Woman instructed 10-year-old to kill newborn by deliberately dropping baby on floor: Police

Tara Alexis Sykes, 36, from Florida, is in jail after allegedly instructing a 10-year-old child to kill a newborn baby and the adults the child was living with through communications on a social media video game platform.

Sykes has been charged with attempted murder while engaging in aggravated child abuse, according to a statement from the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office.

The investigation began on October 17, 2024, when deputies received a call from the Gulf Coast Kid’s House, a child advocacy center, about a 2-month-old baby who had sustained severe injuries after being deliberately dropped on the kitchen floor by a 10-year-old.

The authorities soon uncovered that Sykes had been communicating with the child via the Roblox platform, which features a chat function. Investigators claim that Sykes had provided the child with several methods to kill the infant.

The sheriff’s office said, “Sykes instructed the 10-year-old on various methods to kill the infant,” including drowning the baby in the bathtub, scalding the child with boiling water, and dropping the baby on the floor to cause fatal injury.

She allegedly went even further by instructing the 10-year-old on how to kill the adults living in the home by cutting their throats while they slept and burning the house down by spraying bed sheets with aerosol and setting them on fire.

The sheriff’s office confirmed that the 10-year-old did attempt to carry out part of the plan by dousing the sheets with aerosol but was ultimately unable to follow through.

Sheriff Chip W. Simmons expressed his shock over the case, saying, “I have been in law enforcement for over 40 years and have never seen anything quite like this. I am truly disturbed by the circumstances and the thought that anyone could think like this, let alone instruct these acts to be carried out. There is something really wrong with her.”

This isn’t the first time Sykes has been involved in a serious child abuse case. Earlier in 2024, both Sykes and her husband were arrested and charged with child neglect for allowing a 20-year-old man, who had impregnated their 14-year-old daughter, to live with them in their home.

That case began in May 2024 when investigators from the Department of Children and Families responded to their home after discovering that the teenage daughter, who was 31 weeks pregnant, was also suffering from malnutrition.

Both parents admitted to knowing that their daughter had been impregnated by the 20-year-old but failed to report the situation as a sexual crime. Instead, they allegedly threatened to kill the man unless his grandmother paid them $10,000, which she did, authorities confirmed.

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Both cases against Sykes remain ongoing, and she is currently being held without bond in the Escambia County Jail.