Missing 2-Year-Old Was Strangled With A Cellphone Charger, FBI Agent Says

Authorities revealed new details about the death of a 2-year-old Michigan girl as they announced federal kidnapping charges against her mother’s ex-boyfriend Friday.

The body of Wynter Cole Smith was found in a Detroit alleyway Wednesday after she was allegedly taken from her mother’s Lansing apartment earlier in the week, prompting an intense search. On Friday, Rashad Trice, 26, was charged with kidnapping a minor and kidnapping resulting in death, according to a federal complaint obtained by HuffPost. He was already facing eight other charges, including criminal sexual conduct, assault with intent to murder, home invasion and unlawful imprisonment.

“The allegations in this case are heart-wrenching,” said Mark Totten, the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Michigan, in a statement announcing the charges. “My thoughts are very much with Wynter’s family, as we were all praying for her safe return home.”

According to an FBI agent’s probable cause statement contained in the federal complaint, Trice is accused of stabbing his ex-girlfriend, Wynter’s mother, multiple times and then sexually assaulting her Monday.

Seriously injured, she fled to her mother’s apartment, which is in the same complex, leaving Wynter and her 1-year-old brother behind, authorities said.

When Lansing police arrived at the scene, Wynter and Trice were gone, but the 1-year-old was still at the apartment. A 2013 Chevy Impala that belonged to Wynter’s grandmother was also missing, and authorities issued an Amber Alert for the girl, Trice and the vehicle.

Later that day, officers in St. Clair Shores spotted the Impala and attempted to stop it. But the driver, identified by authorities as Trice, led police on a chase that ended in a crash. Trice was arrested, but Wynter was not in the car, prompting increased search efforts for the girl and a $25,000 reward for any information leading to her location.

On Wednesday night, after reviewing data from Trice’s phone, surveillance video and license plate readers, police said they found the girl’s body in the alleyway. Her death was apparently caused by strangulation with a pink cellphone charging cord, according to the FBI agent’s probable cause statement.

The statement added that the cord found with Wynter’s body matched pink cord parts found inside the Impala. A photo attached to the document shows portions of a pink cord inside the vehicle, along with blood from wounds Trice had allegedly sustained in the stabbing of the girl’s mother.

“It is so difficult to imagine the final moments of little Wynter’s life,” said Dawn Ison, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, in a statement.

While in custody, Trice allegedly admitted that he and Wynter’s mother had stabbed each other during a fight about money.

Trice told investigators that he was aware of the Amber Alert and wanted to kill himself, the FBI agent said.

“I am already a monster,” Trice allegedly told investigators.

When he was arraigned in state court Wednesday, he was charged with eight felonies and denied bond.

Now, if convicted of kidnapping resulting in death, Trice would face a mandatory minimum sentence of life in prison and be eligible for the death penalty.

Wynter’s family previously announced a vigil set for Friday evening, honoring the girl and grieving her death.

“We are heartbroken over the loss of our beautiful daughter, granddaughter, cousin, niece, and big sister,” the family said, according to ClickOnDetroit. “Wynter’s brief but bright life was taken from her unnecessarily, and we will grieve her death forever.”

Need help? In the U.S., call 1-800-799-SAFE (7233) for the National Domestic Violence Hotline. Visit RAINN’s National Sexual Assault Online Hotline or the National Sexual Violence Resource Center’s website.