FORT WORTH — The mother of a two-year-old girl who was found dead Tuesday evening says the child's father admitted to accidentally killing her.
Joy Howard said her boyfriend, Charles Bellamy, confessed to putting the couple's daughter Jaz'mine in the bathtub... then falling asleep.
Emergency officials said the child had immerson burns to her stomach and legs, likely from hot water.
"She was my life; my life was taken from me," said the 19-year-old mother, "I don't know what to do with myself."
Bellamy, who police call a "person of interest" in Jaz'mine's death, has been on the run since Tuesday night, when he picked up Howard from work and she later found her daughter's body wrapped in a sheet inside the trunk of the car.
Howard said she begged Bellamy's family for help. "I said, 'Call 911 right now, call 911 please! Charles says my daughter is in the trunk of the car and she's not alive anymore."
Before he fled, Howard said Bellamy took a weapon from the house and drove off in his mother's car.
Jaz'mine Howard celebrated her second birthday in December. She loved to sing and loved to dance.
Her mother is now planning her funeral, while police continue the manhunt for her father.
E-mail ccivale@wfaa.com
