Two-year-old Noelani Robinson, who has been missing since her mother was fatally shot, appears to have been found dead of blunt force trauma to the head in Minnesota, authorities said Saturday.
Milwaukee Police Chief Alfonso Morales said at a news conference Saturday that the body of a child believed to be Noelani was found wrapped in a blanket on a roadside outside of Blooming Prairie in rural Steele County, Minnesota, around 7 p.m. Friday.
Minnesota authorities have tentatively identified the child as Noelani. A medical examiner there determined Saturday that the preliminary cause and manner of death was homicide due to blunt force trauma to the head.
Agents from the Minnesota Department of Public Safety Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and crime scene personnel executed a search warrant at a hotel in Austin, Minn., where it is believed that the suspect in the case, Dariaz L. Higgins, stayed at one point during the past week.
Higgins is the "textbook definition" of the kind of individuals law enforcement is confronting when battling human trafficking.
A criminal complaint issued Tuesday charging Higgins with killing Noelani's mother revealed that Sierra Robinson had come to Milwaukee from Las Vegas to retrieve the child from Higgins, who had been staying in Miami.
According to the complaint charging Higgins with first-degree intentional homicide and first-degree recklessly endangering safety:
The woman who was wounded in the shooting told police that Higgins is her and Robinson's former pimp and the father of Noelani.
She said Robinson and Higgins stayed together after Robinson became pregnant but that Robinson broke off the relationship in February and moved to Las Vegas, leaving Noelani with Higgins.
The woman said Higgins was living in Miami when he agreed to meet Robinson in Milwaukee to return the child to her, and the two women met Higgins on Monday at North 22nd Street and West Fond du Lac Avenue.
The child was not with Higgins, and while driving around the three talked about old times and smoked marijuana.
Higgins gave the women an ecstasy pill, which they split, and he and Robinson agreed that they should get back together, according to the woman, who said she noticed a small, assault-style firearm in the SUV they were riding in.
Higgins eventually drove to an apartment building where he said Noelani was.
But when the three got out of the SUV, Higgins shot the women multiple times, according to the complaint, which does not indicate from where Noelani was abducted.
Continue reading at link