A 12-year-old Tennessee girl has been charged with murdering her 8-year-old cousin on Monday, according to prosecutors, who claimed the victim was suffocated as she slept.
The victim’s mother identified the slain girl to WREG as Demeria Hollingsworth. The suspect — who is expected to turn 13 next week — has not been publicly identified as she is not charged as an adult.
Hollingsworth is from South Carolina. Her mother said the two girls were staying with their grandmother for the summer. She claimed a dispute over an iPhone led to her daughter’s death.
“I should have just gone to get my kid,” she told WREG. “But they were having fun for the summer and I didn’t think she would kill my baby.”
Two days after the incident, a tipster reportedly contacted authorities about home security footage which showed the girl suffocating Hollingsworth on the top of a bunk bed they shared. WRC reported that the older girl then cleaned up and repositioned the body.
“The video shows the 12-year-old with her full body weight taking bedding, it appears the eight-year-old is asleep, and she takes the bedding and covers the 8-year-old’s face,” prosecutor Frederick Agee said.
Calling the crime “unimaginable,” Agee then revealed how the preteen murder suspect “goes and gets tissues and papers, tries to clean the 8-year-old’s body and face, and also moves the child, to make it appear that she was under the covers.”
The 12-year-old girl is charged with first-degree murder. Agee said he plans to ask the judge to move the case to adult court at Friday’s hearing.
