Six-year-old Dominique Moody died in a home where food was a weapon and a dog crate was her prison. Found not breathing in a Charlotte house on the morning of December 16, the little girl weighed just 27 pounds—a shocking weight for a child her age. Her tiny body told a story her voice never could: open wounds, healed scars, and old fractures pointed to sustained, brutal abuse. Authorities now say her final year and a half was a nightmare of calculated cruelty.
According to investigators, the abuse was systematic and heartless. Dominique was repeatedly denied food while others in the home ate, even though meals were available. She was left for long periods in an unchanged diaper, leading to severe rashes and skin injuries. As a punishment, she was confined inside a dog crate. The people tasked with her care, prosecutors allege, orchestrated this torment.
Three women living in the home now face charges. Tonya McKnight, 51, who was listed as Dominique’s guardian, and Susan Robinson, 61, were first arrested. Tery’n McKnight, 22, was taken into custody on Christmas Eve. All three are charged with intentional child abuse inflicting serious injury. A judge has ordered Tery’n McKnight held without bond, and prosecutors warn that murder charges are on the table.
The house itself was a hazard. Police described it as unsafe and unsanitary, infested with rats and cockroaches. On cold nights, the indoor temperatures dropped to freezing levels. Shockingly, four other children, all between the ages of one and five, were also living in these squalid conditions. The current status and well-being of those children has not been made public.
The tragedy deepens with the revelation of Dominique’s path to this home. Her biological mother had lost custody due to multiple arrests, leading to Dominique being placed under Tonya McKnight’s care. Instead of safety, she found profound neglect and violence. In the chilling aftermath of her death, court records reveal text messages between suspects acknowledging they were “in trouble” and discussing a frantic cleanup of the house.
The case has sent waves of horror through the community. The image of a first-grader being starved and caged in a house full of food and other children is a devastating failure of protection. It raises urgent questions about the systems meant to safeguard vulnerable kids and the hidden suffering that can happen behind closed doors.
The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department’s investigation is very much active. As detectives piece together the final months of Dominique Moody’s life, a city is left to grapple with a single, haunting question: how could this happen to a child who deserved nothing but love and safety?
