Angelic: Emani Moss, 10, pictured here a a toddler, was starved to death before her body was set on fire and stuffed into a trash can.
The paternal grandmother of a 10-year-old Georgia girl whose emaciated body was discovered burned in a trash can over the weekend said the system had failed the child.
Eman and Tiffany Moss, of Lawrenceville, Georgia, have been arrested and charged with murder, concealing a body, and child cruelty after police say they had starved to death their daughter, Emani, and then set her body on fire to cover up the crime.
Police reports released since Saturday, when Emani's malnourished remains were found in a garbage bin outside her home in suburban Atlanta, indicate that the 10-year-old tried to run away from home and showed up at school with bruises and welts.
'My baby went through hell,' her grandmother Robin Moss told Atlanta Journal Constitution.
According to the woman, after Emani had confided in her that she was being abused by her parents, her son and his wife kept the 10-year-old away from her.
'Detectives believe the victim was isolated from people outside of her family in the weeks before her death,' said Gwinnett police spokesman Cpl. Jake Smith. 'She did not attend school outside the home during this school year.'
Robin Moss' attorney said the woman tried to get child services to open an investigation into allegations of abuse, but no action had been taken.
Inconsolable: Robin Moss, Emani's paternal grandmother, said she had fought to win custody of the 10-year-old and asked child services officials to investigate possible abuse, but no action was taken
Isolated: Police say her parents kept little Emani away from people outside of the immediate family and did not let her attend school
Miss Moss also said she had fought to win custody of her granddaughter, but the state would not let her have Emani.
'I don't understand how the system kept putting her back in that home,' Moss said.
The bereaved grandmother explained that she helped raise Emani from the time she was 4 years old, and the two had developed a strong bond.
In an interview with WSBTV, Robin Moss said that since her granddaughter's death, she cannot sleep because she can 'see her hurt.'
Division of Family and Children Services officials released a statement Tuesday announcing that it will look into the way the agency handled Emani's case.
Special bond: Robin Moss said she helped raise Emani from the time she was 4 years old, and the two had a relationship akin to that of a mother and daughter
Burned to death: Emani Moss was found burned to death, her father and stepmother are each charged with murder - leaving loved ones shocked.
Tiffany Moss told police she only hit the girl with a belt three times, the report said. She was arrested on a child-cruelty charge.
Horrific death: Both Eman and Tiffany Moss have been charged with murder, cruelty to children in the first degree and concealing a body. Tiffany had previously been arrested for beating her boyfriend's daughter
Authorities conducted an autopsy on Emani Sunday and determined that her body was burned after she was dead, likely in an effort to conceal the crime, said Gwinnett County Police Cpl. Jake Smith.
Emani may have died as early as October 30 and was severely underweight when her body was found, Smith said. He said the autopsy showed the girl had been denied food for several days before her death.
Both Emani Moss and his second wife have criminal histories.
The father was arrested in 2004 on charges of battery and cruelty to children after police said he allegedly beat his first wife in front of Emani.
On March 19, 2010, then-6-year-old Emani told a school nurse she was afraid to go home with her bad report card because she was afraid her parents would hurt her, according to one of the police reports.
When the nurse investigated further, she found the girl had bruises on her body and reported it to police.
Police took Emani and her stepmother to department headquarters for interviews that day and said Emani had severe bruises and welts on her chest, back, shoulders, arms and legs, the police report said.
The Georgia Division of Family and Children Services signed a 2010 plea deal ordering Tiffany Moss to serve five years of probation for beating Emani, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Monday.
In July 2012, Emani tried running away from home, the police reports show.
The girl's grandmother, Robin Moss, was quoted by local news media on Sunday and Monday as saying that she suspected Emani was being abused, but couldn't persuade state authorities to grant her custody.
Emani's mother, Danita Leaks, told Atlanta FOX affiliate WAGA-TV on Monday that she and Eman Moss fought over custody for two to three years and she was unaware that her daughter was being abused.
Disturbing call: The girl's father, pictured, told police he was suicidal and that his daughter was dead after drinking a chemical
'If I would have known that him and his wife were abusing my baby, I would not have let her stay over there,' she told the television station.
Authorities initially said Eman Moss called police early Saturday saying he was suicidal and that his daughter died after drinking some type of chemical substance.
Smith said Monday that the detail about Moss being suicidal was a miscommunication during the 911 call and was later clarified with the dispatcher.
Police said they won't release audio from the call because it's part of the investigation and could be used in court.
U.K. Daily Mail
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