When a five-year-old girl was reported missing by her mother, police issued an Amber Alert, frantically searching for the missing girl, assuming she was abducted.  While the case ended in tragedy, the danger was not from a stranger, but from someone close.

A tip came from the child’s grandmother that things may not be all they seem.  After getting conflicting stories from the mother about what happened, police executed a search warrant and found 5-year-old Maha Li Hobbs inside a closet, dead, in her Aurora apartment home.  Her mother, Alexus Tanielle Nelson, was arrested on suspicion of child abuse resulting in death and tampering with physical evidence for hiding the body.

Police have not yet released a cause of death. Earlier in the year, a maintenance worker had observed a rope tied between a bedroom and bathroom, which suggested Maha Li’s mother may have been keeping the girl locked in a bedroom.  It is unknown at this time if she was beaten to death or neglected to death.  It’s too late to help her now.