A Texas woman was sentenced to 20 years in prison after dumping her 2-year-old daughter’s corpse — and then trying to pass off a life-sized doll as the girl.
Tiaundra Christon, 23, was found guilty of tampering with a human corpse in the October 2018 disappearance of her daughter, Hazana Anderson, Click2Houston reported Tuesday.
The toddler was the subject of a massive search involving more than 160 people after Christon claimed she’d lost her in a College Station park.
The mom had just returned to the area after a trip to Houston to visit her boyfriend Kenny Hewett, Galveston County Criminal District Attorney Jack Roady said in a statement.
Friends reported seeing glimpses of Christon with the tot, and Walmart surveillance footage showed the mom pushing what appeared to be her daughter in a stroller, Roady said.
But the case took an even darker turn when police discovered a life-sized doll dressed in clothing identical to what Christon had said her daughter was wearing when she vanished.
The doll was found in a trash can across the street from where Christon parked her car.
Officers learned that Christon had carried the doll around after returning from Houston, “pretending it was her baby,” Roady said in the statement.
Christon later admitted that the tot had died in her Houston hotel room — after she and her boyfriend abused her, according to the news release.
The twisted couple dumped the girl’s body in a Texas City lake, where she was fished out days later.
Her official cause of death was never determined.
Christon had pleaded not guilty in the case. Her co-defendant, Hewett, pleaded guilty to the same charge in November 2019 and was also sentenced to the maximum 20 years in prison.