4-Year-Old Girl Stitched Together, Didn’t Have a Nose

When a child becomes a murder victim, we feel a little more unease and heartbreak than normal. Kids are innocent and deserve nothing but love and protection from their parents and adults in their lives. All too often, children are mistreated, abused, and tortured even, at the hands of the very people who should protect them at all costs.

Zya Singleton was one of those children. A beautiful, smart, talented 4-year-old little girl, Zya died on November 3, 2019, after years of horrific abuse inflicted by her caregiver, Samilya Brown.

Zya was found in an ice bath in her home covered in burns across her arms and legs, broken bones, open wounds, puncture wounds, bite marks, and homemade stitches. Most horrific of all, Zya did not have a nose.

Brown called police to her Philadelphia home on the evening of October 30, 2019, to report her child had fallen out of a second-story window. According to Brown, Zya fell from the window as she played with the family’s cat. Police were immediately suspicious of her story.

Zya was life-flighted to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia where she died from her injuries on November 3. Zya died from a sepsis infection related to an untreated head wound, but officials described burn scars with a pattern on them from improper treatment, and home-sewn stitches on a gaping facial wound.

Zya’s mother, Jasmine Singleton, signed custody of her daughter over to Brown in 2016. Singleton told reporters she did not recognize her daughter at the hospital, adding, “She had no nose, all of this was gone. All you could see was the frame.”

Singleton said she had no idea Brown was abusing her daughter and would have intervened if she had known. “Never. If there was ever a thought this girl was abusing my kid, you would have never got my kid.” She had not seen her daughter in two years after she agreed to allow Brown to watch her daughter until she could move per DCS orders.

Brown was to return Zya to her mother once she was back on her feet. That did not happen, however. When Singleton attempted to get Zya, Brown refused to return her. It is unclear why Brown refused to return Zya to her mother.

DA Lightsey said of the case, “Brown abused her, stitched her up, abused her again, stitched her up… She burnt her with some kind of scalding liquid and patched her up at home.” He described it as “one of the worst cases of child abuse” in Philadelphia history.

Brown worked as a home-health aid assisting sick individuals. She used her knowledge in the medical field to abuse Zya, and then stitch up the wounds herself versus taking her to a doctor where medical experts would recognize the signs of abuse. Zya sustained numerous injuries Brown attempted to treat at home, including a busted lip.

Brown also admitted that she abused and starved Zya. She pleaded guilty to third-degree murder, endangering the welfare of a child, and possession of an instrument in a crime. Her attorneys asked for a reduced sentence because Brown suffered abuse as a child. The plea fell on deaf ears as the judge imposed the maximum sentence of 30 to 60 years in prison.

"I hope she burn in this jail cell. That's it," Zya’s mother added.

SOURCES:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7681193/Caretaker-accused-killing-malnourished-four-year-old-girl-covered-bite-marks.html

https://www.cbsnews.com/philadelphia/news/zya-singleton-abuse-murder-francisville-samilya-brown/

https://abc13.com/philadelphia-news-child-falls-from-window/5693988/

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