A baby girl who was found stabbed and burned at her grandmother’s home was still alive when she was placed in an oven, an autopsy has revealed.
Royalty Marie Floyd was found dead in the oven at her grandmother’s home in Shaw, Mississippi on Monday night.
Her grandmother, Carolyn Jones, 48, has been charged with first-degree murder.
An autopsy report, obtained by the Bolivar Commercial, found that the 20-month-old-girl ‘from sharp stab wounds and inhaling the heated air’ inside the oven.
Video courtesy of WREG
Twenty-month-old Royalty Marie Floyd was found dead in the oven at her grandmother’s home in Shaw, Mississippi on Monday night
The preliminary findings were supplied to the newspaper by a deputy coroner who declined to identify himself.
Veronica Jones, the 20-month-old girl’s mother, said recently that she is still coming to terms with the fact her own mother is allegedly responsible.
‘Royalty Marie Floyd was the best thing that ever happened to me. She’s my one and only daughter. My first love,’ she said.
Royalty’s grandmother, Carolyn Jones, 48, has been charged with first-degree murder
Veronica said her daughter’s death was ‘the hardest thing that I ever had to go through in my life’.
‘My heart has been ripped from my chest.
‘I’m being told that my mother stabbed my daughter and baked her in the oven but my mother loved my daughter. She always treated Royalty like Royalty and everybody that knows us know that.’
Authorities say the little girl had been living with her grandmother.
Police were called on Monday night after Jones’ brother came home to find Royalty’s body in the heated oven.
Investigators are still trying to determine exactly when the girl died.
Veronica Jones, the 20-month-old girl’s mother, said she is still coming to terms with the fact her own mother is allegedly responsible
The grieving mother said her 20-month-old daughter’s death was ‘the hardest thing that I ever had to go through in my life’
‘I’ve been doing law enforcement for 25 or 26 years now. This is one of the most horrible things I’ve seen in doing law enforcement. The hardest part… is to see a child victim,’ Bolivar County Sheriff Kelvin Williams Senior said.
At a press conference following the incident, authorities said had no immediate answers in the death of the Jones’ granddaughter.
Jones made an initial appearance in court last Tuesday night where a judge set bail at $500,000.
Police said Jones was the only person in the home with Royalty at the time.
Police tape still surrounded part of the home in the days after Royalty’s body was found. A stroller, high chair and a trash barrel of toys, including a scooter, sat near the curb in front of the house.
Williams said those toys had belonged to Royalty. Authorities said they had no immediately information about the circumstances leading up to the child’s death.
‘That’s hard to say,’ Williams said. ‘We don’t know.’
Police were called on Monday night after Jones’ brother came home to find Royalty’s body in the heated oven. Royalty’s stroller, high chair and toys were found outside the home
Williams was asked if mental illness was a factor in the motive of the crime.
He replied: ‘We don’t know any of that at this time and we are limited on what we can release’.
A GoFundMe page has been set up to help cover funeral costs and has exceeded $4,200.
Dozens of mourners held a vigil in honor of the girl on Monday in front of the Bolivar County Courthouse, where people ‘shared lots of songs [and] lots of prayers’ in her memory, WMC-TV reported.