Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Sister: Dad gave missing 2-year-old "a whooping" (Detroit, Michigan)

Both of these girls were obviously subject to visitation with this @$$hole of a father, here identified as D'ANDRE LANE. Based on the 8-year-old sister's testimony, it seems pretty likely that Daddy beat the 2-year-old sister to death for "refusing to speak," then carried her body out to his car and got rid of the evidence.
Wonder if this was court-ordered visitation. I have never seen this clarified in any of the media coverage....

http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20120417/METRO01/204170375#ixzz1sLeMc5bw
April 17, 2012 at 6:02 pm
Dad gave Bianca 'a whooping,' sister testifies at hearing
Detroit— The 8-year-old sister of Bianca Jones told prosecutors Tuesday about the "hard stick" her father kept in his closet to discipline his children.

The child then recalled a December day when that tool was used on her 2-year-old sister, Bianca, after the girl refused to speak.

"One day she wouldn't talk when my dad was asking her questions," the girl said. "She got a whooping."

The girl also testified Tuesday in 36th District Court in Detroit about separate occasion when her father, D'Andre Lane, hit her with the same stick and stuffed a pair of her wet underwear under her tongue after she wet the bed. The incident, she said, tore the underside of her tongue and prevented her from eating because "it burned."

The child's testimony was shared during Lane's preliminary examination on felony murder and first-degree child abuse charges in Bianca's death. The girl was last seen Dec. 2. Her body has not been found.

Lane, 32, of Detroit, has claimed his daughter was in the back seat of his 2004 Mercury Grand Marquis on Dec. 2 when he was forced out at gunpoint by carjackers at Brush and Carter streets. The car was recovered shortly after, but the child was gone.

Prosecutors, however, have said there's "considerable evidence" linking Lane to the abuse and murder of his child, including statements he allegedly made to investigators.

Two witnesses testified Tuesday in the hearing that is expected to resume April 27 before Judge Ruth C. Carter.

Lane's daughter said that she last saw her sister awake the night before Bianca disappeared.

That morning, she said, her father carried a silent Bianca to the car. She was dressed in purple pants and covered with an animal print blanket. He strapped Bianca in next to her and the toddler did not move or make a sound, she said.

The girl testified that she had met her sister only four to five days before she went missing, but the two shared a bedroom, and Bianca had always snored.

Detroit Police requested a criminal warrant in December for a suspect not publicly named.

A police source close to the investigation previously told The News that cadaver dogs had searched Lane's home and discovered evidence.

Forensic canine expert Martin Grime, who is contracted under the FBI, testified Tuesday that he brought in his victim recovery dog two days after Bianca went missing. The dog was able to pick up a cadaver scent inside Lane's car, inside the girls' bedroom in Lane's home as well as on the blanket Bianca had been covered with and her car seat.

Grime admitted for defense that the dogs detect only the generic scent of human decomposition. The dogs, he said, cannot determine identity, age, race, gender or the rate of decomposition.

Lane maintains he had nothing to do with his daughter's disappearance.

Lane is being held in a secure area of the Wayne County Jail on a $3 million bond.