Murdered Child's "mother" Is Pregnant

Eyewitness News confirmed Tuesday that the mother of 5-year-old Shaniya Davis is pregnant. Jail officials in Cumberland County said for that reason, Antoinette Davis, 25, was being kept separate from the rest of the prison population.

News of the pregnancy came a day after volunteers found the body of the missing girl in a wooded area near Sanford. She had been the focus of a nationwide Amber Alert since last week.

Antoinette Davis is accused of human trafficking, prostitution and felony child abuse in her daughter's disappearance. Warrants say she provided her daughter with intent that the girl be held in sexual servitude.

Davis showed no emotion during a court appearance in Fayetteville Monday afternoon and she did not enter a plea to the charges.

Shaniya's body was found in an area bordered by Highway 87 south and Walker Road - just south of Sanford - during a second day of searching.

Fayetteville police spokesperson Theresa Chance said the body of a child was located about 100 feet off the road. Police were waiting for a positive identification from the state medical examiner.

Crime scene investigators removed the little girl's body from the scene late Monday night. Detectives do not know if the child was killed in a different location than where the body was found.

Authorities are releasing few details about the findings or a cause of death.

The discovery wrapped up a search conducted by about 250 law enforcement officers and volunteers who used dogs, horses, and a helicopter to scour the woods after police got information about where to find the body.

Hundreds of people including Davis' father, Bradley Lockhart, came together Monday night to honor the little girl.

"I ask you to give me and everyone who loved poor Shaniya - my little baby, my angel - the strength to continue on," Lockhart told the crowd that gathered. He said a funeral for Shaniya would be held in Raeford once the body was released from the medical examiner's office in Chapel Hill.

Meanwhile, a makeshift memorial of toys, candles and flowers were left at the vigil off Murchison Road in Fayetteville in honor of Shaniya.

"I can't imagine this happening to my grandchild to my daughter, it's just sad so sad," Fayetteville resident Renee Tillman said.

Volunteers also held a candlelight vigil for the girl on Walker Road near where her body was found earlier in the day.

"It's not fair all the children to see violence right next to home and I hope she rest in peace and she's away from this evil world," volunteer Mary Belle Swann said.

"Like most people you have children or relatives that are young aged and you just want the best outcome. It's unfortunate that ended like it did," offered another volunteer Derrick Murchison.

"Davis' half-sister, Cheyenne Lockhart, talked to CNN Monday. She recalled Shaniya as a precious child and is stunned by her sister's death.

"She was just so loving, and caring," Cheyenne said. "She was always happy and giggling. You would never think somebody would do that to her. She's just the sweetest little girl."

Cheyenne said he knows Shaniya's mother and describes the woman as sweet. The teenager said she can't imagine Antoinette doing the things she's charged with doing.

Suspect in abduction arrested

Davis was last seen alive at a Comfort Suites hotel in Sanford last week - the same morning her mother reported her missing from her Fayetteville home. Police say a surveillance video from the hotel showed the child with 29-year-old Mario McNeill.The area where police found the body is about seven miles from the hotel.McNeill turned himself in Thursday night and police say he confessed to taking the 5-year-old. However, McNeill's attorney told reporters his client would plead not guilty.McNeill remains in jail. Police have not announced any new charges in the girl's death.