Daughter a "demon," says mother accused of drowning, beheading 6-year-old

King County prosecutors say a former White Center woman, believing her daughter was a "demon," drowned the 6-year-old girl in a bathtub, chopped off her head and threw her body from a bridge.

Samara Spann, 30, now living in California, was charged yesterday with first-degree murder in the slaying of her daughter Kyeimah on Dec. 31 or Jan. 1. Prosecutors say she killed her daughter because she believed she was possessed and "would not stay in bed and kept interrupting" a telephone conversation.

King County sheriff's detectives are searching for the body south of Seattle. "We do have detectives out looking now," King County sheriff's Sgt. John Urquhart said yesterday. He declined to give a specific location, saying only that the site is somewhere in "counties south of Seattle."

Spann, who also goes by the names Samara Bainhart and Terri Spann, is being held in a Sacramento, Calif., jail in lieu of $1 million bail, said King County prosecutors' spokesman Dan Donohoe. An extradition hearing could be held as early as tomorrow.

If Spann waives extradition, she could be returned to Washington in about a week. However, if she fights extradition it could take a month before she is returned to Seattle, Donohoe said.

Spann had a history with Child Protective Services (CPS) of both Washington and California.

In July 2000, Washington's CPS substantiated a complaint of child neglect after concluding that Spann had shoplifted in front of her children, said CPS spokeswoman Kathy Spears.

She said yesterday the agency was gathering records on Spann, and she did not know whether Kyeimah had remained under CPS oversight. "I'm not sure what happened after that finding," Spears said.

According to charging papers, Spann drowned the 6-year-old in a bathtub in their former White Center rental home after seeking advice from someone who was interested in the occult. "She left the body in the house and went to stay in a motel in the Georgetown area of south Seattle for two days," the papers say.

On Jan. 2, Spann went to a local hardware store and purchased a chain, a padlock and an ax. She then returned to the home in the 10400 block of 10th Avenue Southwest, where she laid her daughter's body on a blanket and sheet in a hallway and cut off the girl's head, the papers say.

She put Kyeimah's body in a "laundry-type bin" and threw it from a bridge into the water below, according to charging papers.

On Jan. 11, Spann called her caseworker in Washington's Department of Social and Health Services to request that Kyeimah be taken off her welfare grant. She told the caseworker that Kyeimah had gone to live with her grandmother in Missouri, according to the court papers.

In mid-February, Spann, her 14-year-old daughter and infant son moved to the Sacramento area, where Spann's father lives. California's CPS got involved after receiving a tip from a friend of Spann's that she had drowned her daughter.

Apparently suspicious of Spann's explanation, a California CPS supervisor contacted the King County Sheriff's Office on Feb. 22, worried about the victim, charging papers say. Deputies here found no trace of the girl.

A week ago, Spann's father telephoned the King County sheriff's officials and reported Kyeimah missing. He said he had received calls from "unknown persons claiming that his daughter Samara had drowned Kyeimah," the papers say.

On Friday, Spann was arrested by Sacramento officials on an unrelated charge for allegedly slapping her 14-year-old daughter, charging papers say. Confronted by a Sacramento detective "about the 'rumors' Kyeimah was dead," Spann said the child had gone to live with her biological father in December 2003, according to the charging papers.

"She claimed she told [the father] she never wanted to see Kyeimah again" and told the detective she had had no contact with the father or child since, the papers say.

Detectives located Kyeimah's father, who said he did not know Kyeimah's whereabouts.

Some of Spann's former neighbors in White Center said she had become irate and irrational on New Year's Eve, when they heard her cursing and screaming for nearly an hour outside her home. Emma Ramirez, who lived next door, said Spann yelled racial obscenities at another neighbor.

Ramirez said Spann then went inside her home, walked onto her back porch and allegedly fired a gunshot about 1 a.m.

George Catalano, another neighbor, said someone called police to report the woman's screaming. Officers came out and talked to Spann, he said. When they left, she walked into the street and yelled an obscenity at police, Catalano said.

Though she had heard Spann yell at her children, Ramirez said she normally saw the woman meet Kyeimah at her bus stop. Sometimes, while skipping home from the bus stop, the girl would stop by Ramirez's house and show off her school work.

"She was a really friendly little girl," Ramirez said. "She was happy."

Staff reporters Jennifer Sullivan and Jonathan Martin contributed to this report. Sara Jean Green: 206-515-5654 or sgreen@seattletimes.com