In June 2016, authorities found a 3-year-old girl wandering alone near the parking lot of a Louisiana, apartment complex. They were especially alarmed, as the toddler’s feet were covered in blood, and her parents were nowhere to be found.

As reported by CBS News, the little girl provided several details about what happened, but she was unable to tell the police where her mother was. The toddler said she and her mother, Lyntell Washington, were in a car with someone she referred to as “Mr. Robbie.” She also recalled hearing a loud noise and seeing a lot of blood in the car. Although she did not seem to realize her mother was dead, the 3-year-old girl said her mother had been “hurt” and was now “sleeping.”

Crime Online reports authorities found Lyntell Washington’s vehicle, which was covered in blood, one block from the apartment complex parking lot. However, the woman was not inside, or anywhere around, the car.

Days later, Lyntell Washington’s lifeless body was found in a ditch in Iberville Parish. KPEL reports the woman was murdered and the cause of death was a gunshot wound to the head. It was also determined that the victim was seven months pregnant at the time of her death.

Authorities eventually identified “Mr. Robbie” as 39-year-old Robert Marks — who was subsequently arrested and was initially charged with child desertion and child kidnapping (though more charges were to follow). As Marks was the father of Washington’s unborn child, the pregnancy was identified as a possible motive.

What really happened between Robert Marks and Lyntell Washington

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