25-year-old mom allegedly murdered her own father and her daughter, hid their remains in a neighbor's shed, then made up a story about them running off to Georgia.
Cheyanne Jessie killed her 50-year-old father Mark Weekly and her six-year-old daughter Meredith, then waited more than a week before reporting them missing, detectives say.
The pair's remains were found in plastic boxes on a neighbor's property in Lakeland, Florida, late Saturday night, some 200 yards from Weekly's home.
Investigators claim she killed Meredith because she was getting in the way of her relationship with a new boyfriend. It is not clear why she would have killed her father as well.
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said the bodies were found after officers smelled the stench of death. Both were said to have stab wounds and gunshot wounds.
Officials said the two were last seen on July 18, though Jessie did not report them missing until this Saturday.
According to
Fox News, Jessie's story was suspicious from the start.
She reportedly claimed that Weekly had run off to Florida with Meredith after telling her via text message that he only had one year to live and wanted to spend it with his granddaughter.
Detectives said she later admitted she and Weekly had argued, and then that there had been a physical confrontation.
She allegedly sent the message from Weekly's phone herself to back up her cover story about them running away.
Officials say Jessie claims she killed her father in self-defense, and stabbed Meredith 'accidentally' during a scuffle with a knife.
She allegedly later asked her boyfriend questions about how long bodies take to decompose, and whether they would fit in a plastic tote.