SANFORD, Fla., Feb. 27 (UPI) -- Police have filed a murder charge against a Florida woman who admitted burying her 2-year-old daughter in a suitcase after suffocating her by rolling atop her.
Rachel Fryer, 32, was charged with aggravated child neglect Feb. 11. Sanford police Wednesday added a felony murder charge, the Orlando Sentinel reported.
Fryer told the Sentinel in a series of telephone interviews Wednesday she did not kill her daughter, Tariji Gordon. She said she panicked when she was unable to wake the girl Feb. 6.
"I was trying to do CPR. I know I should have called 911, but I wasn't thinking rationally," she said. "I was thinking, 'They're going to come take away my kids.' ... It would have broke my heart in a million pieces."
Fryer's partner, Timothy Gordon Jr., has told police he saw her hit Tariji. Fryer described Gordon to the Sentinel as an abuser who cheated on her.
Fryer's children were removed from her care after Tariji's twin brother, Tavont'ae, died at the age of 2 months. His death was ruled accidental, caused by Fryer rolling over on him while they were both sleeping on a couch.
The surviving children were returned in November.
Tariji's body was buried in a suitcase in a shallow grave in Crescent City.
