Two Pennsylvania women might face the death penalty in the death of a 9-year-old girl that prosecutors say they tortured and murdered.
Renesmay Eutsey was found dead in the Yough River in September, CBS News reported. Her body had been placed in a tote and dumped. Police have charged the girls' legal guardians, Kourtney Eutsey, 31, and Sarah Shipley, 35, with homicide.
"We filed Notices of Aggravating Circumstances against Kourtney Eutsey and Sarah Shipley in the Renesmay Eutsey homicide case," District Attorney Mike Aubele wrote on social media. "If convicted of first-degree murder, the Commonwealth will seek the death penalty."
In the filing, the aggravating factors included that Shipley and Eutsey created a grave risk of death, that the offense involved torture, and that the victim in the case was younger than 12 years old.
The Pittsburgh-Post Gazette reported that both women were the girl's legal guardians. Eutsey was described as the girl's foster mother, and she was a relative of the girl's birth mother.
"This was not an accident. This was not a medical thing. This was an intentional act, and we're going to prosecute it as such," Aubele said at the hearing earlier this month, according to the newspaper.
Another child in the home told police that on September 2, Shipley and Eutsey kicked the girl in the stomach. A boy in the home told police that Eutsey had killed the girl, the newspaper reported.
The Pittsburgh-Post Gazette reported that the criminal complaint states the girl died "due to physical abuse and lack of seeking medical treatment."
