Tara Alexis Sykes (Escambia County Sheriff’s Office)
A 36-year-old woman in Florida is behind bars after she allegedly contacted a 10-year-old child over a social media video game platform, instructing the child to kill a newborn baby as well as the adults the children were living with at the time. Tara Alexis Sykes was taken into custody last week and charged with one count of attempted murder while engaged in aggravated child abuse, authorities announced.
According to a news release from the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office, deputies on Oct. 17, 2024, received a call from the Gulf Coast Kid’s House, a child advocacy center, regarding a 2-month-old child who had suffered “serious injuries after being dropped on the kitchen floor by a 10-year-old.”
Investigators said they learned that Sykes and the 10-year-old communicated online using a popular gaming platform called Roblox, which also has a social media component that allows users to chat. In this case, authorities say that Sykes used the platform to instruct the 10-year-old on numerous ways to commit infanticide.
“In the communication thread, Sykes instructed the 10-year-old on various methods to kill the infant,” the sheriff’s office wrote in the release. “Sykes instructed the 10-year-old to drown the infant in the bathtub, burn the infant with scalding water, and drop the infant on the floor to kill the infant. Additionally, Sykes had instructed the 10-year-old on how to kill the adults the 10-year-old was temporarily living with by cutting their throats with a knife while they slept and burning their house by dousing bed sheets with aerosol spray and setting them on fire.”
Authorities said that the 10-year-old went so far as to douse sheets with the aerosol spray, but the child was ultimately “unable to carry out the instructions.”
“I have been in Law Enforcement for over 40 years and have never seen anything quite like this,” Sheriff Chip W. Simmons said in a statement following Sykes’ arrest. “I am truly disturbed by the circumstances and the thought that anyone could think like this, let alone instruct these acts to be carried out. There is something really wrong with her.”
Sykes and her husband were arrested earlier this year and charged with one count each of child neglect — endangerment for allowing the 20-year-old man who impregnated their 14-year-old daughter to live with them in their family home, court records reviewed by Law&Crime show.
That case began on May 28, 2024, when deputies responded to the Sykes’ home in the 3000 block of Robertson Road at the request of an investigator with the Department of Children and Families regarding a 14-year-old girl who was 31 weeks pregnant and appeared to be suffering from malnutrition.
According to a probable cause affidavit, Sykes and her husband both admitted they knew their daughter had been impregnated by a 20-year-old acquaintance of theirs and both parents failed to report the “known sexual battery” against their daughter. The parents also allegedly threatened to kill the 20-year-old if his grandmother did not pay them $10,000, which authorities say she did.
Both cases against Sykes remain open. She is currently being held in Escambia County Jail without bond.
Have a tip we should know? [email protected]
