The parents of a 10-year-old Arizona girl have been charged with murder after the girl’s remains were found in an attic after a house fire— three years after the girl disappeared. An investigation began when an 11-year-old girl called police and said she’d been left in her Phoenix home alone for two days and was hungry. Authorities said the girl reported that she’d been neglected and abused by her adoptive parents Maribel Loera, 51, and Rafael Loera, 57. She said that Maribel Loera was in Minnesota with two siblings, a 4-year-old boy, and a 9-year-old girl.
The girl told investigators that Maribel struck her with knotted extension cords, and officials said she had injuries that were consistent with being struck by a “rope-like object.” She also told officials she had an older sister who vanished in 2017. She said that Maribel told her the girl was adopted and sent to Columbia, but Rafael said she was sent to Mexico.