Family Charged in Murder of Girl, 10

Four relatives of a 10-year-old girl who suffocated to death after being locked in a footlocker have been charged with murder. Police first believed that Ame Deal, whose body was found on July 12, had died while playing hide-and-seek. But Phoenix police now say Ame was locked in the 31- by 14- by 12-inch footlocker overnight after stealing a popsicle. Sammantha Allen, Ame’s aunt, and her husband, John Allen, are expected to be charged with first-degree murder. Police also arrested Cynthia Stoltzmann, Sammantha Allen’s mother and Ame’s legal guardian, and Judith Deal, Stoltzmann’s mother. Ame was one of at least 12 children living with the four adults, and Acting Phoenix Police Chief Joe Yahner called her death “an unspeakable tragedy, one of the worst we have ever seen.”