GUILTY MO - Calia Elia, 2, dead, 3yo sister seriously injured, 5 March 2015

Officers were called to an apartment building near East 13th and Vine streets about 1:30 p.m. They found a girl, 2, dead inside and a boy, 4, suffering from serious burns to his chest and back. Police say there is evidence inside the apartment of a fire and that appears to be what caused the girl's death and boy's injuries.

The mother of the victims was also inside the apartment along with her 11-month-old and a 9-year-old child, but none of them appeared to be injured. Police say the fire and death appear to have happened at least 12 hours before they were called.

KCTV5's Josh Marshall spoke to a family friend who said the mother's sister knocked on her door Wednesday, but the mother never answered. Worried, the sister contacted her pastor and the family friend. The family friend went to the mother's apartment Thursday and found it a mess, evidence of a fire and couldn't see all of her children. He took video of the apartment and called 911.

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A 36-year-old woman has been charged with abuse of two of her children, ages 2 and 3, the younger of whom was found dead in the mother's apartment on Thursday, Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker announced Friday...

He found one child under a blanket. As he moved the blanket away the 3-year-old girl yelled, "Mommy, you're hurting me, stop it." He then lifted the blanket all the way and found the other girl, who was obviously dead.

The mother, according to court records, told police initially, that she had not hit the children. But she said the 9-year-old child had hit the children to punish them. She said he told her that he heated a knife and burned one of the children all over the child's body. She said she allowed him to do this because God had told him to do so.

Upon further questioning she said she had hit both children, using a long plastic rod on one. And she said she had hit the other because the child would not get out of bed...

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Prosecutors charged 36-year-old Marie Chishahayo with four counts of child abuse or neglect. The charges come one day after police found the suspect’s two-year old daughter, Calia Elia, dead inside the family’s apartment near 13th and Vine, and her three-year-old year old daughter, E, severely burned...

Pastor Stephen said Calia’s three-year-old sister, E, is in the hospital with severe burns. “On her back, on the leg, all the way to her feet; it was bad even to look,” he said...

Police say both children were injured in a mysterious fire inside their family’s apartment. Investigators say detectives are struggling to answer many questions including: exactly how long was little Calia dead? Chishahayo is Somalian, and doesn’t speak any English, making it difficult for police to solve the family’s painful mystery.

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A Kansas City woman was sentenced Friday to 30 years in prison after pleading guilty to second-degree murder in the 2015 death of her 2-year-old daughter.

Marie J. Chishahayo, 37, originally blamed the girl’s death on her 9-year-old son. The girl, Callia Elia, had been burned and beaten.

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