Aliayah Lunsford, 3, West Va. missing

[HairOfTheDog]

I was so glad to read that mom Lena Lunsford has been arrested in the death of little Aliayah over five years ago.

The photos of the abused little girl always make me wanna cry.




There's a lot of good detail and info posted by Lady Cop and case followers upthread. Here's a quick recap of the case:

Lena Lunsford said that she checked on her daughter in her bed early the morning of Sept. 24, 2011, and then found her gone when she looked in on her again later that morning. At the time, there were several other children in the home and Lena was eight months pregnant. She subsequently gave birth to twins.

Hundreds of people aided federal, state and local authorities in the search for the girl as FBI investigators went door to door and dive teams scoured a local river, but Aliayah was not located.

Suspicion fell on Lena Lunsford early on, but there was no body and investigators didn't have enough evidence to charge her.

However, Lunsford spent eight months in prison for welfare fraud after her daughter vanished, along with additional short stays on probation violations. Her parental rights were terminated by the West Virginia courts, and her six other children were put in state custody.