A Florida woman was arrested on Friday, October 18, accused of using an online video game to instruct her 10-year-old relative to drop a 2-month-old onto a tiled floor and h*rm her adult guardians, according to the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office.
Tara Alexis Sykes, 36, faces charges of attempted m*rder during aggr@vated child abuse due to these messages.
The 10-year-old told investigators she feared Sykes and believed she would be k!lled if she didn’t obey, authorities said. Fortunately, the adults were not h*rmed, but the 2-month-old boy suffered injuries.
The sheriff’s office began investigating on October 17 after a nonprofit serving child abuse victims reported that the infant had suffered a skull fracture on September 26 when the girl dropped him.
Detectives discovered that the 10-year-old had been communicating with Sykes through the online gaming platform Roblox at the time of the incident, as noted in an arrest report obtained by HuffPost.
The 10-year-old revealed to investigators that she had created the Roblox account for Sykes, according to the arrest report.
According to the report, Sykes instructed the girl to harm the 2-month-old in various ways, such as dr*wning, burning h!m with hot water, and dropping him on the floor. She also instructed the 10-year-old to k!ll her guardians and their adult daughter by cutting their throats while they slept, and she allegedly suggested setting the house on fire by dousing bedsheets with aerosol spray.
The 10-year-old reportedly admitted to soaking the bedsheets as instructed but did not proceed with setting the house on fire, according to the report. She also confessed to intentionally dropping the infant on the kitchen floor.
“I have been in Law Enforcement for over 40 years and have never seen anything quite like this,” Sheriff Chip Simmons stated. “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.”
Sykes is being held without bond.
This is Sykes’ second arrest this year.
On May 28, she and her husband were arrested after admitting they were aware that their 14-year-old daughter had been impregnated by their 20-year-old friend, who was living with them, as per the arrest report.
The couple was charged with child abuse for failing to report the “known sexual battery.”
Additionally, their daughter—who was 31 weeks pregnant and malnourished—told police that her parents threatened to kill the 20-year-old if his grandmother did not pay them $10,000, the report stated.
Both cases are ongoing.