On September 1, 2024, just after 11:30 a.m., police say officers and paramedics responded to a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania home in a downtown apartment complex for a report of a suspicious death involving a young female. The child’s uncle dialed 911 after finding the toddler unconscious, not breathing, and “obviously deceased.” Paramedics pronounced her dead at the scene.
The victim was identified as 3-year-old Ayla Miller.
The child was found on a bloody mattress on the ground in the apartment’s master bedroom, “cold to the touch” and covered in bruises, scratches, and other injuries to her face, chest, and hip. She also had a wound on her right ankle and a burn mark on her left ankle, “consistent with a cigarette burn.”
Ayla’s mother told police her daughter had been in her grandmother’s, 56-year-old Denise Johnson, custody for about a month and a half living in the dark, after having her electricity cut off. The baby’s mother said Johnson had been attempting to find new housing and that she “had a Facetime call” with her child about a week earlier and saw no trauma to her baby’s face.
Another relative told police she spoke with Johnson Sunday, who apologized and said “she punched” the baby in the face, and the toddler fell back and hit her head on a coffee table “really hard.”
“Johnson then picked (the baby) up off the ground,” the complaint continues and placed her into the bed for the next few days” before the child was found dead by a relative.
During an interview with detectives, Johnson allegedly apologized and said “she beat her butt for not listening” before she fell into the table.
On September 2, Johnson was arrested and charged with criminal homicide, abuse of a corpse, aggravated assault, corruption of minors, and endangering the welfare of children. She is being held without bond at the Alleghany County Jail.
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