Mother and Stepfather Of Girl Charged With Murder [UPDATE]

New details reveal that a 10-year-old girl who died over the weekend had suffered months of abuse.

Public Safety spokesman Steve McCausland says 51-year-old Julio Carillo and his 33-year-old wife, Sharon Carillo were arrested just after 5:00 Monday evening. They're accused of murder for the death of Marissa Kennedy, who died at the condominium where the family was staying.

One of the adults called for an ambulance at around 2:30 Sunday afternoon for an unresponsive child. The girl was dead when first responders arrived and State Police detectives were called in to investigate. The condo at 7 Harbor View Drive in Stockton Springs is owned by the mother's parents. There were two other young children, ages 1 and 2, in the home and the Maine Department of Health and Human Services has taken custody of them.

WGME-TV reports that, according to a police affidavit  the girl's parents forced her to kneel on the kitchen tiles and raise her hands above her head while they repeatedly struck her in the abdomen and ribs with a belt as punishment. The parents allegedly told authorities that those beatings had been happening regularly since at least October. Another form of punishment the girl was subjected to involved her being locked in a dark closet, where she would scream for long periods of time.

It was after one of these beatings that Marrissa stopped moving and her speech became slurred. The parents told police they thought she was faking her injuries and so they 'punished' her again. When they realized that she wasn't responding to them, the Carillo's hatched a plan to leave her at the bottom of the basement stairs and tell police that she had accidentally fallen down the steps.

When police questioned the couple, they allegedly admitted to the abuse and cover up scheme. The State Medical Examiner's Office listed the cause of death as battered child syndrome and listed injuries including bleeding in the brain, a lacerated liver, and 'multiple old injuries.'