CHESTERFIELD, SC (WBTW) – The Chesterfield County Sheriff’s Office will host a press conference Thursday morning in regards to the death of an 11-month-old girl.
According to sheriff’s office spokesperson Leighton Bell, Sheriff Jay Brooks will hold the press conference at 10 a.m. Thursday at his office. Sheriff Brooks will offer “any updated information that may be available.”
Sheriff Brooks says the body of 11-month-old Harlee Lane Lewis was found Tuesday afternoon hidden under paper inside a diaper box about 1,000 yards from the little girl’s home. The toddler’s mother, 18-year-old Breanna Lewis, is the primary suspect in the death of her 11-month-old daughter, says Bell.
Breanna Lewis is currently charged with filing a false police report and improper disposal of human remains. The sheriff’s office said further interviews were planned before announcing more charges.
The false police report stems from Breanna Lewis calling police to say she was walking to her mailbox on Daisy Lewis Drive with her daughter when a man jumped out of an SUV, punched her in the head multiple times and kidnapped her daughter.
An AMBER Alert was launched for Harlee Lewis, but within hours of the alert, the baby’s body was found in a box near the home.
“There was never a kidnapping. There was never an assault, and there’s nobody to worry about,” Brooks said. “We then got very concerned about the child.”
Brooks said Lewis was incoherent when officers arrived to the scene. “She kept saying that she had passed out. She didn’t remember what happened to the baby.”
Breanna Lewis admitted to making up the attack and abduction story, Brooks confirms, and is now the suspect in her daughter’s death.
“The autopsy will find out exactly what happened to the baby, but there was no one else here,” Brooks said. “No one had been here, no one had left. She was here with the baby, alone by herself all day.”