Left: Ricky Beasley (North Las Vegas Police Department). Center: Zaela Walker (National Center for Missing & Exploited Children/NLVPD). Right: Lakeia Walker (NLVPD).
A Nevada mother and father have confessed to killing their 3-year-old daughter and keeping it secret, with prosecutors saying they hid her body somewhere — never to be found — after throwing the little girl against a wall because she wet her pants.
Ricky Beasley, 34, and Lakeia Walker, 35, have both pleaded guilty to charges of second-degree murder and accessory to commit murder, respectively, in connection with the 2018 disappearance of their daughter, Zaela Walker.
Police believe the child died from a trauma or a health-related injury caused by her parents, according to local ABC affiliate KTNV.
The couple insisted for months after Zaela disappeared that she was in the care of relatives before a witness — Beasley's own mother — came forward and told police she last saw Zaela with Beasley, who became enraged at the youngster for wetting herself.
The grandmother told investigators she heard a loud thud and then saw Beasley clutching Zaela in his arms as she was crying. Police say Beasley threw the little girl against a wall after getting upset at her and then searched "how to stop seizures in young children" on Google, per KTNV.
Interviews with Lakeia indicated that the child was not alive, including a failed lie detector test and statements she provided to investigators, saying "the trunk of a vehicle reeked, like rotten meat," while it was in Beasley's possession.
Prosecutors said Walker told cops that Beasley got her to help him clean the trunk out after he "took" Zaela from her for seven days and held her for ransom, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports.
"She and Ricky cleaned the trunk by vacuuming and using lemon-scented ammonia to rid the trunk of the stench," court documents obtained by KTNV said.
A police detective told a grand jury in 2019 that Walker was caught on jail phone calls with Beasley, who was arrested first, telling him, "You always say no body, no crime," according to the Review-Journal.
Beasley is expected to be sentenced to a prison term of 10 to 25 years, with the possibility of parole, according to prosecutors. Walker is expected to be sentenced to a term of one to five years in prison.
Beasley and Walker are both scheduled for sentencing on July 23.