Mom killed daughter, 6, and father, cops say
Cheyanne Jessie’s 6-year-old daughter and 50-year-old father hadn’t been seen for 13 days and Polk County detectives say they were receiving an ever-changing story from the dry-eyed Florida mother.
First, Cheyanne allegedly told police on Saturday that Mark Weekly absconded to Georgia with his granddaughter, Meredith Jessie. A text from Weekly’s phone said he had a year left to live and wanted to spend his remaining time with his granddaughter. Then, cops say, Cheyanne admitted to having an argument with her father. After a while, she allegedly admitted that verbal argument became a physical altercation.
“And things don’t smell right,” Sheriff Grady Judd said Sunday. “Literally. They don’t smell right. There’s a foul odor in the house.”
Early Sunday morning police found the dead bodies of Meredith Jessie and Mark Weekly, stabbed and shot, stuffed in tote bags and stacked on top of each other in a nearby shed, the alleged victims of Cheyanne.
“When you’ve been around as long as I have you’ve seen things this bad, but I’ve never seen anything worse,” Judd said.
Cops believe Cheyanne, 25, killed her child and her father on July 18, disposed of the bodies and then went to work at her cashier’s job at a local big box retailer. She allegedly sent messages from her father’s phone detailing the Georgia story in an effort to stave off suspicion.
The early theory of the motive is that Cheyanne didn’t want her daughter to get in the way of a new relationship, Judd said.