Shaniya Davis's funeral will be open to the public, which means that many individuals sadded and horrified by Shaniya Davis's death will be able to pay their respects to the 5 year old and her father, Bradley Lockhart. The Shaniya Davis funeral is scheduled for 3:00 p.m. Sunday, November 22, 2009 at Manna Church located at 5117 Cliffdale Road in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Although we are about 9 1/2 hours away from the funeral (almost 600 miles), a few Nashville citizens are likely planning to make the trip.
The father of 5-year-old Shaniya Davis, whose body is believed to have been discovered off a rural road near Sanford, N.C., a week after her mother reported her missing, fought back tears as he spoke at a vigil after searchers made the grim discovery. Shaniya's mother, Antoinette Davis, was arrested Saturday, two days before the body was discovered, and is charged with human trafficking and felony child abuse for allegedly offering up her daughter for prostitution. The 25-year-old was also charged with filing a false police report.
Surveillance video showed a man, Mario Andrette McNeill, 29, carrying Shaniya into a hotel room on Nov. 10, the same day the missing persons report was filed. McNeill has been charged with kidnapping.
Though official identification is still pending, a body believed to be Shaniya's was discovered about 100 feet from the side of a road, devastating law enforcement personnel and hundreds of volunteers who had spent two days searching the area.
Some of them were among the 200 or so mourners that gathered at the Swann Station Baptist Church in Sanford Monday night for a vigil.
