The mother of Kamille McKinney — the 3-year-old Alabama girl who was kidnapped and murdered last year — spoke with the media for the first time since her daughter’s slaying.

April Thomas told WIAT that she’s had a “rough” time coping with her daughter’s murder. She also said she appreciated the community’s outpouring of support during her child’s abduction and subsequent murder.

“What are we going to do to prevent this from happening? While the gifts are nice, it still doesn’t [make] our community better. I would rather see more events towards trying to push things to be better. Enough is enough.”

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Derick Brown, 29, and Patrick Stallworth, 39, are accused of abducting McKinney from the Tom Brown Village public housing community in Birmingham on October 12. McKinney was reportedly attending a birthday party at the time — and witnesses claimed they spotted a man who was handing out candy and put the barefoot toddler in his car.

McKinney’s body was reportedly discarded in a dumpster at the Woodside Condominiums in Center Point, where the pair lived. Authorities said her body was discovered at the Santek Waste Services Landfill in Gardendale on October 22.

Authorities previously revealed that Thomas didn’t make any pleas for her daughter’s safe return at the request of law enforcement.

An examination revealed that McKinney died shortly after her abduction from asphyxiation by suffocation. The report stated that the toddler had toxic levels of methamphetamine and Trazodone, an anti-depressant, in her body. Stallworth reportedly had a prescription for Trazodone but claimed Brown was stealing his pills and taking them with meth.

According to testimony, Stallworth purchased an energy drink and a pill for erectile dysfunction at a local convenience store on the night on McKinney’s abduction.

Brown’s lawyers claimed that Stallworth’s DNA was recovered from under McKinney’s fingernails but hers was not. However, a plastic mattress covering seized from the couple’s apartment was said to have blood belonging to Stallworth, Brown, and McKinney.

Stallworth reportedly claimed that he entered his apartment and found Brown with McKinney. He said Brown asked him to sexually assault the child but he refused. Conversely, Brown alleged that she witnessed Stallworth sexually assault the toddler.

Prosecutors said the state of McKinney’s body made it impossible for officials to determine whether she suffered any sexual trauma.

Brown and Stallworth remain jailed on capital murder charges. Stallworth was charged with multiple counts of child pornography after investigators reportedly found photos of young girls on his phone. Authorities said the images were not of McKinney.

Brown also has a pending abduction charge stemming from a 2018 incident involving her three children and the Department of Human Resources.

Read our continuing coverage on the Kamille McKinney case here. 

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[Featured image: Kamille McKinney/Facebook]