Mom’s Lover Admits Dumping Girl’s Body

A 4-year-old girl discovered her mother and a neighbor having sex just before the child was beaten to death and dumped in a water-filled pit in July, prosecutors said Thursday.

The scenario was disclosed at a hearing in which the neighbor, Ernest Vernell Brooks, pleaded guilty to charges of gross abuse of a corpse, tampering with evidence and obstructing justice. He is cooperating with investigators.

The mother, Therressa Jolynn Ritchie, has pleaded innocent to murdering her daughter, Samantha.

Ritchie, 24, reported her daughter missing July 18 in an emergency call to police. She said the girl was gone from her bed when she went to wake her.

Her pleas for help prompted a search by police, neighbors and volunteers. On July 22, police found Samantha’s body submerged in the pit at an abandoned foundry a block from her home.