Grandmother charged after toddler stabbed, baked in oven

SHAW, MS (WMC) - One person is in custody after a toddler was stabbed, placed in an oven and baked, according to the Bolivar County sheriff.

Police said 20-month-old Royalty Marie Floyd was stabbed to death and put into a heated oven. Officials identified the person in custody as the toddler’s 48-year-old grandmother Carolyn Jones, who was living in the home.

Jones is charged with first-degree murder and is being held on a $500,000 bond.

Shaw police officers were the first to respond--they called Bolivar County Sheriff’s Department for assistance.

Police and sheriff’s deputies found the baby at a home on Martin Luther King Drive in Shaw, Mississippi on Monday night.

Bolivar County Sheriff Kelvin Williams, Sr. said he struggled to make sense of the heinous act.

“I’ve been in law enforcement a long time, 26 years almost. I’ve been from St. Louis to here and some of the most horrific scenes that I’ve seen in law enforcement involve children," Williams said.

Investigators said a relative found the toddler inside an oven.

“I didn’t even know nobody was living in the house. That’s what’s really hurting me and shocked me,” one neighbor said.

Neighbors said they rarely saw anyone coming in and out of the home. They were shocked to hear this happened to an innocent child.

“It’s a baby. It’s an innocent child. She didn’t ask to be here. I mean, if they didn’t want her why keep her?” neighbor Tomorow Williams said.

The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation and the State Crime Lab have been called to investigate.

Sheriff Williams said the girl’s body was sent to the state crime lab for an autopsy.

“We see a lot but when you run across and have incidents that involve children it has an effect on you and doing our job,” Sheriff Williams said.

A state pathologist will have to determine if the baby died prior to being placed into the oven or not.

“Dark days such as these can only be brightened when justice is served," Sheriff Williams said.

Veronica Jones, the mother of 20-month-old Royalty, created a GoFundMe account for her daughter’s funeral.

When asked what she thought happened, she said this:

All I know is that my mother stabbed my daughter and put her in the oven and cooked her. My mother was not a violent person. She loved Royalty and she always treated Royalty like Royalty. My mom obviously was not herself. 

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