DUBUQUE COUNTY (KWWL)-- A nearly 7 month investigation has led Dubuque County attorneys to charge Tamelia Harris with Murder in the First Degree in the death of Harris' toddler, Cecilia.
In witness reports to Dubuque County officials, Tamelia Harris slammed her child's head off the headboard of her bed, and threw her in the master bedroom closet. After searching a fire pit in Tamelia's backyard, police discovered small human bones. DNA tests compared those remains with those of Cecilia's parents Tamelia Harris and Tobias Drummond indicate that the remains are 9.95 trillion times more likely to be the biological offspring of Harris and Drummond.
In the criminal complaint, Harris is accused of knowingly acting in a manner that created a substantial risk and intentionally used unreasonable force, torture or cruelty that resulted in bodily injury and resulted in the death of her 20-month-old daughter, Cecilia.
Harris will be in Dubuque District Court Thursday morning. She has been in jail since June on a child neglect Charge. That charge has been dropped. Harris is being held on $750,000 bond.