Mother Arrested in Quitman Children’s Deaths

QUITMAN — The mother of two East Texas children who were found dead last summer has been arrested and charged with two counts of capital murder. According to KETK, the Quitman Police Department says Daphne Elizabeth McDaniels, 24, was arrested Monday and charged with the murder of her daughters, Gabriella Guerrero, 3, and Natalye Price, 1. McDaniels now lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Quitman Police Captain Terry Bevels says the investigation took months, with interviews conducted in three different states. According to the autopsy, the girls died from blunt force trauma to the head. In July, the two young girls were found dead inside an apartment unit at the Dogwood Villa in Quitman.

In an another development, a Quitman man has waived his arraignment in a related case. Thomas Liles, 19, was McDaniels’s boyfriend at the time of the deaths. He was released last month on a $50,000 bond. Multiple witnesses told officers they saw Liles running from the complex the day the children’s bodies were found and saw him throw a “large item” into a dumpster near the building. Officers say the items in question were consistent with having come from the children’s apartment. Liles was indicted on September 3rd for tampering with evidence in connection to the girls’ deaths.