A Florida woman is indicted for murder in Okaloosa County for the 2002 death of her two-year-old daughter in Niceville.
The State Attorney’s Office says 38-year-old Mary Jean Liza was indicted by an Okaloosa County Grand Jury for First-Degree Felony Murder.
According to the State Attorney’s Office, Liza is out on $10,000 bond and will be scheduled for a pretrial conference in the future.
The Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office announced the cold case murder charge for Liza in October 2021. She was arrested in California and then extradited to Okaloosa County Jail in December 2021, before being released two weeks later on bond.
The sheriff’s office asked the District One Medical Examiner’s Office to review the autopsy and findings from 2002, believing a mistake had been made.
In April 2021, following an amended autopsy report, authorities confirmed the death of 2-year-old Marselina Liza to be homicide with the cause listed as “subdural and subarachnoid hemorrhages consistent with Shaken Baby Syndrome.”
Mary Liza was 18-years-old at the time of the crime on December 30, 2002.
According to the sheriff’s office, investigators say the abuse from Shaken Baby Syndrome could have been inflicted in as little as three seconds. In 2003, Mary Liza told investigators it was possible she could have done something to her daughter and not realized it because she said she blacked out and did not recall the incident.
Multiple people told investigators Liza had a terrible temper, but did not have a history of blackouts, according to the sheriff’s office.
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