A 12-year-old girl in Tennessee has been charged with murder, accused of smothering her 8-year-old cousin as the younger girl slept. A relative said they had been arguing over an iPhone.
A security camera recorded the killing, inside the bedroom they shared on July 15 in Humboldt, Tennessee, the county prosecutor said.
The recording shows the older child using bedding to suffocate her cousin as the younger girl slept in the top bunk, Gibson District Attorney Frederick Agee’s statement said. After the child died, “the juvenile cleaned up the victim and repositioned her body,” Agee said.
A relative told WREG-TV in Memphis that the girls had been arguing over an iPhone after coming from out of town to stay with their grandmother.
I have them in my young kids’ rooms but it’s mostly just to make sure they’re in bed and not screwing around. Once they get a bit older, they’ll be removed. I don’t know how you’d justify a camera in a 12 year old’s room without very explicit needs and communication.
The kids were at grandma’s house, visiting. So not their own bedroom.