Police: Jacksonville Woman Drove With Dead Daughter, 11, For Days Before Crashing, Dragging Corpse Into Woods

Detectives from West Virginia and Florida are working together to investigate the death of 11-year-old Kaye-lea Plummer. According to 11 Alive, the child’s 37-year-old mother is facing criminal charges after she allegedly drove with her deceased daughter for days before crashing her vehicle and later dragging the child’s body into a nearby wooded area.

After two days of traveling, Erica Newsome, of Jacksonville, lost control of her vehicle and hit a guard rail on a highway in Allegheny Mountain, Virginia, early Sunday morning. An elderly couple traveling on the same highway witnessed Newsome remove a body, covered with a blanket, from the car and drag the corpse into a woodland.

Senior Trooper D. P. Dillon responded to the scene after receiving a 911 call about two occupants being ejected in a crash. Upon arrival, officers saw the deceased girl but quickly realized that the child appears to have been dead for more than 24 hours.

It was reported that Newsome asked to speak with an officer at the scene and said that Kaye-lea did not die in the crash. She admitted to abusing and killing her daughter, according to police.

After the alleged murder, Newsome supposedly placed her daughter’s body in the trunk of her vehicle and was planning to drive to Buffalo, New York, where her child’s father and her estranged husband, Donate Plummer, lives.

Erica Newsome, 37, was charged with concealment of a deceased body, according to reports.https://t.co/oNv7V3iWqV pic.twitter.com/y9r9sXpCjB

— First Coast News (@FCN2go) August 8, 2017

Plummer told officials that he received a text from Newsome out of the blue on Saturday. She told him that she was bringing their daughter, whom he hadn’t seen since 2014 when the pair separated.

He added that although he hadn’t seen his daughter in three years, he would often talk to her on the phone. Kaye-lea purportedly gave no indication that there was anything wrong at the home she shared with her mother. She would always seem so “happy” and “full of life,” according to Plummer.

Officers with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office went to Newsome’s home and found evidence of a crime. The mother was arrested and charged with concealment of a dead human being.

She remains at the Southern Regional Jail on a $50,000 cash bond.

Circumstances surrounding Kaye-lea’s murder is unknown at this time, but an investigation is ongoing.

[Featured Image by Dozet/iStock]