Woman Arrested in South Dakota Sentenced for 2022 Murder of Child

A woman arrested in South Dakota and later convicted of killing her adopted daughter is going to be spending the next three decades behind bars.

Last Friday (February 6) in a Spokane County, Washington courtroom, 36-year-old Mandie Miller of Airway Heights, Washington, was sentenced to 32 years in prison after pleading guilty to homicide by abuse, second-degree child assault, and two counts of unlawful imprisonment tied to the death of her niece and adopted daughter, Meela.

Mandie Miller has confessed to the 2022 murder of the 8-year-old and then transporting the child’s body across state lines in a U-Haul, before being arrested in South Dakota after authorities learned they were traveling to the Pine Ridge Native American reservation.

READ MORE: South Dakota Rolls Out February Sobriety Checkpoints

According to court records, a funeral home tipped off police when the couple arrived with a coffin containing the girl’s remains, but did not have proper burial documentation.

Miller and her boyfriend Aleksander Kurmoyarov were initially charged with failing to report a child’s death before prosecutors escalated the case, filing second-degree murder charges against both.

During questioning, Kurmoyarov told police Meela died on Halloween of 2022, while Miller claimed the girl died weeks earlier, on September 10.

Investigators determined Meela endured months of abuse before becoming so frail that she died in September 2022 at the couple’s Washington State home. Kurmoyarov, also allegedly starved and abused the child, who weighed just 26 pounds before her death.

Kurmoyarov has accepted a plea deal, eliminating the possibility of life behind bars after admitting to murder, assault, and unlawful imprisonment. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Tuesday (February 10).

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