Police Find Body Of Missing NC Girl Dumped Along Highway

November 16, 2009 2:34 p.m. EST

Fayetteville, NC (AHN) - The body of 5-year-old Shaniya Davis has been found dumped along a North Carolina highway. The discovery of her body coincides with the Monday court appearance of her mother charged with prostituting her missing daughter.

Over 200 officers and volunteers searched the wooded areas surrounding the young girl's home after reports of her disappearance surfaced. However search efforts changed when investigators received a tip that her body was dumped in central North Carolina. Officers refocused their search to a portion of Interstate 87 between Harnett and Lee counties.

Authorities are also charging her mother Antoinette Davis, 25, with human trafficking, child abuse involving prostitution and filing a false police report after she declared the little girl missing last Tuesday. She is scheduled to appear in court on Monday. Fayetteville police have also charged Mario Andrette McNeill, a 29-year-old man seen in hotel surveillance video carrying the child with kidnapping.

Law enforcement groups are also seeking out a man aged approximately 60 years who may be involved in the case.

Sadly the girl had only been living with her mother for a month. She had previously been living with her father Bradley Lockhart who had raised the child. He allowed his daughter to live with Davis to give her a chance at being a mother. She reportedly told him she had gotten her life together.

Lockhart said Shaniya was conceived during a "one-night stand" and that her mother didn't mind him being a sole parent.