An unidentified child’s body was found by a fisherman on West Galveston Bay. Despite the lack of a name, it did not take long for medical examiner to determine the cause of death: head trauma. After a composite sketch was compiled by forensic artist Lois Gibson, police began the search for the parents of the baby girl who appeared to be around two years-old.
Although many tips came in from those who had reported a child missing, police soon hit on a tip that brought the true identity to a little girl whose parents hadn’t reported her as missing: Riley Ann Sawyers
The tip that Baby Grace might be Sawyers originally came from her paternal grandmother, Sheryl Sawyers, who phoned investigators after she saw the Baby Grace sketch on the Internet.
DNA tests eventually verified that the little girl was indeed Sheryl Sawyers’ granddaughter. Riley’s mother and stepfather were investigated and eventually charged in her death.
Kimberly Ann Trenor, 19, and her 24-year-old husband, Royce Clyde Zeigler, both of Spring, Texas, are being held in connection with the 2-year-old girl’s death on charges of injuring a child and tampering with evidence. The two remain in custody in Galveston County jail, each on $350,000 bond.
In the affidavit, Trenor describes how she and Zeigler beat the toddler with two leather belts and held her head under water in a bathtub on the morning of July 24. Trenor also said in the affivadit that Zeigler picked the child up by her hair and threw her across the room causing her head to slam against a tile floor.
After Sawyers died, Trenor said in the affidavit to the Sheriff’s Office, Zeigler covered the child in a purple towel and the pair then went to a Wal-Mart to purchase items to hide and dispose of the body, including a blue plastic container, bleach, a shovel and latex gloves.
According to the affidavit, Trenor said Zeigler hid the container with the remains in a storage shed for two months before the pair tossed the container into the water off Galveston Causeway.
A tragedy has come full circle to Robert Sawyers who lost his child and Sheryl Sawyers who lost her granddaughter.
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