A North Carolina woman received a sentence of over ten years in prison due to the death of her two-year-old daughter in 2015.
The North Carolina Attorney General's Office confirmed on Monday that Jeanie Ditty was found guilty of first-degree murder of her daughter, Macy Grace Ditty.
The incident occurred on December 2, 2015, when the woman took the girl to the Cape Fear Valley Regional Medical Center, where it was determined that the child had suffered 'severe physical abuse.' A medical team diagnosed irreversible brain damage in Macy and kept her connected to life support for two days, allowing the father, who was a military member deployed abroad, to return to say goodbye to his daughter.
After these two days, life support was turned off, and Macy died, being ten days away from turning three years old. Days later, Jeanie contacted a photography studio and, a month later, requested that they conduct a photo session with edited images to represent her daughter as an angel.
The photographs show the woman walking in a cemetery, holding the hands of what appeared to be the girl's soul, or sitting next to her grave, with the girl behind her and the mother leaning on her shoulder. The person responsible for the images expressed sorrow over the situation, mentioning that they accepted the job initially thinking it was a young grieving mother and believing the service could help her cope with the loss. According to People, the man reportedly even refused to charge for the work.
Jeanie was charged with her daughter's death in March 2016, along with her then-boyfriend, Zachary Keefer, with charges of homicide, child abuse, and neglect.