Police arrested the 18-year-old cousin of Jada Justice, Engelica Castillo and the cousin's boyfriend, Tim Tkachik for the 2-year-old's murder. In addition to the murder charge they are charged with two counts of neglect of a dependent, battery and false informing.
Little Jada's body was found burned and encased in cement in a local swamp. Police believe that she was already dead and in the swamp when her cousin, the girl's babysitter, reported her missing. Two days later Tkachik went to the emergency room where he was treated for burns that he claims were the result of a propane tank explosion.
Tkachik finally led the police to Jada's body last week. His story is that Engelica Castillo repeatedly beat Jada causing her to hit her head on a table. When he couldn't stop the abuse he went into another room to watch tv (sounds fishy to me). It wasn't until they went to buy heroin that they realized that the little girl was dead. They went home after buying the heroin and placed the body into plastic bags. The next morning they tried to burn the body. When that failed, they put the body into a bathtub and poured concrete over her. They then dumped the body into the swamp.
They then went home, took some more heroin, and tried to come up with a cover story. The next day they reported the girl missing.
When police accused Castillo of lying about the disappearance, she attempted to hit the police and told them, "God is taking care of her. God is watching over her." Those are always words that alert police that YOU have something to do with a disappearance, but murderers never get tired using the same sorry line.
