No car, no crash: How investigators unraveled a Paulsboro couple’s story in a 9-year-old’s death

For hours before dawn, Paulsboro police officers searched for a vehicle they had been told had struck a 9-year-old girl. They canvassed for damaged cars and scrambled to find surveillance footage from a nearby school and firehouse — even enlisting a school official to help them access recordings that could lead them to the driver who had allegedly hit the girl and fled, leaving her gravely injured.

But such a person, investigators later concluded, didn’t exist.

By the end of the day, the girl, Maya Thomas, was dead, and investigators had begun building a case that her mother and stepfather had killed her, fabricating a story that she had been struck by a vehicle to mislead police about how she had been wounded.

The investigators’ search is detailed in police dispatch logs obtained by The Inquirer, and offers a minute-by-minute account of how officers initially pursued the possibility of a hit-and-run before evidence pointed them toward the girl’s home and her parents.

The girl’s mother, India Miller, 27, and stepfather, Sean Scott, 45, are charged with first-degree murder, making fictitious reports to police, and related crimes. They are also charged with endangering the welfare of a child, after an autopsy showed Thomas had multiple blunt-force injuries, including broken ribs in various stages of healing, that suggested prolonged abuse.

The New Jersey Department of Children and Family Services is also investigating allegations of physical and sexual abuse of Thomas, according to a department spokesperson.

» READ MORE: Legislators want homeschooling oversight after death of 9-year-old girl allegedly abused in a South Jersey home

The first 911 call came at 1:11 a.m. on Oct. 13: The caller said a 9-year-old girl wasn’t breathing.

By the time police arrived at the Swedesboro Avenue home minutes later, Miller and Scott had told the dispatcher that Thomas had been outside walking the dog and returned seriously injured.

Miller claimed she’d heard screeching tires, and Scott said he’d found Thomas collapsed near a shed, according to the couple’s arrest complaints.

As Thomas was rushed to Cooper Hospital in Camden, officers began looking for evidence of a collision. They searched for vehicles with dings, scrapes, or dents, dispatch records show, and scoured for video surveillance footage that might have captured the alleged hit-and-run.

By 1:48 a.m., officers had reached out to Monica Moore-Cook, the principal of Loudenslager Elementary School, which is near the couple’s house, and she joined the search, records show.

And when she couldn’t reach the school superintendent to gain access to the camera footage, an officer went to the superintendent’s home at 1:53 a.m., records show, to get the videos.

Police also sought footage from the nearby fire department. And at 2:12 a.m., dispatch records show, an officer requested that the fire chief come to the station to provide access to its cameras.

But a preliminary review of surveillance footage showed no vehicle traffic in the area during the time Miller and Scott had described, according to the couple’s arrest complaints.

The investigation was also turning toward what might have happened inside the house.

At the hospital, medical staff told police they had observed facial trauma, bruising, and injuries to Thomas’ vaginal area, according to the complaints. The injuries weren’t consistent with being hit by a vehicle, they said. And during an interview with Thomas’ 4-year-old sibling, the younger child told investigators that Scott had hit Thomas in the eyes and face, the complaints said.

Investigators got a search warrant for the couple’s home. Inside, they found the house in disarray, they said in the complaints: Smoke detectors were disconnected and their batteries removed. In an upstairs bathroom, they found children’s clothing in a bathtub. And the investigators saw what they believed was blood on the bathroom floor tile, a Swiffer WetJet, and cleaning supplies.

By the time Thomas died at 6:42 p.m., her mother and stepfather were already in police custody.

An autopsy performed by the Gloucester, Salem, and Cumberland Counties medical examiner found numerous injuries across Thomas’ body, the complaints said. Both of Maya’s eyes showed blunt-force trauma, and her left eye was swollen shut. The medical examiner also found abrasions on her lower body, a ruptured colon, and multiple broken ribs.

Jason Butkowski, a spokesperson for the state Department of Children and Families, confirmed that the agency had received a call from the Gloucester County Prosecutor’s Office on Oct. 13 concerning allegations of severe physical abuse of Thomas. The department’s Division of Child Protection and Permanency is investigating the allegations, Butkowski said.

Thomas had been living at the home with her family and the younger child, who has since been removed from the home and placed in emergency care, he said. But he declined to provide further details, citing confidentiality restrictions governing child-protection investigations.

Thomas was not enrolled in Paulsboro Public Schools, according to a letter from the district’s superintendent, Phillip C. Neff Jr., which was posted to the district’s website.

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