The grandmother and stepmother of a 9-year-old Alabama girl
who died after witnesses said she was forced to run for three
hours as punishment for lying have been charged with murder
and are being held in jail.
Witnesses told police that Savannah Hardin was told to run
and not allowed to stop for three hours on February 17, an
Etowah County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman said. The girl's
stepmother, 27-year-old Jessica Mae Hardin, called police at
6:45pm, telling authorities that Savannah was having a
seizure and was unresponsive.
Authorities are still trying to determine whether Savannah
was forced to run by physical coercion or by verbal commands
only.
Savannah Hardin died on Monday (local time) at Children's
Hospital in Birmingham, according to a news release from the
sheriff's office.
Authorities said Jessica Mae Hardin and Savannah's
grandmother - 46-year-old Joyce Hardin Garrard - were both
arrested and charged with murder after the death was ruled a
homicide by a state pathologist.
The sheriff's release says the autopsy report showed the girl
was extremely dehydrated and had a very low sodium level.
The sheriff's office received calls from concerned citizens
who had witnessed the incident.
"It's sad when a family is grieving over the death of a
daughter and granddaughter and so soon to find out that the
death could have been prevented," Etowah Sheriff Todd Entrkin
wrote in the release. "My thoughts and prayers are with the
family."
Garrard and Hardin are being held in the Etowah County
Detention Center on a $500,000 cash bond.
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