Editor’s note: Warning, graphic descriptions
In a bizarre attempted homicide in Florida, a woman is accused of using a social media game’s chat function to coerce a 10-year-old girl to drop an infant on its head and burn her adult guardians alive.
On Oct. 17, the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office was contacted by the Gulf Coast Kid’s House in Pensacola regarding a two-month-old boy who’d been seriously injured after being dropped on a tile floor by the young girl.
Both children were under the care of two adults through the organization’s foster services.
Police discovered the girl’s alleged murder mandate came from 36-year-old Tara Alexis Sykes via the game Roblox, an award-winning online platform game largely geared to children.
“In the communication thread, Sykes instructed the 10-year-old on various methods to kill the infant. Sykes instructed the 10-year-old to drown the infant in the bathtub, burn the infant with scalding water, and drop the infant on the floor,” reads a Facebook post from the sheriff’s office.
A sheriff’s spokesperson told USA Today that the baby suffered a skull fracture but survived the fall.
Police allege Sykes also instructed the child how to kill the adult caregivers while they slept, suggesting cutting their throats with a knife or coating their bed with flammable spray and setting it ablaze. Police said the child reportedly used the aerosol spray, “but was unable to carry out the instructions.”
A story from the Pensacola News Journal cited the guardians’ adult daughter as having found a lighter and the sprayed sheets in question after discovering screenshots of messages between the child and the accused.
The outlet also learned that the girl told investigators “she was terrified” of Sykes and “felt that if she did not follow through with the instructions, Sykes would harm or kill her as well.”
Sykes has so far been charged with attempted murder while engaged in aggravated child abuse, but the police said more charges are possible. She’s due back in court on Nov. 8.
In his 40 years on the job, Sheriff Chip Simmons noted it was something he’d never come across.
“I am truly disturbed by the circumstances and the thought that anyone could think like this, let alone instruct these acts to be carried out,” he stated.
“There is something really wrong with her.”
Without divulging specifics, Simmons also told the News Journal that Sykes and the child had an existing relationship, so the gaming interaction was not random.
‘There is something really wrong with her’
It’s not the first time this year Sykes was implicated in alleged child abuse. In May, she and her husband, James Sykes, were charged with neglect of a child – their 14-year-old daughter– according to multiple sources.
The two were arrested when deputies visited the home to find their daughter apparently suffering from malnutrition at 31 weeks into her pregnancy, as reported by the Independent.
During the subsequent investigation, the Sykes admitted to allowing a 20-year-old man to live in their home after they discovered he’d impregnated the daughter.
A thumb drive discovered after their arrest reportedly contains messages between the man and the daughter about having sex and the baby.
Court records indicate they knew of the alleged “sexual battery” perpetrated by the accused in November 2023 and didn’t report it to authorities.
Instead, the daughter told detectives her parents locked the man in their house “and threatened him with death or harm if he left,” according to court papers from the Pensacola News Journal.
The teen also said her parents threatened to kill him if his grandmother did not pay them USD$10,0000 to keep him alive or out of jail for having sex with a minor, using the thumb drive messages as leverage. Authorities confirmed the grandmother paid the money.
The Florida newspaper also uncovered that while the man has not been charged with impregnating the daughter, he is charged with threatening Tara Sykes’ life in Facebook messages to a mutual acquaintance.
He’s reportedly due back in court in January 2025.
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