A North Carolina mother charged in the death of her 2-year-old daughter commissioned "after life" photos to be made weeks after the toddler's death, according to the photographer who created the images.
Spring Lake resident Jeanie Ditty, 23, and her live-in boyfriend, Zachary Keefer, 32, were arrested and charged last week with first-degree murder and negligent child abuse inflicting serious bodily injury in the December death of Ditty's daughter, Macy Grace, the Fayetteville Police Department said.
On January 4, exactly one month after Macy Grace's death, Ditty contacted Pennsylvania-based photographer Sunny Jo and requested "after life" photos to be composed of herself and the toddler. Jo had originally offered his condolences to Ditty on her Facebook page three days after the toddler's death, he said.
Jo offered his "One More Time" package, in which a transparent image of a deceased loved one is superimposed onto a photo to make them look like an angel, to Ditty for free. The package usually runs between $300 and $500, he said.
"She offered to pay, and honestly, I couldn't do it," Jo told ABC News. "It was a gift for what I thought was a grieving mother at the time." It wouldn't be until March that Jo would learn of the charges.
On December 2, officers were called to the Cape Fear Valley Medical Center in Fayetteville, N.C., when emergency room medical staff discovered bruises all over Macy Grace's body and determined she had suffered from "life threatening injuries consistent with child abuse," police said. When she was transferred to UNC Hospital at Chapel Hill, it was determined that the injuries had been inflicted within a 24-hour period.
The toddler died two days later.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/mother-charged-year-olds-death-commissioned-life-photos/story?id=38034767
