Crime

Family Friend Invited Toddler Over for Halloween Sleepover, Then 'Horribly Abused' and Killed Her

Brandi Adeleke has been sentenced to 30 years prison for the November 2020 murder of Meka Ducheneaux

Published on December 7, 2021 04:14 PM

A North Dakota woman has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for brutally murdering a family friend's toddler left in her care.

On Monday, a Cass County District Court judge sentenced Brandi Adeleke, 38, to prison after she had earlier pleaded guilty to murder and child abuse, PEOPLE confirms. She will be eligible for parole after serving 25 years.

"I don't understand how you can take the life of an innocent child, and what she could have done so badly that made you hurt her," Meka Ducheneaux's aunt Amanda Carrillo said in court Monday, according to Valley News Live. "I feel pain every time I walk through my door because there's something missing. I feel pain every time I hear my kids laugh because there's a little laughter missing."

On Nov. 20, 2020, Adeleke brought a lifeless Meka into a Fargo hospital claiming she had left the girl in the bathtub and came back to find her unresponsive. However, it soon became clear that was not the case.

On a GoFundMe page, Carrillo, who was the girl's primary caregiver, wrote that while in the family friend's care, Meka had been "horribly abused, burned with chemicals, given alcohol, battered, and raped."

She was put on life support and died four days later when the family decided to take her off.

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At the time of Meka's death, her family revealed that Adeleke, who often watched Carillo's children, including Meka, had invited her over for a Halloween sleepover.

However, at the end of the weekend, when Carillo tried to pick up the girl, Adeleke allegedly claimed people in the home had been infected with COVID-19 and she had to keep the girl so they could quarantine together, Carillo told local station KVLY.

More than two weeks later, on Nov. 20, Adeleke allegedly went over to Carrillo's home to tell her the girl was sick and was on her way to the hospital, Carillo wrote on the GoFundMe page.

Carillo wrote that when she arrived at the hospital, she saw CPS workers and police with "brown paper evidence bags." A police statement obtained by PEOPLE states Fargo officers were called to a home "for an unconscious and unresponsive" girl.

"It became clear that Meka wasn't just sick," Carillo wrote. "As more details came out it got even uglier[.] I don't know how human beings could be so cruel and heartless."

If you suspect child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.