XPost: ba.politics, dc.media, soc.penpals   
   XPost: alt.burningman   
   From: abernstein@no87.edu   
      
   A Texas woman has been arrested and charged in the death of her   
   fiance's 2-year-old daughter who had her mouth taped shut   
   earlier this month.   
      
   Little Gracie Ford was discovered unconscious in her father's   
   Plano home January 9. She was rushed to Children's Medical   
   Center in Dallas, where she was declared legally dead three days   
   later.   
      
   On Tuesday, police arrested Melinda Muniz, 25, on a capital   
   murder charge. The woman was ordered held in the Plano City Jail   
   on $1million bond.   
      
   Plano police officers responded to an apartment in the 1500   
   block of J Place at around 1.40pm on January 9 to discover 2-   
   year-old Grace Ford unconscious in her crib with duct tape   
   covering her face.   
      
   According to a page created by the toddler's family on the   
   fundraising site YouCaring.com, Grace had been deprived of   
   oxygen.   
      
   On January 22, Dallas County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled the   
   child's death a homicide caused by suffocation.   
      
   Grace was reportedly staying in the Plano home of her father,   
   Mitchum Ford, who lived with his fiancee, Melinda Muniz.   
      
   Mr Ford reportedly had been locked in a custody battle with his   
   ex-wife, Emily Ward, over Grace’s care, Dallas Morning News   
   reported.   
      
   According to Muniz’s arrest affidavit cited by the station WFAA,   
   it was Ford who called police January 9 asking to perform a   
   welfare check at his apartment.   
      
   Officers who arrived at the home on J Place found Grace Ford   
   duct taped in her crib and Muniz lying on the floor of another   
   room with her also mouth taped shut and her pants pulled down.   
      
   The affidavit states that the 25-year-old woman told police she   
   had been sexually assaulted by an unknown man, but medical tests   
   showed no signs of rape.   
      
   According to a post shared by Emily Ward on her Facebook page   
   Tuesday evening, Muniz had confessed to cheating on Ford and   
   faking amnesia, beating herself up and lying about her rape to   
   cover up the toddler's murder.   
      
   Ward also wrote that the woman was caught on a surveillance   
   camera buying duct tape and scissors at a nearby store shortly   
   before police were called to Ford’s home.   
      
   The mother’s claims were corroborated in part by the arrest   
   affidavit, which stated that Muniz and Ford were in the process   
   of breaking up.   
      
   'What a monster!!!' Ward wrote on Facebook. ‘I hope she gets   
   everything she has coming to her from the law. God will make   
   sure justice is served to the fullest!!!’   
      
   Grace's family decided to donate the child's organs ahead of her   
   funeral held January 18.   
      
   http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2547822/Grace-Ford-   
   murder-Fathers-fiancee-arrested-murder-two-year-old-daughter-   
   covering-mouth-duct-tape-faking-rape.html   
      
       
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)