A mother and her boyfriend are behind bars for the death of Maliyah Bass, a Texas toddler found dead floating in the bayou in August.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, a jogger found Maliyah’s body floating in Brays Bayou, off of the 5200 block of Carrolton Street in SW Houston on August 23. Maliyah was reportedly last seen playing in the playground of the Sunset Crossing apartments in SW Houston on August 22.
The child’s mother, Sahara Ervin, 20, told Fox 7 in August that she had been watching from a nearby window as Maliyah played at the apartment complex playground. Ervin said she turned away momentarily and when she looked back, her daughter was gone.
Maliyah lived with her mother and her mother’s boyfriend, Travion Thompson, 21, according to authorities.
ABC 8 reports that Ervin and Thompson are now behind bars for injury to a child and tampering with evidence, namely a human corpse. Court documents indicate that authorities said Maliyah had a broken arm and blunt force trauma of “looped-pattern bruising all over her body.”
On Thursday, prosecutors said a video show Thompson carrying a trash can to a storm drain at the apartment complex.
Thompson allegedly confessed after his arrest and put the blame on Ervin, claiming that the woman beat the toddler with a hairbrush when she was crying and wouldn’t sleep. Court records indicate that the pair then put Maliyah in a broom closet, naked, and woke up to find the toddler dead on the following day.
Thompson reportedly admitted that they hid Maliyah’s body in a storm drain on August 22. The next day, Maliyah was found floating in the bayou.
“In probable cause, in open court, the prosecutor indicated there was a trash can that Mr. Thompson was seen carrying,” Ervin’s lawyer, Angela Whelton, said in court Thursday, ABC 13 reports.
“There’s still information to be imparted to me as far as what evidence there is that she did commit any of this. So far, we’ve just heard probable cause which is what he said happened, we have yet to understand or know from her perspective what has occurred in this case.”
More accurate information should come forwards when the final autopsy is complete.
A judge gave Ervin a $175,000 bond while Thompson has no bond.
Check back for updates.
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[Feature Photo: Maliyah Bass/Handout]