The couple lived with Meela’s dead body for three months inside their home (Image: KREM)

A mom and boyfriend tortured an 8-year-old girl to death, including tying her up with zip ties and smashing her toes with a hammer when she misbehaved. The little girl, who was the biological niece of the woman whom she had adopted, died from the horrific abuse as well as starvation, weighing just 26 pounds at the time of her death.

After her death, 36-year-old Mandie Miller from Washington and her boyfriend, Aleksander Kurmoyarov, 31, lived with Meela Miller’s dead body for three months in September 2022. They said this was because they “wanted to spend more time with her.”

The couple later rented a U-Haul in December 2022, and placed a coffin with Meela’s body inside, then drove 1,100 miles from Spokane to Mitchell, South Dakota, with the body in the back.

They then tried to get a funeral home to bury Meela, but the funeral home workers soon contacted police after the couple failed to show documentation of the girl’s death. Cops charged both with failure to notify law enforcement of the death of a child in South Dakota, and the couple was extradited to Washington State to face further charges.

Spokane County deputy prosecutor Emily Sullivan told the court at the time, “She restrained her for hours upon hours, day after day. Unbeknownst to them, their home camera system recorded them assaulting Meela, and unbeknownst to them, their home camera system recorded them tying her to a car seat with zip ties to restrain her.

“The facts before this court are undisputed. They did assault her, they did starve her, they did restrain her, they did torture her, and they did kill her.”

Mandie Miller was sentenced to 32 years in prison (Image: Davison County Sheriff’s Office)

The biological mother of Meela, Andrea Miller, was at the sentencing where she addressed her sister, saying, “You did this with no remorse, murdering my third child, my beautiful daughter, Meela Rose Miller.

“Named after our sister, Amelia Rose Miller, my best friend, my sister and auntie to my children, a Marine who died in 2013 at 23.” She added that she forgave her sister for her horrendous crimes, however.

Judge Rachelle Anderson sentenced the accused to two years above what prosecutors had recommended, adding, “We’re here because a little girl was tortured, she was starved, her interests were not protected. And as a parent, this is the worst crime a person can commit against their own child, their adopted child, their own family member.”

It is also reported that Mandie Miller took time to tell the court about her own tough childhood in foster care, only to briefly address her despicable crimes that led to Meela’s death.

“My daughter did not deserve any abuse or neglect from me. She most definitely didn’t deserve any abuse from Alex,” she said, according to KREM.

Source: https://www.the-express.com/news/us-news/198558/washington-mom-boyfriend-lived-dead-body-daughter