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COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA - Authorities confirmed on Thursday that the juvenile who escaped state custody, allegedly with the help of her mother, over the weekend, was a suspect in the brutal murder of 13-year-old Ka'Niyah Baker in January.
"When you talk about these kids and the crimes, they commit, and you ask why, I think today, when I tell about this case, you're going to see why some of these kids are involved in crime," Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said. "It comes from the home and it comes from the parents."
Lott announced that 39-year-old Savannah Mills is now charged with aiding the escape of a prisoner charged with a capital offense and contributing to the delinquency of a minor for assisting her 16-year-old daughter during her escape from a Department of Juvenile Justice facility in Columbia on Sunday evening.
Lott described Mills as an "example of what a mother should not be."
Lott didn't share the name of the juvenile but said she was one of two suspects in Baker's death, which Coroner Naida Rutherford described as "heinous, vicious and monstrous." Columbia Police, who were the lead agency investigating the murder, said Baker was found bludgeoned, stabbed and burned before being found dead in a vacant Columbia home on Jan. 15. The juvenile suspects in her death were arrested days later.
Sheriff Lott said this was the seventh mom arrested by Richland County authorities for helping their children commit crimes or escape arrest since his department began its parental accountability initiative.
The latest investigation, which led to Mills' arrest, began when the Department of Juvenile Justice contacted the sheriff's department around 6 p.m. on Sunday regarding an escaped detainee. Just before 9 p.m., deputies located and stopped a car that they had determined may have been involved in the incident. They found Mills, her escaped daughter and two guns. Lott said one of the guns was stolen. Both were arrested.
"It just shocks me that a mom who knows what her daughter has done, knows that she's escaped, and here she is basically trying to get her out of town," Lott said.
Based on her initial charges, Mills was released on a $10,000 bond after her arrest. After further investigation, deputies added a charge of possession of a stolen gun and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. She was arrested again, and her new bond was $150,000 with house arrest and a GPS monitor.
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