FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. — Three days after finding the body of 5-year-old Shaniya Nicole Davis in rural Lee County, Fayetteville police charged a family acquaintance Thursday in her death.

Mario Andrette McNeill, 29, of 2613 Pine Springs Drive, was charged with first-degree murder and first-degree rape of a child. He surrendered to police last Friday after the release of hotel security video that appeared show to him carrying Shaniya on the morning of her disappearance.

He has been held in isolation at the Cumberland County Detention Center on a first-degree kidnapping charge since that time.

Antoinette Nicole Davis reported her daughter missing from their home, at 1116-A Sleepy Hollow Drive, Nov. 10.

In an affidavit for a warrant to search McNeill's 1997 Mitsubishi Galant, investigators said McNeill told them he picked Shaniya up in front of her home and drove her to the hotel. This IS NOT WHAT DAVIS TOLD THE DISPATCHER according to the tape of the 911 call to report Shaniya missing.

Davis, 25, was arrested Saturday and charged with human trafficking, felony child abuse–prostitution, filing a false police report and obstructing a police investigation. Arrest warrants state that Davis "did knowingly provide Shaniya with the intent that she be held in sexual servitude" (sexual slavery) and she "did permit an act of prostitution with Shaniya."

Despite the arrests, there was no word of Shaniya’s whereabouts until Sunday, when police said they had obtained reliable information that her body had been dumped in the woods off N.C. Highway 87 near the Lee-Harnett county line.

After extensive searches Sunday and Monday, volunteer searchers found her body about 100 feet off Walker Road on Monday afternoon.

Police Chief Tom Bergamine said a preliminary autopsy report shows Shaniya died of asphyxiation but testing has not yet been completed, a final autopsy report has not been released.

Since then, authorities have struggled to resolve jurisdictional questions over who would handle the murder case. Prosecutors must prove where the girl was killed to establish legal jurisdiction to prosecute someone on a murder charge.

Prosecutors in Cumberland and Lee counties met for four hours Wednesday to discuss the issue, and Fayetteville police and Cumberland County District Attorney Ed Grannis met again Thursday to discuss the case.

The Cumberland County District Attorney’s Office finally took the lead on the case, resulting in the murder charge against McNeill. Now we will wait to see if murder charges are brought against "Mommy Dearest", Shaniya was in her custody at the time of the murder and SHE MADE THE ARRANGEMENTS TO SURRENDER THIS BEAUTIFUL CHILD. As North Carolina carries the death penalty by lethal injection - "shoot" them both up!

Was girl payment for drug debt?

Investigators were trying to determine whether Davis might have given her daughter up to settle a drug debt, said Theresa Chance, spokeswoman for the Fayetteville Police Department.

“Lots of people are saying that, so it’s part of the investigation,” Chance said Thursday.

She declined to comment on whether Davis owed money to McNeill.

Funeral arrangements for Shaniya weren't complete Thursday.

Residents of the Sleepy Hollow Mobile Home Park where she lived with Davis planned a Thursday night prayer service to remember Shaniya.

JUSTICE WILL PREVAIL FOR SHANIYA.

Based on the following alleged information Shaniya Davis was failed by many:

• prior DSS documentation regarding Antoinette's 7 year-old son
  
• reports that the mother's home had been previously raided finding drugs and drug paraphernalia
  
• Shaniya's school system allegedly failed to report to authorities or notify her father that her mother removed her from school in October

RED FLAGS RIGHT AND LEFT WERE GOING UP TO BRING MUCH NEEDED ATTENTION TO SHANIYA'S LIFE OF HELL!