3:19 pm PDT
INDIANAPOLIS (TCD) -- The mother of an infant and the mother’s boyfriend face several criminal charges after a missing child was found dead and placed in a drawer in an abandoned home.
On Wednesday, April 26, the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office and Indianapolis Police Department announced Madison Marshall and her boyfriend Roan Waters have been charged with crimes related to the disappearance and death of Oaklee Snow, who died one month before her second birthday. Waters was apprehended in Colorado on a warrant out of Oklahoma, while Marshall was arrested in North Carolina and extradited to Indianapolis.
Oaklee’s father reported her missing in Seminole County, Oklahoma, and said he last saw her Thursday, Jan. 19. Indianapolis Police said investigators believe the girl was in Indiana with Marshall.
According to Waters and Marshall’s affidavit, on Oct. 26, 2022, Marshall contacted the Okfuskee County Sheriff’s Office to report Waters hit Oaklee in the face on Oct. 25 and then hit Marshall when she tried to step in. Officials issued a warrant for Waters' arrest Nov. 7 for child abuse and domestic assault and battery in the presence of a minor.
Marshall and Waters were found at a hotel in Greenwood Village, Colorado, March 3, and Greenwood Village Police arrested Waters on his outstanding warrant. The affidavit said Marshall "had no reason to be detained at that time."
Waters allegedly told investigators he and Marshall drove to Indiana in January with Oaklee and her younger brother, and they stayed in a "trap house" because he and Marshall wanted to do drugs. Waters said he and Marshall "made the decision to abandon" Oaklee’s brother at the trap house and Oaklee elsewhere in Indiana. The brother was found and eventually reunited with his father.
One person told investigators he saw Marshall and Waters leave the trap house Feb. 9 with "what looked like a child wrapped in a blanket," though the child "did not appear to be moving, talking, or crying."
The affidavit says Waters told his sister he and Marshall needed to take Oaklee to the hospital, but the sister contacted nearby hospitals and she wasn’t a patient at any of them.
When Marshall spoke with investigators, she said Waters "would frequently 'whoop' or 'spank'" Oaklee as punishment, including when she cried or was "holding a fork wrong."
Oaklee allegedly stopped eating when Waters was around "because he regularly became aggressive with her when she would not eat at the pace that he wanted her to."
Marshall said Oaklee started crying Feb. 9 because she was hungry. Waters allegedly "threw" the little girl to the ground and caused her to have a red bump on her head.
Later that day, Waters reportedly told Oaklee to sit on her "bouncy ball" and he yelled at her. Minutes later, Marshall reportedly heard Waters yelling for her and found him carrying Oaklee in his arms. The little girl had a "mix of blood and spittle dripping from her mouth when she tried to exhale, which created a gurgling sound."
Waters allegedly put her in the bathtub to wake her up, but it did not work. Marshall tried calling 911, but Waters reportedly slapped the phone out of her hands.
The two wrapped Oaklee in a blanket, then got in Waters' Dodge Durango and drove towards Martinsville. Marshall said Oaklee’s skin felt cold and she wasn’t breathing anymore. Waters allegedly pulled up to an abandoned property on Red Bud Lane, carried Oaklee’s body inside the home, and left her in a dresser.
Indiana State Police and other investigators went to the property several weeks after Oaklee’s death and smelled an odor of a decomposing body coming from inside. The Morgan County Coroner removed part of the dresser and found decomposing remains of a young girl. The affidavit said Oaklee’s hair was still tied in a ponytail and her leg was "clearly broken at the knee."
Her left foot reportedly "rested directly over her chest" and still had a sock on it.
Marshall is being charged with two counts of neglect of a dependent resulting in death, neglect of a dependent resulting in serious bodily injury, assisting a criminal, and three counts of neglect of a dependent.
The Marion County Prosecutor’s Office is charging Waters with murder, two counts of a neglect of a dependent resulting in death, neglect of a dependent resulting in serious bodily injury, battery resulting in bodily injury, and three counts of neglect of a dependent.
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