PORTAGE | Visitation and funeral arrangements for slain Portage 2-year-old Jada Justice are scheduled for noon to 2 p.m. Friday at Edmonds and Evans Funeral Home Portage Chapel.
Following her 2 p.m. funeral at the chapel, 6941 Central Ave., Jada will be buried in Portage's Heritage Cemetery, the funeral home reported.
The Portage toddler was found dead Thursday in a remote field near Otis, Ind., after a nine-day, nationally publicized search for the girl.
The girl's baby sitter and cousin, Engelica Castillo, and Castillo's boyfriend, Timothy Tkachik, were charged with her murder in the girl's death last week.
The couple are accused of dumping the girl's body, encased in concrete, on June 15 into a LaPorte County swamp, only after a failed attempt at burning her body to destroy evidence from the previous day.
They realized the girl was dead while en route to buy heroin on June 13, hours after Castillo beat the girl in her head, prosecutors allege.
On June 16, in an apparent ruse to cover their tracks, Castillo reported the toddler missing from the Glen Park Gas Station in Gary, blocks from Castillo's Hobart home, police and court records allege.
Posted in Local on Tuesday, June 30, 2009 12:00 am
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