GALVESTON COUNTY, Texas — A Texas woman was sentenced to 20 years in prison by a Galveston County jury after dumping her 2-year-old daughter’s corpse — and then trying to pass off a life-sized doll as her little girl.
Tiaundra Christon, 23, was found guilty of tampering with a human corpse in the October 2018 disappearance of her daughter, Hazana Anderson, Click2Houston reported Tuesday.
The child was the subject of a search involving more than 160 people after Christon claimed she’d lost the toddler in a College Station park.
The mom had just returned to the area after a trip to Houston to visit her boyfriend Kenny Hewett, Galveston County Criminal District Attorney Jack Roady said in a statement.
Friends reported seeing glimpses of Christon with the little girl, and Walmart surveillance footage showed the mom pushing what appeared to be her daughter in a stroller, Roady said.
However, the case took an even darker turn when police discovered a life-sized doll dressed in clothing identical to what Christon had said her daughter was wearing when she vanished, New York Post reported.
The doll was found in a trash can across the street from where Christon parked her car.
Investigation revealed that Christon had toted the doll around after returning from Houston, “pretending it was her baby,” Roady said in the statement.
Christon later confessed that her child had actually died in the hotel room in Houston after the baby suffered physical and sexual abuse by Hewett and Christon. Hazana’s cause of death was undetermined, Click2Houston reported Tuesday.
Afterward, the twisted couple dumped the girl’s body in a Texas City lake, where she was fished out days later, according to the Post.
The cause of death of the toddler was never determined.
Christon’s co-defendant, Hewett, pleaded guilty to the same charge in November 2019 and was also sentenced to the maximum 20 years in prison.