Elderly Woman Charged With Murder For Beating Her 8-Year-Old Granddaughter To Death

An elderly woman in North Carolina has been arrested on charges of murder for beating her 8-year-old granddaughter to death.

Nash County Sheriff's Office received a report of a girl being brought to Nash UNC Healthcare with severe injuries Tuesday. The unidentified girl died at the hospital.

Police found out that the child lived with her grandmother, 72-year-old Patricia Ricks, and several other siblings. Ricks was the legal custodian of the children. Detectives went to Ricks' residence and arrested her on charges of first-degree murder and felony child abuse with serious injury, Law & Crime reported.

"Based on the investigation, it was determined that the 8-year-old juvenile was beaten so severely by the Grandmother that she died from the injuries. The child had severe injuries throughout her entire body and head," Nash County Sheriff's Office said in a news release Wednesday.

Ricks did not make a statement after she was arrested. She was booked without bond into the Nash County Detention Center and would appear in Nash County District Court on Thursday, police said.

Meanwhile, cops are trying to determine the motive behind the brutal killing. The other children who were under Ricks' custody were shifted to Nash County Social Services, CBS News reported.

In a similar case of child abuse, a 7-year-old boy in New Hampshire died after he was found burned and beaten at an apartment last month. The child, identified as Jaevion Riley, suffered burns to about 15 to 20% of his body and had more than 30 loop marks with broken skin when he was brought unconscious to a local hospital. Riley was in a coma and later died at the hospital. Police took into custody, Riley's father, identified as Murtadah Mohammad, who shared custody with the child's mother. Mohammad faces one count of first-degree assault, two counts of second-degree assault, two counts of falsifying physical evidence and one count of endangering the welfare of a child.