A Florida woman has been accused of directing a 10-year-old child through the online gaming platform Roblox to kill a two-month-old baby by dropping it on a solid tile floor.
Tara Sykes, 36, of Perdido Key, allegedly contacted the 10-year-old through Roblox's social media feature and then persuaded them to carry out the violence, the Escambia County Sheriff's Office said in a statement Monday.
The suspect also allegedly made a series of other demands on the child, including drowning the baby in the tub and scolding the child with boiling water, deputies said.
She also told the 10-year-old to use a knife to slit the throats of the adults they temporarily lived with while they slept, authorities allege. She then allegedly ordered the child to spray the guards' bedding with flammable aerosols and set their bodies on fire.
The 10-year-old was “incapable of carrying out instructions” over the adults, the sheriff's office said, but may have harmed the child.
The sheriff's office said the Gulf Coast Kids House child protection center was contacted Thursday to report that a 2-month-old baby was “seriously injured” after being dropped onto the kitchen floor by another child.
Sykes was arrested and charged with attempted murder while engaging in aggravated child abuse.
She was booked into the Escambia County Jail on Friday, where she is being held without bond.
“I have been in law enforcement for over 40 years and have never seen anything like this,” Escambia County Sheriff Chip Simmons said in a statement Monday.
“I am truly disturbed by the circumstances and the thought that anyone could think like this, let alone order these acts to be carried out. There is something really wrong with her.”
Authorities say more charges could be filed.
According to court records, Sykes and her husband were previously arrested on May 28 after a Department of Children and Families investigator went to their home and found her 14-year-old daughter was 31 weeks pregnant and suffering from malnutrition.
Both Sykes and her husband admitted they were aware their teenage daughter had been impregnated by a 20-year-old, according to a probable cause affidavit seen by Law & Crime.
The couple failed to report the “known sexual battery” but allegedly threatened to kill the alleged rapist if his grandmother did not pay $10,000 – which she did, the affidavit alleges.
Sykes has been charged with neglect of a child without causing great bodily harm.
The independent has contacted the Escambia County Clerk for more information.
