It’s been a devastating few days for the family of Royalty Floyd, the Mississippi toddler who was allegedly stabbed and then placed into a hot oven by her grandmother. The baby girl’s mother took to Facebook to speak out about her 20-month-old’s senseless death.
via People:
“Royalty Marie Floyd was the best thing that ever happened to me. My first love,” Veronica Jones wrote on Facebook Tuesday.
“The hardest thing that I ever had to go through in my life. My heart has been ripped from my chest,” Veronica continued.
However, Veronica defended her own mother who has been accused of the heinous crime.
“I’m being told that my mother stabbed my daughter and baked her in the oven but my mother loved my daughter. She always treated Royalty like Royalty and everybody that knows us know [sic] that.”
“To my daughter Royalty ‘Mommy will always love you and you will live in all our hearts forever,’” Veronica added.
Veronica has also created a GoFundMe for little Royalty in hopes of covering her funeral costs. On the campaign page, the grieving mother explained, “My daughter would have been 21 months old on October 17, 2018.”
On Monday, the child’s grandmother 48-year-old Carolyn Jones was arrested and charged with first-degree murder, the Bolivar County Sheriff’s Department confirmed to PEOPLE after the toddler’s lifeless body was found inside an oven, burnt and stabbed.
The Bolivar County Sheriff’s Department also told PEOPLE, the child “was living at the residence with Jones at the time of the murder.”
Authorities were called to the residence around 7 p.m. that evening in the small city of Shaw after a family member made the troubling discovery, Bolivar County Sheriff Kevin Williams said during a press conference Tuesday, WREG reported.
At this time is it not clear if Royalty was alive when she was put inside the heated oven.
Williams said “authorities have reason to believe the child was stabbed and burned,” but the baby’s body has been transported to a crime lab to confirm the exact cause of death.
“Dark days such as these can only be brightened when justice has been served,” Williams said.
“I’ve been in law enforcement a long time, 26 years almost. Some of the most horrific scenes I’ve seen in law enforcement involve children. Those are some of the— they have an effect on us. We don’t want it to happen, but unfortunately, things like this happen.”
“This is one of the most horrible things I’ve seen,” Williams added.
There are no details at this time as to whether or not Carolyn has a lawyer or has entered a plea.
May that baby rest in peace and may the grandmother get whatever’s coming her way.
