TAMPA, Fla. — More than a dozen years after the death of 3-year-old Megan LeeAnn Pratt went unnoticed, the child's mother and stepfather face murder charges.
Hernando County Sheriff's officials said Megan's mother, Vicki Anne Schober, was arrested Wednesday in Nekoosa, Wis. Her stepfather, Jesse James Schober, was arrested Monday in Elgin, S.C. Both were being held without bail while awaiting extradition to Florida.
Authorities said both have admitted beating the child until she was unconscious and letting her die several days later in her bed. The Schobers fled Florida before anyone noticed the girl was gone. Her body has never been found.
Detectives have been building a case against the two for more than a year since Megan's paternal grandmother contacted them and said she thought the child might have been killed by abuse.
Sarah Mowery of Aynor, S.C., had been told her granddaughter was killed in a car accident but never believed it. She began questioning people who knew the Schobers and traveled to Florida in search of Megan's grave. When she could not find one, she contacted detectives.
Mowery could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
Lacking crucial physical evidence of a crime, investigators took months to build a case through interviews with those who knew the Schobers and social workers who had contact with the family, said department spokesman Lt. Joe Paez. The Schobers divorced after leaving Florida.
Detectives believe the child was killed around April 1991.
The case will now go before a grand jury.