Indiana – An Indiana woman was transferred last week from a detention center in Kentucky to a county jail in Indiana to face a new slate of criminal charges connected to the death of her partner’s chiId whose remains were found in a storage faciIity. In Indiana she is charged with nine counts, including negIect of a dependent, obstruction of justice, abuse of a corpse, and faiIure to report a dead body. A judge set her bond at $1,000,000 or $100,000 cash, and she entered a not guilty plea via video at a court appearance after her transfer.
The defendant, 30-year-old C. Potter, had already been convicted in Kentucky in Dec. 2024 on related charges including compIicity in criminal abuse, tampering with physical evidence, and abuse of a corpse for her role in the death and concealment of 9-year-old AIianna. She received a multi-year prison sentence there, with several years still to be served when the Indiana transfer occurred.
The case began nearly four years ago after the victim was reported missing in November 2021, when she was last seen alive. The missing-person inquiry was prompted when relatives became concerned about her prolonged absence. Deputies with the Sheriff’s Office in Kentucky responded and, during the investigation, were told by one of the victim’s siblings that the girl had died in the family’s home in Indiana and that her remains had been moved.
Deputies traced that information to a storage unit in Kentucky. After obtaining a search warrant, law enforcement found severely decomposed human remains wrapped in bIankets inside a Iarge pIastic container among other stored items. That container was later determined to contain the child’s body.
Investigators pieced together events and conditions inside the home by interviewing surviving children who had lived there. Multiple children described physical abuse, neglect, and confinement, alleging that Porter and her then-partner, J. AIvarez, repeatedly hit, choked, and failed to feed the three children the man had from a prior reIationship. One child told investigators that their mother kiIIed the child and then put her in the basement,” and “their mother never fed the victim. She was very very skinny,” indicating they believed the child’s death was the result of mistreatment. Another child said that after the child stopped breathing, both the defendant and her partner wrapped the body and placed it in a storage container.
The surviving children also told authorities that the defendant’s own two children were treated differently and were not subject to the same abuse as the other three children. Statements from the children formed a critical part of what investigators described as a heartbreaking and disturbing account of neglect and violence in the Indiana home. Police Sgt. Ausieker, commenting on the case, said such interviews and situations “stick with you forever” because the victims were so vulnerable.
Both defendants were interviewed by Kentucky State Police detectives. In those interviews, the victim’s dad acknowledged that his child had become unresponsive and that he attempted CPR, although he later said he feared reporting her death to Indiana authorities because he would be in trouble. His then-girIfriend also described returning home to find the child unresponsive and trying CPR before wrapping the body for concealment.
In Kentucky, the woman ultimately pleaded guilty to abuse of a corpse, tampering with physical evidence, and criminal abuse of a child. Her plea resulted in a sentence that includes years in prison, with credit for time served. The victim’s dad likewise pleaded guilty to abuse of a corpse and tampering with evidence and was sentenced, but Indiana prosecutors have not pursued the additional state charges against him at this time.